From Microchips to Mutts with Alamelu Sankaranarayanan [Episode 71]

In this fascinating episode of the Animal Training Academy: Making Ripples podcast, host Shelly Wood sits down with Alamelu Sankaranarayanan—a KPA-certified training partner based in the San Francisco Bay Area—for a deep dive into the intersection of technology, science, and the evolving dialogue between humans and animals. Alamelu shares her remarkable journey from pursuing a PhD in computer engineering and designing microchips to finding her "true north" in the world of positive reinforcement animal training.

Alamelu reflects on her roots in India, where the cultural message to stay away from street dogs eventually gave way to a profound curiosity and a secret relationship with the neighborhood packs. She discusses how these early experiences, combined with a "remarkable chain of lucky encounters," led her to the Karen Pryor Academy and Dr. Susan Friedman's Living and Learning with Animals course—experiences that helped her articulate her ethics and lead with clarity and kindness.

The conversation also explores Alamelu's unique ability to marry her tech background with her passion for dogs, including her development of the Canine Rally app for competitors and her current labor of love, Woof School. Alamelu candidly shares a powerful learning moment from her certification process involving a complex 10-behavior chain with her Golden Retriever, Monty, and how a "failed" assessment became a masterclass in understanding hidden cues and behavioral repair.

Together, Shelly and Alamelu explore:

• ✅ From Microchips to Mutts: How a career in tech informed a systematic and analytical approach to animal behavior.

• ✅ The Internal Compass: The life-changing experience of finding community and philosophy at Clicker Expo.

• ✅ Everything is on Cue: A deep dive into the idea that even "wrong" behaviors are often responses to cues we aren't aware we're giving.

• ✅ The Chicken Camp Comeback: How working with a new species helped break a spell of dejection and rediscovered the joy of being a learner.

• ✅ Husbandry and Choice: Moving from "no-choice" contingencies to honoring "yes" and "no" buttons for procedures like nail dremeling.

• ✅ Digital Ripples: The story behind the Canine Rally app and using technology to make dog sports more accessible.

• ✅ The Dialogue of Training: Why training is a constant dance of communication where the animal is cueing the handler just as much as the handler cues the animal.

This episode is a celebration of the "discovery path" and the humility required to stay a student of behavior. Alamelu's story is a beautiful reminder that when we treat training as a dialogue rather than a monologue, we don't just achieve fluency—we build a partnership rooted in trust, clarity, and mutual respect.

Links

alamelu@woof.school