Karen Liane Pryor ( Wylie; May 14, 1932 – January 4, 2025) was an American author who specialized in behavioral psychology and marine mammal biology. She was the founder and proponent of clicker training. She was formerly a Marine Mammal Commissioner to the U.S. government.
Life and career Pryor was the daughter of author Philip Wylie and antiques dealer Sally Ondeck Wylie.
Her uncle was Max Wylie, co-creator of The Flying Nun. Her cousin, Janice Wylie, was murdered in 1963 along with her roommate Emily Hoffert in what became known as the Career Girls Murders.
She was first married to Tap Pryor from 1954 until their divorce in 1975. They had three children: Ted, Michael and Gale. Her second marriage was to Jon Lindbergh, son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh; they divorced in 1997.
In 2007 she created the Karen Pryor Academy which offers certification programs for animal trainers.
Pryor died at a care facility in Santa Clarita, California on January 4, 2025, at the age of 92 from complications of dementia.
Publications
Books and Articles: On My Mind: Reflections on Animal Behavior and Learning – 2014 Reaching The Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals – 2009 Click to Win: Clicker Training for the Show Ring – 2002 Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles –ed. with Kenneth Norris; University of California Press, 1998 Don’t Shoot The Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training – 1984, 1999, 2002, 2006 A Dog & a Dolphin 2.0: An Introduction To Clicker Training – 1996 Getting Started: Clicker Training for Cats – 1999, 2002, 2004 Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs – 1999, 2002, 2005 Lads Before the Wind – 1975, 1994, 2000 (Harper & Row 1975) Nursing Your Baby – 1963, 1973, 1991, 2005 (HarperCollins Publishers 1963) On Behavior: Essays and Research – 1994 Crunch and Des: Classic Stories of Saltwater Fishing – 2002 How To Teach Your Dog To Play Frisbee – 1985 Pryor, K. (2014). A dolphin journey. Aquatic Mammals 40th Anniversary: Special Issue, 104–115. Pryor, K. & Chase, S. (2014). Training for variable and innovative behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 27, 218–225 Pryor, K. & Ramirez, K. (2014) Modern Animal Training. In The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Operant and Classical Conditioning. McSweeney, F.K and Murphy, E. S. (Eds.). Pryor, K.W (2001). Cultural transmission of behavior in animals: How a modern training technology uses spontaneous social imitation in cetaceans and Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 352–352 Pryor, K. & Shallenberger, I. (1991). School structure in spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in the tuna purse seine fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. In Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles. Pryor, K. & Norris, K.S. (Eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press Pryor, K. (1981). Why Porpoise Trainers Are Not Dolphin Lovers: Real and False Communication in the Operant Setting. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 364, 1, 137 Norris, K.S., Pryor, K. (1970). A Tagging Method for Small Cetaceans. Journal of Mammalogy, 51, 3, 609–610 Pryor, K.W., Haang, R., & O’Reilly, J. (1969). The creative porpoise: Training for novel behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 653–661 Lang, T.G., Pryor, K. (1966). Hydrodynamic Performance of Porpoises (Stenella attenuata). Science, 152, 3721, 531–533. Pryor, T., Pryor, K.,& Norris, S.K. (1965). Observations on a Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata Gray) from Hawaii. Journal of Mammalogy, 46, 3, 450–461.
References
External links Karen Pryor Clickertraining site ClickerExpo – Clicker training conference held by Karen Pryor Karen Pryor Academy – The teaching and training school founded by Karen Pryor