When I was a kid, I spent all the time I could at Marine World in Redwood City, California (when they first opened before they moved to Vallejo). I wanted to be an animal trainer. I dreamed of getting to work with the dolphins and the seal lions and the parrots and the whales. Unfortunately, I had a problem - animals are largely biological and biology is yucky and yucky stuff made me barf. Seriously, I didn't pursue it for three reasons: it required being around things that I didn't have the stomach for; it didn't pay enough to overcome my aversion; and there was no guarantee that even if I did put in many summers just emptying trash in the park that I could ever get to work with the animals anyway. Instead, I went with a "hard" science and became a top professional in my field which did not require biology.
And now, many years later, my stomach has strengthened and I train animals and I clean up after yucky chickens trainees and I deal with other bodily fuilds - I think it was having children that made the difference. But I wonder what it would have been like if I had taken that other road.
Last night, I finished reading one of the best animal training books I have ever read - and I feel like I have an idea what it would have been like. I finally read "Lads Before the Wind" by Karen Pryor which tells the story of Karen and Tap Pryor starting a marine animal park in Hawaii from the ground up and then learning to be the chief animal trainer working with dolphins, birds, fish, and people. I feel like I have some idea of what that was like. I feel like my questions were answered: what did they look for in an apprentice trainer? What was the work like? How yucky was it really? Was it really as fun as I imagined it would be?
"Lads Before the Wind" isn't just a story about an animal park though - it is about animal training. It is presented in a narrative form (i.e., "when we wanted this to happen we faced these problems and then we hit on this brilliant solution and it all worked out") and it is fun to read - and it is all about animal training. I learned a lot that I am already using. I learned a lot about why I need to do things certain ways.
Last night, I realized why a clicker is really better as a marker than a voice in many situations - I had heard explanations and theories from trainers who use clickers and those who don't and old circus trainers who say it makes no difference at all - but now I have the information I need to understand it and the question is settled: when I can use a clicker, it is the best choice and I can explain it to my trainer friends who claim it is not. I can do that, not because Karen Pryor said so, but because she gave me enough information about how animals were really trained at Sea Life Park for me to come to an understand of what is going on when I click or when I shout "GOOD" and the difference that makes to the training.
I now understand what is behind "101 things to do with a Box".
"Lads Before the Wind" has helped me make the biggest leap I feel I have made so far in understanding animal training. I have studied the mechanics. I have practiced and read. I have great teachers. I get results. I feel like now I understand a whole lot more.
I wonder what took me so long. Partly, I had never really heard of the book. I had certainly never been told, "Bob, you have to read this." I think if I had read it a year ago, I might not have gotten as much out of it. If I had read it 10 years ago it would have just been a story about dolphins. Now, I wonder why everyone hasn't read it and insisted that their students read it way up front.
