July 15, 2007

So two more very long weeks have passed and a lot of change has taken place for me. For starters, I've decided that I'm not leaving! Even though my internship will have officially ended at the end of this month, I will continue to volunteer every week on a regular basis. I'm transferring colleges in order to stay here - so I'll be going to USF in Tampa and finishing up my bachelor's degree in marine biology! I've also obtained a different part time job that makes a little more money, so that I won't be suffering financially. I'm super stoked that I no longer have to leave this wonderful place that I'm so very glad to be able to call my home now!

At the aquarium, I've gotten much more hands-on experience with training with the dolphins and river otters. I've been staying after hours to help the trainers out with the PM dolphin feedings, and they've been teaching me new behaviors to do with them one by one. I have been working on remote pec presents, husbandry pec presents, dorsal presents, fluke presents, sends, and hand stations. I've gotten to practice some of these behaviors as a "volunteer trainer" during the dolphin shows, too! It's very exciting to do this on a regular basis because the dolphins seem to be responding better to me as time goes on and they're learning to recognize me. For instance, when I was working with Nicholas last week, he actually rolled over backward in the water in a really cute manner after accepting fish from me, and then he let me rub his tummy. :D When Indy does a behavior correctly and he is particularly excited about it, he makes a lot of the "I did it right, yay!" type of vocalizations at me. It's moments like those ones - being able to build a relationship with the animals themselves - that are incredibly reinforcing for ME as a future trainer.

I'm also talking on the microphone a lot more for the dolphin shows. I have successfully spoken for both the interim speeches and conclusions. My biggest obstacle has been the introduction speech because it is so much longer, but I'm tackling that currently. :) It's weird, because most people get very flustered in front of crowds. But not me. It's the practicing that really gets to me. I find that once I'm actually in front of a group of people, I feel like I've been put on the spot... so the words just seem to flow a little more easily out of my mouth than during practice. I'm very proud to be able to get up in front of the crowd on the mic (albeit nervously) and get them excited for our dolphins!

With the river otters, I am now allowed to do stick targeting with Cooper by myself during the presentations. I am able to free-feed all of the otters, but I actually get to go inside the on-exhibit with Cooper and Billy to do it. (Since Webster and Garth can be a little more aggressive, I just free-feed them through their feeding windows.) From what I have heard, this is pretty neat because we are one of very few facilities that actually work in an unprotected contact setting with wild river otters. In the off-exhibit (depending on which otter I'm working with) I have been cleared to use specific Sd's to ask for behaviors like stand, wave, follow, basic fist target, target hold, and tumble.

My bridging is getting better and better with practice, and I'm amazed at how far I've come in all of the things that I've learned about training. And yet there is still sooo much more to learn every day! It is an ever-changing field and it keeps my mind constantly stimulated. I am in love with the profession, and I can't wait to be an "official" trainer of these days!