The following correspondence was written by five experts in the field of training, in response to a request for advice on starting a training career. The experts' advice is so full of good ideas and resources that we thought many others might benefit from publishing the e-mail trail.
Just for Professional Trainers
So You Want to Be a Dolphin Trainer!
By Karen Pryor on 07/01/2004Hi Karen, I am in the 9th grade and live in California. I just finished reading your book, Lads before the Wind. We had just been to Sea Life Park this summer, so the book was a double treat to read. I am doing an essay for my Honors Language Arts class on the ideal job for me. I know you are busy but wanted to ask you some questions.
Just How Good ARE You? Clicker Trainers' Testing Program
By Karen Pryor on 11/01/2003Kay Laurence, founder of the British clicker company Learning About Dogs and the magazine Teaching Dogs, has pioneered a new way of assessing the clicker skills of individual trainers. The program tests the trainer's abilities, not the dog's performance. The test is valuable not so much as a measure of achievement but as a clear-cut way of finding out what you know and what you still need to find out, a very difficult thing to judge for oneself.
Keeping Clicker Records
By KPCT on 04/01/2003A little clicker work goes a long way toward helping dogs adjust to kennel life. Many different people can work with the same dogs, if they all click for good behavior.
