Trainer Academy|by trainers for trainers!

Understanding the Dream Stealers

‘Hey, Ms. trainer, when you gonna get a real job?’ Sound familiar? For many of my colleagues and myself we heard this all throughout our careers as animal trainers. Mostly we heard this from those closest to us, our family! Training Flipper was not seen as a profession, it was a summer job at best. They hoped that soon we would tire of playing with dolphin, whales and sea lions and come to the realization that hey, maybe we should shake off this animal thing and get a real job. At the ABC Dolphin Trainer Academy we call these people the dream stealers. We don’t talk about them in a negative way, no; after all we are usually talking about your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and grandparents. Rather we focus on not changing their minds but rather we focus on you, the student and what you can do to make your dream a reality.

To be fair our families only wanted what was best for us and they simply couldn’t understand how training animals could be a respectable profession. And the money, I need to be honest; I don’t know one trainer who began their career for the financial rewards. Trainers usually begin their careers with passion. Passion for the animals, passion for the environment and passion to make a better world. I call this the honeymoon stage. Why? Because animal training is a real job! It’s not all fun and games. It can be difficult, strenuous work. Trainers work long hours, work outside in all weather, spend much of the day wet and every aspect of the job is heavy. Atlantic bottlenose dolphin eat anywhere from 10 to 40 lbs of fish a day- multiply that by how many animals at the facility and that’s a lot of fish to move around. An average dolphin weighs between 300 to 500 lbs., add on the weight of transport equipment and your talking upwards to 700 lbs. to be carried.

There are lots of rewards however, and it is precisely that passion that motivates us. It really is a powerful experience knowing you are responsible for making positive influences in the quality of the animals’ lives. It’s a special accomplishment to be an integral part of the animal/trainer learning process. And how about the feeling you get when you touch someone else’s life for the positive? It can be something as simple and wondrous as a smile on a child’s face or knowing that you are an important part educating the public about conservation awareness and environmental issues.

So dream on friend, go for what you want, just make sure you go at in an intelligent thoughtful manner. Don’t let the dream stealers take anything away from you.

Happy Training!

Shelley