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For
the Fun of It!
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It really hit me the time two California
sea lions named Clyde and Seamore, jumped off their assigned
seats, chased each other into the water, and swam around barking
their characteristic high pitched threats. Their heads kind
of waggled back and forth like stroke victims as they communicated
their excitement - half way between aggression and play. This
was nothing new. At the time, I had been a trainer
at Sea World for less than a year and this was a common occurrence.
It was now my job to get them back "under control".
State of the art back in 1977 was to repeatedly call the sea
lions names as you followed them up and down the stage as they
swam, trying to time the call to coincide with a break in the
barking and their heads above water. We would also present an
outstretched arm, fist closed, which under more desirable circumstances,
they were trained to touch. When this chaotic situation occurred
however, the animals typical response was to completely ignore
us. At this point, if I was actually in the embarrassing position
of trying to perform a show (supposedly with Seamore
and Clyde) I had to come up with a string of "ad libs"
to use. "What we have here is a control situation...the
animals are in total control of the situation" and "I
love my job, I love my job, I ..." were tried and true.
There was always the old standby, "well you see, it's springtime
and love is in the air, and in the water". Little did most
people realize that it was most often two males competing rather
than one of each sex being interested. If worse came to worse
and we just wanted to try and get the animals off stage so we
could bring out another Clyde and Seamore (yes, those are just
performing names), we would grab the long metal pole used as
a hurdle jump (when the animals were working correctly that
is) and tap it over and over on the side of the pool. I think
we just wanted something else to do because it never helped
much with sea lion behavior. At some point when Clyde and Seamore
had tired of the game, they would run off backstage and expect
to be put home. Unfortunately, this was often after the audience
had already left.
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| This
was my long ago initiation into the world of animal training,
my chosen profession. Fortunately, many of the people drawn to
animal training as a career are not simply animal lovers, but
are also highly motivated, results-oriented and slightly egotistical.
We knew there had to be a better way to achieve consistency through
positive interactions. I distinctly remember the first time I
really saw it work. There we were, Seamore had chased Clyde into
the water again during a training session. But instead of running
over and trying to get their attention, we just left stage, not
quite sure what would happen. As soon as we were out of sight,
the barking stopped. We peeked through the backstage curtains
to see what had happened. I could hardly believe it. Instead of
barking and wrestling, the sea lions were looking for us! In fact,
within minutes, they came out of the water, crossed stage and
found us in the back. We had witnessed a powerful yet simple and
logical technique -- don't draw attention to unwanted behavior. |
Conversely, we were also learning a lot
more about what motivates animals to do what we would like
them to. Even in the early 1980's there was still not a
whole lot known about marine mammal diseases or medicine
compared to what is now practiced. This fact actually helped
us to develop methods of motivation beyond the standard
of the day -- food drive.
Many "wild animals" mask any symptoms of sickness
or weakness to decrease chances of being preyed upon. The
consequence of this is that an animal may be very sick,
but does not display any outward signs of it. Twenty years
ago, in order to give the animals the best chance for recovery
in case they fell ill, the veterinarians instructed us to
keep them "hefty" in weight. That way, if they
fell too sick to eat for an extended period of time, they
would have plenty of fat to live off of. This proved a challenge
to us trainers back then. We had relied on a basic food
motivation for the most part. We did try to make it fun
for the animals; after all it was fun for us and we loved
them. But often, when they were full or just more interested
in something else - like sex or social play, chasing fish
in their lagoon, or just resting - we didn't have much to
offer. We needed to come up with more ways to keep them
interested in us. It was bad enough having to explain to
3,000 people why your sea lions or dolphins
weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing, but this
was our career, and we wanted to progress. As behaviorists,
we knew there are a variety of ways to motivate students...in
this case, our animals. |
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"A variety of ways"…there
it was, staring us right in the face. Variety. That was
the key. If the animals could predict what they were going
to get for any behavior request, two things would happen.
One, they would get bored if it was the same thing all the
time (like food). And two, they would decide if the effort
was worth it or not, ahead of time. If they thought the
reward was not worth the effort, they simple went off to
play on their own. So, we began to think of all the things
the sea lions, dolphins and whales
liked to do. Clyde loved to chase and retrieve toys. Dolly
really liked to play with a buoy. Diego loved to be rubbed
on his belly and have water squirted in his mouth. Goofy
liked to play with us in the water, carry kelp on her flipper,
and have her tongue tickled. We realized that if we used
these reinforcing things in our shows and sessions, interspersed
with anything else interesting we could come up with, the
animals stayed longer and more attentive than they used
to. Periodically we set up for "no food" interactions,
instead placing toys, water pistols, ice and activities
at different locations around the pools and deck. After
any one or more acceptable behaviors, we would produce one
of these surprises for the animals. I remember one time
deciding to feed out all the daily food bases to the dolphins
early and do the last third of the day "just for fun".
We had some of the best behavior and most motivated dolphins
ever! |
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| We
continued to improve on this concept of motivation through the
use of secondary or conditioned reinforcers. We strove to be fun,
interesting and stimulating to the animals every time we interacted
with them. We came up with new games and toys, ice shapes and
cubes to play with, sprayers to enjoy, different areas to be scratched
and pet, and different types of sessions were developed to deepen
our relationships. All the areas kept records on how many learning
sessions we did per animal; how many play, husbandry, relaxation
sessions and shows. We all wanted to make sure there was a balance
between how much was asked of the animals, how much we played
and how much time they had to themselves. That way, we could make
sure that each interaction was interesting and enjoyable for both
the animals and the trainers. |
| My
best memories are of relationships I had built with animals to
the point that I knew we interacted because of a mutual desire.
The way I "tested" this was by feeding a significant
portion of their daily intake before we went out to do a session.
McLain, a California sea lion was one of my "favorites".
Before the sessions began, I would do two things: set up a bunch
of different rewards I thought he might like, and feed him several
pounds of fish. Then we could both go out and enjoy the session
without worrying about when the food was going to be delivered.
One of McLain's favorite games was fetch with a Frisbee. He would
play as long as I would. Even after I had to put him back home
to spend time with the other sea lions, he would sometimes hold
the Frisbee in his mouth at the side of his pool and solicit me
to play with him. Most of the dolphins I have worked with are
like this too. They are more like dogs than any other animal I
have ever worked with. They always come over just to see what
we're up to. They love playing with a wide variety of toys and
almost any game you can think of. In shows, we often set up something
equivalent to a practical joke on the dolphins and they love it!
They are so motivated by creativity and variety. |
| We
found that as we combined both sides of the concept: Don't draw
attention to unwanted behavior and notice and reward
desirable behavior with as many different activities, toys, games,
foods and sensations as you can think of, the amount of misbehavior
dropped significantly. The dolphins, sea lions, otters, walruses
and killer whales wanted to find out what fun things we might
do next. They wanted to "behave" correctly. The more
effort and thought we put into making interactions interesting
and fun, the more enthusiastically they responded. |
| The killer whales are more of a challenge
for the trainers than many of the other animals. (Although
the otters are probably one of the more difficult animals
to keep the attention of, they are luckily not nearly as
dangerous, or as big!) With the dolphins and sea lions,
you could often play the same games many times (much like
young children), whereas the whales figured out patterns
or repetition quickly and sometimes changed the game before
we did. Considering the size and strength of these beautiful
animals, we needed to make sure we anticipated the direction
some of these changes might take us. Each trainer who works
with Shamu and the other whales has to develop a very strong
relationship and knowledge of each whales behavior, personality,
and characteristics. That way, if Shamu exhibits a behavior
even slightly different from normal, or is not as interested
as he would normally be, the trainer may decide not to get
in the water with him. Or the trainer may choose to do less,
or more depending on what behavior they are seeing and what
they think is best at the time. The trainers are not the
only ones able to make decisions about what to do. The whales
make as many decisions as the trainers do. Knowing that
when we are in the water with these intelligent and powerful
animals, they have the capability as well as the opportunity
to do us harm, either accidentally or purposely, we teach
the whales that there are opportunities for communication
and reinforcement no matter what the situation. As trainers,
it is our job to make the interaction reinforcing, not to
"force" an animal to do something. |
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| We
use the same philosophy with all of our animals. This way, the
interactions are always positive, and even though it may take
a lot longer at times to get a particular behavior, overall, it
sets up a much safer environment for both the animals and the
trainers. This also allows us to not draw attention to unwanted
behavior, but rather if a problem arises, you can address the
problem by going back to the point at which you know you and the
animal can succeed. We reinforce success instead of punishing
failure. This ensures a continued positive approach and does not
negatively affect the relationship between trainer and animal. |
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Creating and maintaining a positive environment
in which both trainers and animals want to participate is
the most rewarding part of training for me. It means we
will have active, stimulated and happy animals, which strive
to behave correctly, "For The Fun Of It"! |
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