Dolphin Trainer Research Papers

Just like how a dog owner teaches a dog to sit and fetch, animal trainers teach their animals mainly for the purpose of entertaining an audience. There are many types of animal trainers, like dog trainers, bird trainers and lion tamers but the ones I’ll be focusing on is the dolphin trainers. In SeaWorld, dolphin trainers train dolphins and sometimes killer whales to perform tricks for large group of people. These trainers put on two shows a day to a large group of people, having the dolphins or whales perform tricks or giving the signal to splash the audience with water. It may sound like all fun and games on the outside but that does not mean that there are not any risks and challenges that they have to overcome. Trainers have to spend months to establish a bond with the animal. To be able to perform in front of a large crowd, they need to have good public speaking skills. You need to have a Scuba certificate to be able to become a trainer and is beneficial to have some knowledge in marine biology as trainers do deal with sea mammals. Based on these factors, it has led me to believe that becoming a dolphin trainer is more than just fun and games because you need to have a lot of training and trust to be able to properly handle dolphins.
The dream of becoming a dolphin trainer is very limited. Over the hundreds of applications sent to SeaWorld, less than ten are accepted into the field of animal training. The amount of work you need to put in before even try to apply for a position as a trainer can be quite tedious. According to Alex Mata, a dolphin trainer at Dolphin Discovery, “Trainers must have …show more content…
There is an underwater breath hold at 110 feet and when I was going through this test I kept looking at the other applicants under the water and thinking that if they could do it so could I. If you believe in yourself and really want it you can achieve