"What makes a qualified exotic animal trainer. At this point in time it has been the success and longevity of the trainer" Mike Swain
I will continue paraphrasing Mike as he raised some valid issues. "Success" Above as most of you know is "The Lion King" around for a long time and apparently very successful. Do we use his definition of what is training to define a standard? "Longevity" The young lady below has only been working with this lion for a couple of years. Do we consider her definition of what is training to define a standard? Army Maguire(we have already hung paper for him, so let's only waste time with coming up with answers, LOL) who I have never met or seen his work has trained 50 African elephants. Is that success, or is Georgie Hannaford who has worked with the same group of elepants that he was born into a success. My son has only been doing this for 3 years. In that three years he has worked successfully with 16 different tigers. If someone has worked with 8 tigers for 10 years and has developed a critically acclaimed act over that 10 years is he more knowledgeable about tigers working with the same 8 for 10 years or is my son who has worked with 16 in 3 years. I should clarify as this is a rumor world, Adam started with 7 older tigers, of which they have been replaced one by one with younger animals. But it is 16 different tiger personality's he has had to learn. More qualified to know tigers, then the individuals who worked with 8 in 10 years? I think that longevity can be answered when we answer, "what was done in that length of time". Success can also be answered with it, when we decide if success is the photo above or the photo below. Tip for all young trainers, "when you hug and kiss select individuals, leading to the illusion that all are gentle pets, If you do have to correct one for a valid reason, you may have some "splaning" to do Lucy?" How much of the self serving perceived gentle hug hug kiss kiss has hurt valid training/handling?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Does success and longevity qualify someone to be an "Exotic Animal Trainer" if we have no definition of what success and longevity is?
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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2 comments:
Is neither picture a plausible answer? I see a one lion sit up, and knowing the two acts, there are prolly 25-30 cats in the first arena, and I think the are about 11 in the other. How successful is one sitting up by itself.
Casey,
I think how it looks sitting up, or how it presenter looks doing it. I don't mean physically by any means, instead are you forcing it, struggling with it, or having your fingers crossed it is going to stay.
I think it is important if a situp is going to be a trick/behavior as a standard, then how the animal performs it is important.
Wade
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