Eight Steps for Training a Killer Whale

Posted by Peter Deppisch on 01/23/2010

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Training Whales - I found information on training a killer whales some time ago. It’s a popular topic for parenting sites–and with good reason. Some of the ‘lessons’ we learn from training killer whales are very helpful to consider when teaching our kids.

Eight Steps for Training a Killer Whale

1. Establish clear cut goal which can be described as actions the animal must perform. No vague requests like “be good”.
2. Break-down the path to the final goal into easily achieved mini-goals slowly going all the way.
3. Alway be positive and happy when working with the animal.
4. At first give a reward IMMEDIATELY and every time the animal even comes close to performing an interim goal.
5. IGNORE MISTAKES.
6. Slowly increase your standard for performance; and give rewards randomly only about one-third of the time.
7. Give rewards immediately for approximations of the next step.
8. Repeat the process, adding step after step to each performance of mini-goals.

Posted by Peter Deppisch on 01/23/2010. Filed under International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry