Publication: Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Publication Date: 22-DEC-06
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Kasper, Henry T.
Article Excerpt
Children often say they want to be a veterinarian when they grow up. They love pets and are fascinated with horses and wildlife, and veterinary work is the only animal career they know. But being a vet can lose its appeal when they discover that it involves surgery and treating sick animals.
Fortunately, there are many other career options if you like animals. Do you like teaching and working with people as well as pets? If so, you might want to be an animal trainer. Do you have an interest in rescuing animals? You might like to work in an animal shelter, wildlife refuge, or zoo. Or maybe you'd like to make animals comfortable and neat by starting a grooming business.
Just thinking about animal work might make you smile. Like any career field, however, working with animals isn't always ideal. Many animal-centered jobs are dirty or physically demanding--sometimes both. Shelter workers, for example, must clean the animals' cages; dolphin trainers may need to spend hours in the water and be on call during their off-duty hours. And all animal jobs can be dangerous. Even the friendliest animal is unpredictable by nature. At some point, most people who work with animals are bitten, scratched, or kicked.
But many animal workers have a passion for what they do. Keep reading to explore some of those passions, including training animals, working in an animal shelter, and starting a pet-care business. Begin to assess your animal-career interests by learning about some animal-centered occupations and the education that they may require. Next, find out about pay and future job prospects in these careers. Finally, uncover some additional resources for exploring creature careers.
Animal trainers
Animal trainers teach animals how to get along with humans. Some trainers teach pets to obey commands and avoid problem behaviors, such as barking or biting. Other trainers teach animals to perform tricks. And some trainers teach animals to help their owners, as when a horse is trained to carry a rider or a service dog learns to use its eyes or ears for persons with disabilities.
Training would be simple if animals spoke our language, but they don't. Instead, trainers find other ways to communicate. They start by getting an animal used to human contact. The method they use depends on the animal involved, but every technique involves repetition.
Most training relies on conditioning: rewarding an animal when it performs a desired behavior. The trainer chooses a reward, a stimulus that the trainer gives an animal the moment it does something right. For example, the trainer might give a fish to a dolphin when it jumps, a biscuit to a dog when it sits, or an apple to a horse when it halts on command.
The process of training happens in small steps, often requiring months or years of work. Animals can be difficult to train. Some are stubborn, aggressive, submissive, or fearful. Each has its own attitudes and instinctual behaviors. Successful training requires patience and persistence.
In addition to their teaching duties, many trainers supervise other aspects of animal care. They might prepare an animal's food or oversee its diet. They might clean the animal's surroundings or the animal itself. Trainers often work with veterinarians by observing and describing potentially worrisome symptoms. And they communicate closely with animal owners or handlers.
The most common types of trainers are dog trainers, horse trainers, and marine mammal trainers.
Dog trainers
Without training, most dogs are hard to live with. And without the help of professional trainers, many dog owners don't know how to manage their dogs.
Dog obedience training can prevent behavioral problems and solve existing ones. Trainers teach tricks, family manners, show-ring exercises, and various skills. Some trainers teach specialized skills to search-and-rescue dogs, sled-and-carting dogs, hunting dogs, or service dogs for people with disabilities.
Most trainers say that training should be fun for the dog. Each session should be punctuated with games, praise, and petting. The dog should look forward to each session, just as it looks forward to daily exercise. And for companion dogs, every learned behavior should be useful at home. For example, a well-mannered dog sits, stays, or lies down on command; knows when to get in or out of the car; stands still when being groomed or examined by a veterinarian; walks on a leash without pulling; and comes when called.
As with all training, dog training focuses on rewarding the dog for good behavior. Often, trainers also make bad behavior impossible by controlling the dog's access to certain areas or by teaching the dog an alternative action, such as sitting when it meets a stranger to keep it from jumping up.
Dog trainers also teach the owner and the...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.
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