Week 79: Inspiration

Things seemed to be looking up this week. I'm not sure why, but they were. On Tuesday, Ken Ramierez dropped by for an excellent set of speeches. Those of you who have no idea who that is (which I bet is most of you), he is the VP curator of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. He wrote our textbook for training, and is in the fore-front of the field. Not only does he enjoy playing with marine mammals, but he also has a great passion for service dog training. He came and discussed the futures of our field and possible branches for us to explore that are growing as we speak. He then used his other slot to talk about an experimental training he started with a search and rescue dog to teach it mimicry (in this context, to do the behavior the dog next to it just did on the command "copy"). All very interesting and good for us to hear about! We were then told that he would be at the ABMA conference (which I am going to) and will conduct a workshop there on the "abc's of training" at a shelter, using their dogs! Very cool! I also found another job that interests me at the Denver zoo doing outreach with them. Eventually, one of these jobs will pan out... Still nothing about any project locations. Rehearsals are continuing, costumes are coming together, and we are hard hit by the fact that this show is going to be significantly more about people than animals, and there's just not much to do about it due to all of our recent losses. The first years got their animal assignments, and they are all pumped about it. I'm fairly happy with who I'll be leaving in charge, but the turn over process tends to be very revealing about a person, their reliability, and mannerisms, so we'll see... There's nothing to do about it though. Even if I don't really like them, as long as they don't fail out, they are going to be with the animals regardless of my opinion, so I just have to do the best I can! Spring spec starts in two weeks, I have two major presentations to make in those two weeks, and things are about to get a little crazy... (Pics: From my project at Hollywood Animals- on set, working a tiger on a leash, watching the monkey)