Zebra Underwater

Welcome to my journey! Click the dots & rings for more!

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An Aspiring Trainer’s Guide to Conquering Career Induced Depression (Special Guest Author Justin Dickinson)

I met Justin Dickinson when he interned at my current facility last year. Now, he's all growed-up, working as a zookeeper and writing blog...

This article is everything, and I highly recommend it to everyone I know. Ever. I needed this. Now excuse me while I fold all my clothes to get myself out of this funk. Also, the author mentioned is @zebraunderwater. Quite a lovely blog <3

[zebraunderwater]

Hey thanks for reblogging this! I've since moved to another blog, @fistfulloffish it has a lot more posts like this and should be formatted a bit better (hopefully). Check it out!

[zebraunderwater]

Weeks 19 & 20: Groggily

Many early mornings and a week with no boss. More time with Moe and I’m starting to move like him. A little slow but still kicking. Also taking a test for the first time in two years left my brain in the dust. But some successes have left me energized. Being the first one to have an animal work who hadn’t for several days made me feel super confident. Plus some progress on my first training goal is encouraging moving forward. 

[zebraunderwater]

Weeks 17-18: Go Go Go

Another set of crazy busy weeks. New guest program for guests, a trip home, and some new firsts all crammed into a few weeks. So in honor of the rapid moving days I’m going to feature a highlight list. And because everything is a bit of blur they’ll be in no particular order.

1st set of pup swims open to the public

Getting “well acquainted” with the pup

Officially cleared to start working Moe free contact

1st free dive with a sea lion in the water

Visit to Georgia Aquarium

Meet and touch a penguin

Behind the scenes of penguin and beluga

Networking and reconnecting with old friends

Final Training Certification lecture classes

Saw Rhino training session and fed rhino

Saw white-tailed deer training session

Started new early fish prep shift (Lovin’ it)

Narrating almost every and then almost none of the shows

Few but great sessions with the other animals

[zebraunderwater]

Week 16: Milestones

Pup and I have made big strides this week and we’re both exhausted. She’s been given more space to wander around and has been exposed to humans more to get her more comfortable with us. Her biggest triumph has been her first few trips to show pool! She’s already quite the swimmer. Quick and speedy and diving down a few feet at a time. She’s still developing her muscles so she can’t always pull herself out of the water, but she’s quite the water bug and happily goes back in. That doesn’t sound like much considering she’s a sea lion, but it’s still a big deal.

On my side I’ve had my first free contact session! Still semi protected because Piper had to be in the water or on deck away from me, but it totally counts. Nervous as hell trying to figure out what to do in this brand new and sudden experience, but if I’ve learned anything here it’s that you just do it. Make moves and act on your feet. My supervisor said that I did super so I must be pretty good with that. This paired with some less than cooperative animals during presentations, and I’m really using my improv skills. Who would’ve guessed that something for fun would translate so well into a work environment? That being said, after narrating almost every show this week and being on standby for every new pup adventure, my improv ability would like a break. 

[zebraunderwater]

Weeks 14 & 15: Baby Boom!

We’ve got a baby!! After much stress and excitement we have a beautiful, healthy, and sheep sounding, baby sea lion! In just over a week she’s walking and climbing over mom. And mom is starting to feel more like herself, working with us and going for swims. Things are moving swimmingly so far but many milestones to come!

Amidst all the baby craziness I’ve been given a few more behaviors to work with the animals. I don’t have any impressive show behaviors (mainly because when I work the animals I’ve needed to be quiet for the pup) but I’ve got enough for me to have to write them down. It’s hard to remember which ones I’m allowed to ask for and which ones I’m not since I know all of them... Been an exhausting but exciting few weeks and everyone is feeling it, people and animals alike.

[zebraunderwater]

Weeks 12 & 13: Turn Up the Heat

IT’S HOT! 109 degree real feel and we haven’t even made it to July yet... Throw in a late night event and changes in daily tasks and you’ve got yourself some busy weeks. But it hasn’t been all work. I got the opportunity to snorkel in winter pool and scrub the walls and do another free dive in pinniped. No animals in the water unfortunately, but it certainly felt nice to cool off and have a change of pace. I’ve also gotten the opportunity to troubleshoot my first training issues. I’m really bad at moving my arm in a circler motion apparently. I even got to work an entire session. An entire bucket and session all for me. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It felt like it lasted forever but I got good feedback on it. So at least I look like I know what I’m doing. Slowly I’m getting more freedom to do stuff with the animals and it’s encouraging. It helps me fill in down time. Big things are in store for us the next couple of days/weeks. We’ll see what happens!

[zebraunderwater]

Sometimes your boss rewards you for working late night.

[zebraunderwater]

When you have an opportunity for a Photoshoot you better make the most of it.

[zebraunderwater]

Week 11: All In

Nearly 50 hours this week has me exhausted. Working some night events was a nice change of pace. Enitrely different flow to the day and the energy of the team. It was nice to see. Plus with these long days have come advances in what I can do. I’m now cleared to do Protected Contact hand targets and do topside free feeds with Moe. It’s great to feel useful and helpful with the animals. I can see subtle changes in how the animals look at me and I’m finally starting to feel like I work with the animals and not just for them. 

[zebraunderwater]

It pays to come in on your day off.

[zebraunderwater]

I think Moe (And Piper) enjoyed his 30th birthday :)

[zebraunderwater]

Week 10: “It’s like you’re a real trainer.”

What a positive phrase to end the week on. This week I can add some more sessions and more clarity to my list of achievements. A few more sessions with Pearl and approval to hold animals with direct, or indirect, supervision. With my co-worker giving me that little nudge and 2 different curators complimenting me on my presentation narrations has come a nice little confidence boost. 

[zebraunderwater]

Week 9: Rhythm

So after 2 full months I think I’ve finally found my rhythm. I pretty much know what’s going on and get usually get a sense of where I can go and what I can do. With the intern starting this is changing a bit, but I feel like I can do (most of) my job with confidence. With the intern and a volunteer getting trained on more things like narrations and DJing I am getting more freed up to try new things. This week I didn’t have a lot of animal time but what I did have I was able to do it with new animals. Namely our two large males Xander and Moe. A little intimidating working (briefly) with a 500lb male sea lion with a history of disliking men. And just as intimidating being told to feed a nearly blind sea lion for the first time, unsupervised. Now that I’ve got my groove for all things show my supervisor is pushing me to do new things and I’m doing my best to take them in stride and do my best. A few missteps here and there but I’m learning. This next week, I’ve been told, will be a big animal time focus week for me. We’l see what comes of it! 

[zebraunderwater]

C'mon, who could resist that face?

[zebraunderwater]

Feeling confident.

[zebraunderwater]

Week 8: Act Like a Trainer

It has officially begun! My training into the world of training is starting to take shape. After a few mini moments turned into more our new intern said “I put you down for that session on the records.” I stopped a momentbecause it hadn’t occurred to me that I was in a position as a trainer. At the end of the week I had a chance to do my first relationship building session where i reinforced and bridges for the animal paying attention and staying with me. In a few seconds I had made my first training mistake and had to step back. It was then that my supervisor informed me that now I was working on being a trainer. I had to act like it and treat these moments for what they really were. I did. And I intend to continue :)

[zebraunderwater]

Week 7: Long Days

This week consisted of many long days. Emotionally, physically, and in actual length of working hours. Patience and resilience has been tested due to mishaps, changes, and minor emergencies. This week felt as if it would never end. But I’ve gotten some more narrations under my belt, I’ve trained a volunteer to DJ during the shows (freeing me up to potentially for other things one day a week), we’ve got an intern starting on Monday, and our Part-Timer will start working more days soon. This all comes together to (hopefully) allow me to start doing other things than the basics I have been. Assuming I can please my boss regularly I might start moving things in the right direction. We’ll have to wait and see!