Training the Dolphins

Trainers use reinforcers to tell the dolphins what to do. A reinforcer is anything that increases the frequency, intensity, or duration of a particular behavior. Dolphin reinforcers can be fish, toys, tactile stimulation (rubdowns/petting), swimming with a trainer, or even learning a new behavior. When reinforcement is used the right way, dolphins can be trained to do many things. Eventually the trainers attach a hand signal to the desired behavior.

How does an animal know it has behaved correctly? Trainers use what is called a bridging stimulus ("bridge" for short). A bridge is a signal (either a whistle or a verbal stimulus such as "Good!") that the trainer communicates at the precise moment an animal does something correct. Each of these bridging stimuli tells the dolphin that it is correct, the behavior is over, and the dolphin can now receive some kind of reinforcement from the trainer.

A dolphin calf starts to notice people at about three months of age. Before that, the calf only interacts with its mother. The first thing a trainer teaches a calf once it’s ready to interact is to take food from the trainer's hand.

To train more advanced behaviors, we use small steps. Here's how we might train a dolphin to do a high jump behavior:

First, we lower a target (a bright red ball) from the ceiling to the surface of the water and reinforce the dolphin for touching it. Then, we raise the target a few inches above the water and reinforce the dolphin for touching it again. We continue to raise and reinforce in small steps. After many trials, the dolphin learns to high jump—18 feet above the surface of the water—and hit the target on cue!

» Watch a video of Maya performing the high jump.

One of the most common questions that we get here at the Aquarium is, "How do you get the dolphins to do that?" As trainers, we spend most of our day building positive relationships with the dolphins to provide them with an enriching, healthy, and stimulating environment.

Training the dolphins for medical behaviors not only makes veterinary visits positive, but also allows the animals to voluntarily cooperate in their own health care.

Training the dolphins to perform natural behaviors in the dolphin show provides our guests with the opportunity to be entertained and educated about this species' plight in the wild.

And, believe it or not, all of this is done completely with positive reinforcement, which means that we never punish or force our animals to do anything that they do not want to do.

We have several different types of training sessions:

• Relationship sessions build and solidify the unique relationship that has been established between the animals and trainers.
  
  
• Play and enrichment sessions provide the opportunity for the dolphins to explore novel objects and exhibit natural behaviors.
  
  
• Learning and practice sessions teach new behaviors to the animals as well as practice behaviors that they have already learned.

» View a photo slideshow of a dolphin training session here.

For Our Ocean Planet: The New Dolphin Show, we (and the dolphins) have been busy with the training process. So that guests can witness their unique adaptations for life in our planet's oceans, the dolphins have been learning many new behaviors, including one that will allow the audience to see them swim up to their top speed of almost 25 miles per hour!

We will always be adding new behaviors to the show—this means that every show will be different from the one before.

Though we trainers form relationships with dolphins here at the Aquarium, we do not recommend that you interact with dolphins in the wild. Wild dolphins can be aggressive toward people and may also become dependent on people for food, losing the ability to successfully hunt on their own.

Places like the National Aquarium, which has a permit allowing us to have dolphins, offer safe and fun ways to interact with and learn about these amazing creatures!