Teacher or Trainer? – Kayce Cover

Teacher, or Trainer? Or Both? What do you prefer to be? What’s the difference and the trade off? Let’s look at the critical difference between teaching and training, and three skills which support our effectiveness at both. I am both. I am a teacher. I am also a professional trainer. I am also a leader. How do these relate, and is leadership relevant? Come to think of it, I am also a communicator and a motivator. These are all related, but they are not the same thing. Let’s look deeper. I train and certify professional trainers, and professional animals of most types (over 120 species). I hold a Masters of Science in education, and have been certified as a science teacher. These days I mostly teach. In the past, I mostly trained. What gives? A teacher transfers information effectively. A (good) trainer produces reliable performance in their subject. One can teach another all kinds of information, very effectively, and never get any performance out of the student. I have had the chance to observe many students and readers, and some of them never get off the sofa, much less go apply what they have learned. In fact, in all the subjects I have studied or taught, “application” is a huge challenge for many. People tend to comprehend what you are describing or explaining, without clearly seeing how that information can be put to use in their business, or even their life, or without being motivated to put it to use. Why I Did So Much Training in My Past I did more training in my past because I worked for organizations that wanted a product, rather than a quality outcome. For example, I worked at one place that ran up to 14 shows a day. Each show, or demonstration, needed the animals to reliably reproduce certain behaviors in order to illustrate the natural abilities and behavior of these animals. So, we would talk about the animals and their lives and natural adaptations, and the animals would demonstrate behaviors that showed dramatic examples of those abilities and adaptations. The shows were about 15 minutes long and ran every half hour. The stadium could seat 1500 people. The people could return to see a show as often as they wanted while at the aquarium. If the animals did not want to demonstrate the behaviors, it was no fun. No fun at all. The whole point of all this was to educate the audience. Our goal was to inspire and influence the audience to value the animals and want to continue to see and support them, both at the aquarium and in the wild. In fact, all accredited zoos and aquariums partner with conservation programs in the wild, helping the wild a

nimals even as they help and study the animal in the zoo. The people in the audience seemed to really love the information and learning experience. They returned again and again. They sometimes donated gifts for the animals, and supported the conservation programs. They could share the information they had learned with others. However, although they saw me, again and again, actively training the animals right before their eyes, no audience member ever reported training their horse to do a double back flip or a 23′ high jump. I guess they just never listened! In fact, no audience member ever describes even trying these challenges. I guess they were all just lazy. Tsk, tsk. I taught volunteer docents lots of information about the animals at the National Zoo, and they were great at fielding questions, describing what was going on, and talking about the animals on exhibit. But likewise, they never talked about training, or trying to train, their own animals, or even their children. Surely a kid could do a double back flip, right? But the keeper volunteers all learned to train our animals, and to present demonstrations that allowed our visitors to see what the animals could and did do. In fact, we were able to engage the animals to show their personalities, which was what the audiences loved most. They especially loved it when the animal played a joke on me, and that they did. So, I taught the docents, but I taught and trained both the keeper volunteers and the animals. Where Leadership Comes In It took intense teaching, and coaching, and testing, and applied experience to lead those keeper volunteers and animals to learn to do their jobs reliably on request, even when things got challenging or even changed. And challenging they often were. Temperatures could be really cold, or really hot, or really windy (surprisingly difficult and tiring). It was usually really humid. The hours were long. Conditions were uncomfortable — and all that just relates to the humans. Animals had other, additional, challenges, like being pestered by another animal, babies, water conditions, vet visits, crowds and noise, and breeding season. Here is where my leadership abilities were put to the test. You may not realize this, but even if we use food to train, we do not use food to coerce an animal. Some trainers tried that in the 60’s, and the results caused professional trainers to switch strategies. If you don’t feed an animal what he needs every day, he may lose his appetite entirely, and it can stunt his growth, but he still will not do what you demand, for food. On the other ha

nd, I work animals without food, on a regular basis — during my own training work, and when helping people with their animals, at seminars, where they come to work with me for help with their animals. I started out with some ability, but I had flaws, even though I had been studying this topic since I was 6 years old. I persevered. I kept honing my skills until, for example, I was able to recruit 120 docents, and 40 keeper volunteers, and engage them to work for the Zoo, “for free.” They did this reliably and with excellence. They were amazing. When I went on vacation, the Zoo called in keeper volunteers to man my area, just having staff keepers check in with them from time to time. These keeper volunteers contributed 15,000 manhours in the first 5 years I worked for the Zoo. That is 7.5 man years that the Zoo did not pay for. And a number of them went on to lead the training industry. Some became leaders in other related fields, like veterinary medicine. What Changed So what changed? In the last 10 years, my focus has been on processing my teaching materials into classes that supported trainers in mastering the SATS training techniques. I now teach mostly people, both dedicated pet owners, and professional trainers. Professional pet trainers train for dedicated pet owners, and dedicated pet owners turn out to prefer educated, collaborative dogs over highly trained dogs. They tend to want a quality outcome, rather than a product. They want a harmonious lifestyle, rather than a championship tango-dancing dog. If their dog will honor the house rules, be polite and contribute to family harmony, the owner seldom cares if they learn formal obedience. And with SATS, we are constantly and consistently teaching our animals — that is, sharing information with them and giving them the chance to learn about things. And they consistently “buy-in” to being a responsible community member. And then, we don’t care so much if they do formal obedience. And here again, is where leadership makes a difference. Leadership, in the best cases, is where someone with a position of oversight engages in service to the others in the work group or family, in order to lead them to a more successful, safer, healthier, happier and longer life. It is a job of service more than a job of power (although some so-called leaders have not figured that out). When those being led see that the leader is securing a better outcome for them, and empowering them, and including them, and negotiating with their well-being in mind, then they tend to buy into the effort. It really helps if the leader is a

n effective communicator, and in SATS, that is a whole specialty of its own — one that deserves its own podcast. Let’s Summarize A teacher shares information and knowledge. A trainer shares the ability to perform a job on request. A leader influences and inspires others to collaborate because the leader elevates the life experience of the “led.” And communication expertise, and motivation expertise, make a leader, a teacher, or a trainer more effective and efficient at accomplishing their goals. Which you want or need depends on what your priorities are with the animals you work with. SATS is a great way to excel in any or all of these skills and goals. You can also listen to this on Podbean . Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Website Search this Site Search for: Cart Search Syn Alia Search for: Explore our Blog Explore our Blog Select Category About SATS animal right animal welfare animal rights and animal welfare Animal well being and welfare Announcements and NEWS!! Blog Communication Emergency preparedness Event Health Husbandry Kayce’s Chronicles Legislation thinking Training Training training Member Login Log in Entries feed Comments feed WordPress.org Events August 2026 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 « Jul