h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there. I used to train dolphins out in Hawaii. It was on a dolphin cognition project. Learned a lot, and am still friends with most folk I worked with.

You asked on your home page for dolphin friendly types to write you so I am doing so...

Hi
Thanx for writing. You are sooooo lucky to have worked with dolphins! I have wanted to since I was 7 but It's rather unrealistic living in the UK where there are few dolphin pods. I've settled on being a vet for now (but that involves getting INCREDIBLY good grades ).
How long did you work with them for?

3 yrs. I was working in a cognition lab while I was in college in Hawaii. I had wanted to work with them from the time I was 10yrs old.

I figured out what it would take and did it. No regrets. However, you have to be willing to go the academic route and do research to get there. Not an easy thing as it requires being a starving student in perpetuity. And, you never know if your grant is going to go away next year, so the stress levels can be really high.

However, you can always go to school and study something that will get you involved and not actually plan to work forever in the field.

Vet stuff is great. Especially fun if you get into large animal care. I used to work at the Los Angeles SPCA (4yrs) we handled just about everything there.