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8.4 Staff Training 155

VetBooks.ir When confidence and training skills have At first, this conversation may feel stiff, but
after some time it can become part of the
developed with existing trained behaviours,
you can move on to training new behaviours.
It is best to select behaviours for a new per­ culture. These pre‐ and post‐training ses­
sion chats should be kept brief, but, if time
son to train that will set them up for success. allows, additional team members can be
Quick wins tend to build confidence for more included for input. This level of communica­
difficult situations that might arise later. tion may be difficult to persuade some teams
Ideally, you would have a new team member to commit to, but if the group can stick with
write a training plan prior to their first train­ it, it shortly becomes ‘just how we do things
ing session that would identify what behav­ around here’ and people will seek out multi­
iour they were aiming to reinforce during the ple perspectives and input, if it is not first
first and subsequent sessions. This would volunteered.
allow the new team member to visualise the
desired behaviour and help their timing dur­ 8.4.4 Consistency for People
ing the session. The training plan can also and Animals
help identify areas for coaching staff through­
out the training process. Assigning a single trainer to shape a behav­
iour provides the best consistency; however,
animals can learn more than one behaviour
8.4.3 Coaching Trainers
at a time from different trainers. Close com­
Many people do not like to be watched and munication between team members needs to
coached when training animals, especially occur to assure confusion is not occurring.
when they are new, and it may take some At times it may, be necessary for a behav­
time for everyone to get comfortable. This iour to be shaped by more than one trainer.
adjustment period is fine and is a part of the At other times, multiple team members may
process. A suggestion that may help people be working with a group of animals. Although
get comfortable quickly is to talk about the multiple people and multiple animals may be
coaching process ahead of time. A discus­ involved, everyone should be following one
sion about learning styles and expectations action plan. In these cases, again, communi­
can help put people at ease. Setting up a con­ cation is paramount to provide consistency
sistent coaching format is helpful, as well. to animals in the learning process.
For example, it may be decided that before Consistency is a cornerstone in a training
each session you will have a brief chat about programme. Consistent communication and
what behaviour will be visualised, which is feedback does take time and can feel daunting
then reinforced. You may also discuss what at first, but is well worth the effort and will
will happen if the coach sees something make a difference in the training programme.
unsafe or feels they have a suggestion that is In addition to pre‐ and post‐training session
critical to the session. After the session, the meetings, having a written list of cues, behav­
new team member can begin with a debrief, iour criteria, and protocols for all to follow will
talking about what they thought went well also help with consistency. Furthermore, pho­
and what they would like to have done dif­ tos or video which support the written docu­
ferently. The coach can then follow up with ments can improve the team’s visualisation of
what they thought went well, questions, and your training philosophy expectations. This
what different choices could have been sort of documentation is invaluable for main­
made. Allowing the new team member to taining behaviour integrity, as well as existing
share first allows them to self‐report what as a tool for training new team members.
they would do differently, which can allevi­ There may be some training programmes
ate some of the potential embarrassment of where everyone is starting fresh: the animals
having someone else list known challenges. are all untrained, the individuals are all new