To put it simply, we positively reinforce desirable behavior and ignore undesirable behavior. A variety of things can be reinforcing for a dolphin. Each animal is an individual with its own likes and dislikes. Learning what is reinforcing for a particular dolphin requires a great deal of patience and careful observation. One thing which is positive to all animals is food.
Food is considered a primary reinforcement because it is necessary to sustain life.
You can teach a dolphin to respond to a new reinforcer by pairing it with a known positive reinforcer such as food. This new reinforcer is called a secondary reinforcer . Each dolphin has certain areas of the pool they like to swim in, behaviors they like to perform, or other dolphins they seem to like to work with at certain times. These can all be used as reinforcers as well. In order to successfully train a dolphin, the trainer needs to reinforce the dolphin at the instant the dolphin performs a desired behavior.