Being responsible for your clicker training methods

Just need to do a bit of thinking out loud here.

Clicker Training is an immensely powerful training tool; a marker signal combined with a food reinforcer can open up an animal's mind like no other technique. It is quite clear that the idea is gaining in popularity and use. Right along with that surge in popularity is the tendency of people to want to take the technology and "make it their own." This is troubling to me.

With the Internet and the abundance of knowledge, many people have begun to take the approach of adding a pinch of one method, along with a dash of another method, with a few clicks and treats on top for sweetening. They don't completely follow the protocols of any method. They also don't want to invest the time and money really needed for learning the tools, including dealing with pitfalls. Sometimes they end up creating problems without even realizing they have.

People and horses vary; both are individuals. Characteristics of each species need to be considered along with the individual's particular traits. I'm not talking about submission and dominance traits, those concepts are being debunked as myths. I'm just talking about how each animal learns and the capabilities of the human who's working with that animal. Really, it's a small wonder that more people aren't facing problems with the Hodge-podge of techniques that are arising.

The good news is more people are willing to think about treating the horse as something deserving of reinforcement instead of a beast that needs to be controlled through dominance and the use of aversives, to me that is a blessing.

In the meantime, if you do embark on this journey, be responsible and learn about it thoroughly. Get help when you think things aren't working out the way you thought. Get help EARLY if you think things aren't working out, that would be even better. In fact, get help BEFORE you even start. Learn about it thoroughly first!

I kind of like the metaphor of buying a chain saw. If you had no prior experience, would you just jump in to see how it goes? Would you watch someone skilled and then learn from them? Would you read on the Internet or go to YouTube and assume you had learned all of the safety protocols? I'm hoping you'd take the time to learn how it works, wear safety equipment, maybe even take a few supervised lessons from someone who knows what they're doing.

That's how I feel about learning ANY form of horse training. If you own a living animal, you need to learn to train it. Every single thing you ask your horse to do needs to be trained. Even with clicker training, you still need to learn the method thoroughly to be effective.

2 + 2

The only way you know if you training is if the animal repeats the behavior. OK, I know this sounds so basic that it could be disregarded, but take a second look at how you train. I know many people who think they're clicker training, but they don't know how to get the most out of this important training concept. When starting a NEW behavior, the purpose of shaping is to mark small amounts of behavior offered by the horse. The FOLLOW UP is to see if the horse immediately repeats the behavior! So good shaping means you click, watch for the same behavior and click again. If it doesn't repeat, don't raise the criteria. In fact, you want to get several quick repetitions before you raise the criteria. That's how you can build a strong behavior; the repetition inherent in the learning process makes it strong. I've seen people click for something, then decide they like something else the next step, click for that, then change again two steps later. I'm sure the horse enjoys the treats, but that doesn't mean he knows what he's being trained to do, especially if it's a behavior in training. That's like saying 2 + 2 = 4, then 2 + 2 = 5, then 2 + 2 = 3. The animal never knows the right answer because we change the rules of the game before they've learned what we want. So when you train your horse a new behavior, learn to watch for what the horse is repeating, because THAT is what you're really training.

Can you train an "attitude"

Those of you who know me know that I have long since questioned human constructs in our training. By that I mean I do not think words like "respect" belong at all in our training. Why? Because respect is not a behavior which can be defined or measured.

Instead I prefer to train specific behaviors such as stopping two feet away when the horse approaches me or waiting for a release cue before eating. (I have plenty of diatribes on "respect;" if you'd like me to post links, I can)

There is another human construct that I see creeping into clicker training and it concerns me for the same reasons; it does not provide the horse with clear attainable criteria. With a construct, or human concept, we forget to find a physical offering and we subject the horse to the frustration of finding a criteria that changes with every effort.

That is why I cringe when people start to train their horse for "attitude." What about "attitude" is measurable? Is it in the ears for one click and then a head lowered for the next? Is it standing still or moving forward quickly? Or worse, sometimes people expect all three at once, never having trained specific behaviors.

As clicker training becomes more prevalent, I'm hoping people will also learn the true power of the method, which to me is CLARITY of communication and training of goals and desired behaviors.  When we use the precision of the click, we are using a scalpel to isolate a singular movement. We can be so precise as to mark a muscle twitch.

So please, take a look at how we set up our horses. Click for measurable behaviors and leave the human constructs on the wayside.

Teaching McKee "Match to sample" - the beginning

I've been trying to figure out the best way to start training "match to sample" with McKee. I have an overall basic outline but I'm not quite sure of how I want to approach some of the logistics.

To start I want to have McKee standing in front of me about 3 feet away. He needs to be able to stand while I present an item, then go touch the matching item and then come back to our starting stance, lined up in front of me.

I've decided to use a small board, on which he can place his front feet, which will serve as a spot marker; he can leave me to go touch or pick up an item and then return to this board.

Another reason I choose to use a wooden board is because McKee has been taught to go find a scented mat and paw twice.  I really don't want to mess up  that behavior so I'm choosing to use a surface which is distinctly different.

McKee already has a strong auto-stationing behavior, so this part is pretty easy for him, but I want to give the board a specific cue for this behavior. To that end, tonight I started to use the verbal cue "Step up" as he went to station on the board.

I asked him to do several other behaviors and then cued him to go "step up" on the board. I think this part of the training should go pretty quickly, but since it's such foundation behavior for the trick, I don't want to gloss over this phase either.

More to come...

Not every horse is safe enough to train at liberty. Sometimes protective contact or the use of a halter/lead is the only way to start out. But when the safety requirements are in place, I think it's really worth exploring the use or non-use of the halter and lead in our training. It's amazing the subtle pressures we can put on a halter even when we are paying attention. If you haven't tried it, close your eyes and hold a halter while someone else picks up the line that is attached. Have them move the lead and feel the effect in your hands. It is truly amazing how a very subtle pressure can be felt on the halter. It is the same if not more for our horses. Even when we are consciously trying to train rope cues to our horses, there are times when we send a mixed signal down the line. The situation is even more confusing for the horse when we aren't quite paying attention. And truthfully, this is a common issue. Often people just aren't aware of what they're doing when they're with a horse. They might be easily distracted or just not fully tuned into what they're doing and this creates confusing halter cues for the horse. While no one wants to think of themselves as unaware, I think it's worthwhile to self-check by setting up a video camera and watching our training as well as day-to-day routines. It's a good way to see just how often there is pressure on the halter and we just don't realizing we're adding it. Another factor with halters and horses is that there are plenty of horses for whom the halter means "surrender." I've heard many people say "Well, all of those behaviors go away once he has the halter on." To me, that means there is a distinct possibility that the horse gives up trying to communicate with the human once it feels the halter. The halter becomes associated with lack of choice. These are some reasons why I'm a real advocate of training at liberty. But what can we learn from ourselves and our horses by training at liberty? Well, we can learn when our horses don't want to play with us! If the horse can walk away what does that tell us? For me personally, it puts me into an analytical mode. I have a check list that immediately goes into play if I don't have my horse's attention. And if I don't have the halter/lead to "make" him bring his attention back to me, then I have to figure out how to be a better trainer. Was my cue clear? Was there a distraction? Did I over-face the horse or frustrate him with my training? Was my rate of reinforcement too low? Is my horse physically compromised in any way. Can I quickly rebuild the behavior on the spot? These are just a few things that are on my checklist. I didn't formulate this checklist overnight. When I gave up ropes, halters, wands and body pressure I was left with the bare truth. My training had been based on pressure and without pressure my horses showed me what was meaningful to them. But you know, going through this process of training without a halter opened a door to the most wonderful world I could have ever imagined with my horses. Now when I give a cue I can expect that they WANT to do the behavior! Why not? I now build behaviors using the gifts of their efforts, given willingly with enthusiasm. They learn that I am INTERESTED in their guesses, their curious attempts to get me to click or their sometimes timid, but fully invested efforts. They also learn that my gestures or words can have a GOOD outcome for them. My attempts to communicate with them via these gestures are ways they can get what they want. And the other most amazing thing is that they learn I am listening to their subtle physical gestures designed to cue ME to do something. I mean how amazing is THAT; a horse is trying to cue ME. If I'm hanging onto a halter sometimes I just may not be able hear the horse. So I invite you to try training at liberty. Do it safely. Do this where you have room to leave if the horse gets expressive. Do this with a safe horse. But do this if you can, there's a lot to learn from the process.

Artwork by McKee

McKee has become an artist. His enthusiasm for painting is quite profound. For more information please check www.clickertraininghorses.com

CUTE mini horse paints pictures