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.