Clicker Training Principles 2
Written by Hiddenhorse on 22/03/2010 – 11:10 am -Clicker training is something that has been around for many years, it is also known as positive reinforcement training, (PRT). This is a more accurate name that describes the basic mechanism. We have three elements here: Positive, this means that PRT works only with positive emotions. Reinforcement this means that behaviors that are reinforced are likely to reoccur and training which implies some form of learning is taking place.
The definition of positive reinforcement is a simple one: positive reinforcement happens when something positive is added to the horse’s environment.
Clicker training or PRT is not a training ‘system’ it is a mechanism or process that we can use to communicate with the horse, but here is the crucial difference between conventional systems-based training and PRT. As discussed in previous posts, systems force the subject to comply with the rules and objectives of the system, PRT works in completely the opposite way, which means the process adapts to the individual. The result of this is that we do not have to spend time trying to decide what horse-anality we are dealing with, we don’t have to concern ourselves with the horse’s history and background and all the previously learned behaviours (mental baggage!) that go with that. PRT works with any horse and any human because all individuals are unique. PRT even works with any species, for example PRT was first developed for training dolphins. Training using positive methods is now the main way that dogs are trained, because it works.
The reason we don’t have to worry about what happened in the past is that nothing in the past needs to be unlearned. PRT simply adds to what is already there and if what is there already is negative emotion, these negatives will be over written by positive emotions. This means that every time we train we are just adding to the horses natural strengths and talents. Consequently the ‘end product’ of our training is, every thing that went into the process comes out at the other end but more so. So our sensitive horse that will turn on a hair trigger doesn’t lose that sensitivity by having it ‘trained out’ of him, he still has it and he will now be one of those great horses that seems to have a relationship with it’s rider that is almost telepathic. The horse and rider appear to have an invisible connection with each other and are able to harmonize together in graceful flowing movement based on complete mutual understanding and trust. In conventional training these horses are usually the ones that end up with all the ‘tools and equipment’, martingales, severe bits etc. all of which is used to control the unpredictable (flight) emotions of the horse. A good example of a system of training where the subject is literally forced to comply with the rules and objectives of the system.
If the horse is of a type I call the choleric type and is a horse with great personal presence and charisma, usually a horse that is socially an alpha horse or herd leader. Yet, using PRT this horse can safely be partnered with a child rider because once again, nothing of the original has been taken away and the horse human relationship is one based on perfect mutual trust, respect and positive emotions.
The real secret here, and it is one that even people who have been around PRT for years, I think, fail to realize, is that clicker training works directly, and positively with the horse’s emotions. This is what makes it so powerful. This is what makes it so effective. Also because clicker training is something that appears so simple, (you can learn how to do it in a few minutes), it is vastly underrated, almost as if something that simple is of no importance because of it’s simplicity. However, I would say that although you can learn how to do it in a few minutes it will take you the rest of your life to master it. It is a bit like dismissing playing the piano as no more than pushing down a few keys in the right order!
If on the other hand you don’t feel like investing the rest of your life in understanding PRT let me offer to be your ‘piano teacher’ for a bit. I think the least I can offer to help you by pointing you in the right direction.
The Bridge
I mentioned that PRT works directly with the emotions and you might be wondering why we would want to do this. The answer is simple, the aim of all our training of a horse is with the aim of building TRUST. Trust is not something that is based on reason and logic it is something that is pure emotion. We talk about the feeling of trust. The reason we must build trust with our horses is that we and the horse are fundamentally different animals, as I’m sure you know by know the horse is a prey animal and we are predators. Total opposites. Our instinct is sadly, all too often to communicate with the horse in a way that is instinctive to us i.e. as a predator, our instinct is to control prey animal behavior. But certain humans have found different paths, we sometimes call these people ‘horse whisperers’ or ‘natural’ horsemen and women. Both of these names imply something away from the ordinary, logical, rational world and of course these people have special abilities with horses because they understand the importance of communicating emotionally with horses in a way that makes horses trust them. I call this building a bridge of trust between the two species.
If you are a prey animal the single most important decision you will ever make in your life is the decision you make about who you trust.
Trust
What do we mean by the word trust? Well if we trust someone, horse or human, we trust their decisions. Horses are herd animals, this means they trust the decisions made by the leaders of the herd, because those decisions keep them safe; and the greatest emotional need of any prey animal is to feel safe. We might suppose that decisions are logical and rational, they are not, they are always emotional. We humans always make our decisions emotionally but we then justify them rationally. If you think back to any major decision of your life you will realize that you made that decision emotionally, you decided emotionally who you wanted to be your friend, who you wanted to marry,who you wanted to divorce! Where you wanted to live or work. You decided emotionally what car you drive, what clothes you put on this morning, and how about this one? You decided emotionally what horse to buy. Decisions are always emotional.
So when a horse trusts us, it trusts our decisions and that means it trusts our emotions.
This is why acting like a predator animal around prey animals never works it will always produce the emotional response of the prey animal, flight, fight or compliance and you will spend your whole time when you are with your horse attempting to control those emotional instincts.
And your horse will never trust you because it cannot trust your emotions.
Respect
Human trainers are often focused on having their horses respect them. And their highly trained horses do respect them because they know disrespect can hurt them. I respect the law because I know the consequences of disrespect can hurt me, I respect fire in the same way and I expect you do too, but this kind of respect, I call it negative respect, is not based on trust it is based on fear, a negative emotion. True respect is an aspect of trust. Trust and respect follow each other automatically as night follows day. Respect really means respect for the decisions that you make and that, as we have seen, is based on a deep and fundamental respect for your emotions and the emotions of the horse. True respect is never given, it is earned, and it is a two way process, which is why respect is always mutual.
The Pay Off
If you take this approach in everything you do with your horse, you will be moving towards the one thing that is the BIG pay off for humans. It is the one thing that every person that works with animals is desperate to find, it is the reason we humans are so anthropomorphic with animals, anthropomorphism is really an attempt to short cut the process of building trust and respect. What we humans want above all things is the ‘special relationship’ with our horse. We want a horse that acts like our best friend, we want a horse that willingly leaves the herd to spend time with us, we want a horse that responds to us as if we were the most important thing in it’s universe. In short, we want our horse to ‘love’ us.
I don’t care if you are the most disciplined Teutonic dressage ‘God’ or the most flee bitten western horse wrangler, you still want this from your animal, despite the rational arguments you might make about the animals purpose and function, because a horse that responds to you in this way is satisfying you emotionally. And that is something every human being on the planet finds rewarding.
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Tags: Clicker Training, Decisions, Emotions, Positive Reinforcement Training, PRT, Respect, TrustPosted in Clicker Training, Training | No Comments »
