Thursday, February 14, 2013

But horses aren't predators!


Quote:
Originally Posted by PunksTank    
Continuing to love your posts JillyBean!! I was wondering if you could explain one more thing about food rewards (if you were already planning too sorry for jumping the gun :P). I hear so many people say "horses don't think like predators, their food is at their feet, so they don't know how to work for food" - While I disagree with this, seeing my horses dig in the snow for the little grass underneath, and seeing other horses who have learned to kick walls or whinny for food. But I was wondering if you could explain it for people who believe that?
Excellent question and one that I've also seen come up a lot.

Bottom line, every living thing needs energy and usually devotes the majority of its life working to obtain it by consuming food in some way/shape/form. Horses are no exception. It is a simple fact of life: horses need food to survive and so they work for it - whether they're in the wild and searching for grazing grounds or domesticated and chasing the rest of the herd off their flake of hay. Since horses work so hard to obtain their food simply to stay alive, it's an easy thing to exploit as a reinforcer/motivator in clicker training, especially if you use something like enjoy eating and don't get all the time.

Where predators are concerned, I'd actually be more worried about using food with them than I would non-predators. Most predators, like dogs, are fine being given treats. However, there are a few (snakes come to mind) that like their prey to be alive and lose interest in meals that aren't moving. If you were to clicker train an animal such as this, you'd have to find something that motivates them. If squirming meals were the only thing that motivated them to work, you'd have to use that as your reinforcer!

Herbivores, on the other hand, actually need more food than predators to function and that is why they are ALWAYS eating. Plants actually do not contain a whole lot of nutrition, so herbivores eat a lot, poop out most of it, and so must continue eating more. In contrast a predator, like a lion, can get all their nutrients from one meal and some can go weeks without eating.

Which brings us to the issue of being full. Any animal using treats in training does risk getting full and losing motivation to eat (like when you have a HUGE meal and don't even wan to look at dessert! Rare, I know, but it does happen lol). You don't need a starved animal, but right after feeding time probably isn't the best time to try clicker training, either. Generally, if you work with your horse any other time than after feeding time, they should be decently motivated to work for treats since they have such high energy (food) demands. Horses allowed free-choice hay and grass are usually ok since they're getting a slow and steady food intake (as opposed to stuffing themselves once or twice a day) and should still want food when you're working with them since they're working for food all day anyway. However, you'll need to pay attention to your horse and get to know them to find out when his optimal training time will be based on the desire for food (or whatever your reward is) and any other factors that affect motivation and attention.

All of this applies to all animals for the same reasons - here are a few examples of "unlikely" animals working with clicker training, none of which are predators:
Parakeet:

 

Goldfish (I don't think they're predators, and even if they are, how incredible that CT is so simple and elegant it can be used with virtually any animal!):



And, not going to lie, this is my favorite one I found for so many reasons and I LOVE these camels! (And for us CT junkies, check out the targeting, the "stand" game aka "stand on your mat", and the camel/trainer reaction to when the camel asks for food!)

Clicker Emergencies


I'm going to call this "clicker emergencies" to distinguish between this and clicker training. Though these examples aren't intended actually teach the horse anything, having a clicker trained horse does come with a few side benefits that I've found very useful.

One example is for when you need your horse to do something new and there's no time to actually train the behavior. For instance, my colt needed somewhat urgent hoof care when I purchased him. He'd never been worked on by a farrier before and had a terrible flare and a few other issues I wanted to attend to right away, especially since it seemed like he was having strange bone development in order to balance himself on his hooves. By the time the farrier came out (about week into using clicker training), Flash knew what the clicker meant, but we didn't have time to work on picking up much less holding his feet for the farrier. My dad, a skeptic about my clicker training, came out to help me hold him for the Farrier. Flash was not happy and didn't participate, and I could tell my farrier was exercising a tremendous amount of patience. It wasn't long before I told him I could go get my clicker and that would probably help. My dad said the farrier probably didn't want me messing around and giving treats, but the farrier said to go ahead and do anything I thought might help. Out came my bag and the clicker! Normally, I would practice just picking up feet, then holding feet for a second, and then holding them longer and longer to actually train the behavior. However, there was no time for that. As soon as the farrier picked up Flash's foot, I started clicking and treating constantly. If he pulled his foot away or put it down, the clicking and treating stopped. It took him one try to figure out the game and then he was the easiest 18-month-old you've ever tried to work with! Again, this didn't teach him to hold his feet, but it got us through a nearly-impossible hoof trim. In addition, simply feeding him wouldn't have worked since it would have just created a mouthy and impatient horse trying to get more snacks. With the clicker, he knew he had to earn the treats and that they wouldn't just be given to him for no reason. (Since then, we've done a lot of work to train him to be good about his feet, going through the process I describe above of asking more and more from him in order to earn the click, and I can now work with all his hooves without any problems and without the aid of a clicker or treats)

My second example of where the clicker has helped in a tight spot is to get a horse's attention in a critical and urgent situation. For example, last fall I was leading Flash back from a ride and he got excited and took off loping and bucking home, pulling the lead rope out of my hands. However, the place I was boarding was off a main road with lots of 50-60mph traffic and there was a good chance he would run right out on the road if I couldn't get him stopped. I yelled "woah" and "Flash!", but he was headed for home! Then, almost by instinct, I started clicking my clicker furiously to get his attention - And he stopped immediately! Hey, he wasn't going to miss out on a treat! He stood still and waited for me to catch up to give it to him - At this point, I started clicking about every 5 seconds to tell him he was doing what I wanted (standing still) and keep him standing there while I caught up. Crisis averted!

Do I have to use a clicker and treats?

No!
First the clicker:The purpose of the clicker is to provide a "bridge" between the behavior you're trying to reinforce and the actual reward. This enables you to "mark" specific behaviors by clicking simultaneously with them when it would be impossible to give them a reward for the behavior right then.

A clicker works very well as a bridge because it is a distinct and consistent sound that creates a strong, clear association between behavior -> marker (the clicker sound) ->reward. A sound works better than any other type of reinforcement because it will pretty much always be noticed and recognized.

However, any sound that is distinct and consistent will work for "clicker training". For instance, I know some people use the caps from Snapple bottles (they click when you push them in) and PunksTank uses a smooching sound and doesn't even have to carry a clicker device! The key to a good "marker" is making sure that it's always the same and always associated with your reward. For instance, if you make a smooch noise for a cue, then a smooch noise will not be an effective marker since it's not clear what you're indicating when you make the noise. Moreover "good boy" or "good girl" is usually a poor marker choice because you're likely to make the same words or even just the sounds in other contexts and confuse the horse, and even our best efforts to say this the same way every time will likely fail since things like emotion will affect how we say it. Personally, I don't trust myself to be consistent enough with any verbal cue, and so I have my clicker permanently attached to my wrist with a high-quality elastic wristband and it's just one of the pieces of tack I grab when I intend to work with my horse. If I can grab a halter and lead rope, I can grab my clicker :)

Now, the treats:
Once you understand what a reinforcer really is, you can decide what you'd like to use as your reinforcer. As long as it motivates the horse to work, it is a reinforcer! Preferably, you want a reinforcer that the horse will work for over a period of time as well. Does your horse work for a scratch behind his ears? If you'd like, you can use that instead of treats! However, treats are often the most convenient reinforcer for a number of reasons. First, most horses are food-motivated simply because it's a basic need, so we can exploit it. Not all food will work for all horses - for instance, one of my horses only likes a few bites of grain and then loses interest. Grain would not be a good reinforcer for him, while it probably would be for most horses. I like using "cookies" because I believe they're healthier and I don't have to worry about him getting too much. Plus, I can change flavors to keep him interested. I try to find the smallest ones I can so that I can give a small reward without feeding too much each time.

Backing Up, Day 2

OK, so now that I've finally gotten all that theory and technicality stuff down, I can finally update on our progress today!

I went out with the goal to just work on what we started yesterday (backing up with a verbal cue), adding speed and getting him to respond to the verbal cue. AND, per PunksTank's suggestion, I wanted to make sure I kept our training session short.

I was pleasantly surprised with how yesterday's lesson apparently "sunk in" overnight! I'm betting that the same thing would have happened even with just a short break yesterday like PunksTanks suggested. Unfortunately, I board my horses so it's a little difficult to spread out our sessions with breaks, but I'll have to get creative. For now, I'll just do little mini-lessons. I'm not sure how long I was out there today, but I made a point of stopping while we were ahead and keeping it shorter than yesterday.

I turned Flash out in the arena as soon as we got out there. He was eager to find out what game we were playing today, so he followed me wherever I went and stopped respectfully when I did (we've worked on where he's supposed to walk respectfully before and he got a reminder the other day when I reacted by shaking his halter without the clicker - he's been very respectful since). Then, I turned around and said "back up" - and he took a step backward! I immediately clicked and treated. He's backing up about 50% of the time on just the verbal cue now and will continue backing up if I keep saying it (backupbackupbackup...). He'll even do so at a decent speed, through I still want to get him faster. If I pick up my energy and walk toward him, shaking my finger at his chest like I did yesterday, then he picks up speed and moves pretty well.

I forgot to mention yesterday how he was swinging his hip some and not backing up straight, but I fixed that by swinging the lead rope at his hip and turning his head slightly, so he straightened back out. He seems to have worked the "straight" thing out now, especially since we're picking up speed and he has to move fairly straight in order to do so quickly.

After a few minutes of backing, he wandered off. I think he's feeding off some other cue he's not quite understanding and that I'm not trying to give, because he basically lunged himself on his own for a while. That alerted me to the fact that I needed to teach him a "come here" cue since he was so convinced he was supposed to be going around me (I try to do most of our training at liberty and didn't have the lead on to stop him). So, for the next few minutes, I focused on just asking him to come. Essentially, I called his name and extended the back of my hand to him and had him target it. Pretty soon, I could send him off by swinging the lead rope and then ask him to come in and touch my hand. Once I had his attention again, I asked him to back up a few steps, then come back forward when I called him and extended my hand. We only did this a few times, and then I decided it was a good place to stop while he was still interested and paying attention.

Tomorrow, I think I'll continue working on the "back up" and "come here cues" and focus on those until we have them really well :)

One last interesting note - we worked a LOT on leading last year out of necessity, including trotting when asked. He knows his cue very well, even after he had the winter off, and immediately trotted up to me when I asked him to catch up while leading him to the arena. However, he never passed me and slowed down as soon as his head was at my shoulder. It's so nice to have a cutie trotting after me and managing the slack in the lead rope appropriately!

Pats and verbal rewards: Are they reinforcement?

I have never been able to wrap my mind around WHY we seem to think that patting a horse or telling it "Good Boy" would be rewarding for a horse. Personally, I think we do it because we find it rewarding. Human language on its own is meaningless sto a horse, and I can't imagine that the horse (or any animal) really wants to be patted - with one of my horses, it would actually be counter-productive since one of my horses is really sensitive to things like that and shies away from them.

Realistically, the only way a pat or a verbal reward could be any sort of reinforcer would be if it was done consistently enough with other things to become associated with those things. For instance, if your horse gets a quick break or a change in activity when they get their pat or "good boy", they could become associated with one another. Essentially, you've done the same thing that clicker training does when it creates a "bridge" between an inherently meaningless reinforcer and gives it meaning through association. However, since you're likely not being consistent and intentionally pairing the real reward with your pat or verbal reward, it probably won't become very strongly associated with any sort of reward that the horse wants to work for.

However, just for kicks and giggles, let's assume that horses find pats and being told "good boy" or "good girl" is very rewarding for a horse.... It would still be a terrible reinforcer, much in the same way simply "treat training" is a terrible reinforcer and for the same reasons. The trouble with treat training is that you cannot give the horse immediate feedback on specific behaviors since it's impossible to give them a treat at that moment. Usually, if it's impossible to to feed a treat, it would probably be impossible to give them a pat. Thus, it's not really connected to the specific behavior you're working on but rather an overall "I did somethingright."

The ultimate test to find out whether your pats or words are real reinforcers would be to stop giving them and keep everything else you're doing exactly the same except. If you stopped patting or saying "good boy", would your horse still work for you at the same level/speed he does now? My bet would be yes - because he's not working for the pat or words. Rather, he's working for the release of pressure, the real reinforcer. Thus, since the pats aren't actually motivating the horse to perform the desired behaviors more often, it, by definition, is not a reinforcer at all.

(Disclaimer - I'm not saying you shouldn't pat/pet/rub your horse or tell them "good boy". In fact, though I don't pat because that just isn't something I do for whatever reason, I do give lots of rubs and verbal "good"-s because I do think it reinforces my relationship with my horse. I don't expect it to assist with my training beyond simply establishing a bond with my horse and being comfortable and happy around each other. In contrast, I expect the reinforcement with the clicker to actually produce results in our training.)

Reinforcement Schedules

Once you understand reinforcement and punishment and the different ways that they work, now it comes to WHEN you reinforce. This isn't quite as critical as knowing why training works the way it does in the first place, so I'll keep it short and sweet for those that are interested in the various types of reinforcement schedules and the results they produce.

The first main type of reinforcement schedule is continuous reinforcement. This is the type of schedule most commonly used in clicker training. Basically, this means that the behavior is reinforced each time it's given. In other words, if I'm teaching my horse to pick up his feet, I click and treat each time the horse picks his foot up. This is best used during the initial stages of learning as it create a strong association between the behavior and reinforcement. However, once the behavior is firmly associated with the reinforcement (and your horse knows what you expect from him), you can do two things - ask for more and/or switch to a partial reinforcement schedule. Personally, I do both. I'll explain the "asking for more" in the next post, but the basic idea is that the horse has to take the behavior one step further before getting a reinforcement (now he has to hold his foot up longer... and longer....) and you're actually asking for your horse to learn something new (i.e. Holding a foot rather than just picking it up). However, for this post, I'm going to explain switching to a partial reinforcement schedule in order to reinforce the SAME behavior that was already taught. This prevents what we call "extinction" - in other words, the behavior stopping since we're not reinforcing it anymore (for those of you who think that a clicker trained horse will ALWAYS need a clicker, listen up!).

Partial reinforcement: this means that the horse doesn't get a reinforcement every time it does what you're asking. Instead, it only gets a reinforcement part of the time. This way, you can ask for the behavior more often without a reinforcement (i.e. You can ask for behavior without a clicker) and the horse will still respond even though it doesn't get a treat every time.

I'm only going to worry about the things that are most important here - if you want to know more, Google "reinforcement schedules".

Here are the key terms you need to know to understand partial reinforcement:
Fixed = when you reinforce doesn't change.
Variable = it's unpredictable when you'll reinforce behavior
Ratio = when you reinforce depends on the number of times the behavior is performed
Interval = when you reinforce depends on the amount of time that has passed (I'm not going to discuss this one here, though).

There are four types of partial reinforcement, and different schedules lead to different results. I've included a graph below that illustrates these. I'm only going to explain fixed ratio and variable ratio here, though, because they directly apply to clicker training.

Fixed ratio means that you reinforce after a specific number of correct behaviors. Generally, this leads to a steady rate of responses in order to earn the reward with only a brief pause after getting the reward. For example, every time a kid completes three math problems, he gets a piece of candy, so he does three math problems, receives his candy, eats it and pauses, then decides he wants another one so gets back to work again. The weakness here is that, if the horse doesn't receive a treat after the expected time, the behavior can break down and the horse stops responding.

Variable ratio solves this problem. With variable ratio reinforcement, the horse never knows when it's going to get a reward - it can perform the desired behavior any number of times and may or may not receive the reinforcer. This is the most powerful reinforcement schedule as it produces a high and steady rate of the desired behavior. Don't believe me? This is how gambling addiction works: You never now when you're going to win, even without any sort of reward (and even lose money!), people keep on gambling and gambling because every now and then they win $5 back, $2 back, $10 back, etc., and they think they just might hit the jackpot with the next round.

This applies to clicker training when teaching the horse to respond the way you want it to without the clicker. I use this to reinforce behaviors that my horse knows and that I expect, but want to reward every now and then. When I'm "phasing out" the clicker, I'll ask the horse to do what I want and only click and treat every now and then. Thus, he learns that he can respond even without the clicker. Eventually, I won't use the clicker at all when asking for this behavior - this behavior is expected and the horse knows what he's supposed to be doing (thus I avoid the horse trying something else or getting confused because he didn't get a reinforcing click and treat). For things my horse knows REALLY well, I do click and treat every now and then just to say "good boy" in a way that's meaningful for him. I could probably be just fine without it, but I like to reinforce these behaviors every once in a while (i.e. Maybe once in a week or even a month) just because. Since he never knows when what he's doing might earn him a treat, he's always listening even when he doesn't get one!

Operant Conditioning: Applying it to horses

Ok, so in my last post, I explained the different aspects of operant conditioning. (Operant conditioning is simply a fancy psychology term for saying we can train behavior through motivation and is applicable to pretty much every voluntary behavior known to living organisms).

Now, let's apply it to horses:

Positive reinforcement: This is where clicker training finds a home. With clicker training, a reinforcer (usually a treat) is introduced when the desired behavior is performed. Technically, treat training is also positive reinforcement as far as it is able to reinforce the behavior you're wanting. The addition of a clicker as a "bridge" between the the behavior and actually receiving a treat simply allows us to be more intentional, accurate, and flexible with the behaviors we are trying to reinforce, which I already discussed in a previous post.

Negative reinforcement: This is where training off of pressure comes into play. In "traditional" training, pressure is applied to guide/ask the horse to do something, and then the pressure is released when the horse responds correctly. The horse learns to work for the release of pressure.

Positive punishment: This is used each time you smack your horse for getting in your space. For instance, if he is mugging you for treats and you give him a firm thwack on the nose, he learns not to mug you for treats or else!

Negative punishment: I had a hard time coming up with one for this, but it just dawned on me yesterday - this is often used in *proper* clicker training if you are going to give the horse a treat and the horse reaches out for it a little too eagerly. The correct thing to do in this situation would be to wrap your fingers around the treat and take it back. Withholding the treat discourages the horse from reaching for it, and since you are eliminating that behavior by taking something away that he would have gotten otherwise, it is negative punishment.

Oftentimes, these are simultaneously used to govern behavior. I already gave an example above about how each of these applied to why I graded those papers, but now here's an example of combining these within a training session: If I wanted to teach my horse to back up (as I did yesterday), I first gave the cue that I want him to learn ("back up"). However, since that didn't mean anything to him yet, I stepped forward and put pressure on his front shoulder. He took a step back, and I released the pressure (negative reinforcement), clicked, and treated (positive reinforcement). However, if he ever reached for a treat, I would have bopped him on the nose (positive punishment) and withheld the treat (negative punishment). During any given training session, you'll usually find me using a combination of positive and negative reinforcement (clicking and treating as well as using pressure). I don't use punishment unless he does something I don't want, obviously. Usually, that doesn't happen, though, since he's so keen on trying to figure out what I want :)

There are many other examples of how these are used with horses and in our everyday lives. Hopefully, you're beginning to get an idea of how important these principles are and how they apply to just about everything you do. For example, I am currently writing this because I want the positive reinforcement of hearing other people's comments and knowing I helped them learn something as well as the hoped-for negative reinforcement of fewer people writing off clicker training simply because they don't understand it.

Which, by the way, brings us to reinforcement schedules and how some schedules are more powerful than others in sustaining behavior - but that's for another post ;)

Reinforcement: The Nitty-Gritty Details

In order to understand clicker training, you must understand the terms that apply to behavioral training in general: positive, negative, reinforcement, and punishment. These govern ALL motivated behavior, whether we're talking about horses, lizards, birds, bugs.... Everything. Even you humans reading this.

Here's a little upper-division psychology for you :)

First, lets define them:
Positive: this is like a positive in math, not positive meaning "good". It means adding something that wasn't there before.
Negative: this is also like math - a negative number means you're taking something away or subtracting it. This is not "bad", so don't confuse this definition of negative with one that is judgemental in nature.
Reinforcement: this is anything that causes a behavior to happen more often, as in it reinforces the behavior.
Punishment: this is anything that causes a behavior to happen less often

**Note: something can be intended to be a reinforcer or punishment that is NOT actually a reinforcer or punishment since it is ineffective and does not achieve making the behavior happen more or less often. I addition, something that was a reinforcer or punishment can stop and start being either. It all depends on whether it is currently effectie to change behavior or not.

Now, let's combine them and discuss the results:

Positive reinforcement: by definition, this is adding something that causes the behavior to happen more often. For example, when you work, you receive money, so you work more to receive more money.

Negative reinforcement: again, by definition, this is taking away something that in turn causes a behavior to happen more often. For example, there is a sqeaky door that really annoys you. However, when you put WD-40 on it, it stops sqeaking. This leads to you putting WD-40 on the door whenever it sqeaks so that the noise goes away. Taking the squeak away is negatively renforcing you putting the WD-40 on the door!

Positive punishment: this is when something is added that causes a behavior to happen less often. For example, when a child misbehaves, spankings are added to the scenario. So, the child misbehaves less often.

Negative punishment: this is when something is taken away that results in the behavior happening less often. Say a teen stays out too late, so driving privilages are taken away. Afterward, the teen does not disobey their curfew again.

Now that I've clarified what these terms mean, I'll apply each to horses in my next post. For now, I need to grade some papers :)

Backing Up

And now, we're finally to what we worked on today: Backing up. Flash retained ALL of his knowledge about clicker training over the winter, so I didn't have to re-charge the clicker or work on targeting. We did do backing up last year, but I wanted to start here as a refresher for a few reasons.

First, I needed both of us to be successful. For our first training session of this year, I wanted him to catch on to something quickly and have some progress made. I already knew he could back up with a little bit of a reminder, so this was a good choice for us to focus on.

Second, I wanted to ask for a higher level. Last year, I got him to the point where I could give a little pressure (or even just move my hand behind his chin), and he would step backward. However, I want to prepare him for my expectations as a reining horse: backing up straight, over a longer distance, and doing it quickly.

Third, I want to re-train my cue. Last year, I trained him to back up when I turned around to face him and moved the lead rope toward his chest. Now, with my end goal in mind, I want him to back up on a verbal cue ("Back up"). This way, when I do get on,what we've done on the ground will translate as the same cue and behavior while riding.

So here's what we did today:

I took Flash out into the arena in a lead rope and halter. I had a carrot stick without a line on it, but it more or less proved to be more trouble than it was worth. I started out with the end goal in mind by using the lightest cue possible, simply saying "Back Up". Of course, at this point, that meant nothing to him. So, I took a step forward and shook my finger at his chest. Still nothing. Then, that shaking finger ended up poking him in the chest and he took a step back = click and treat! After a few minutes, he was taking a step back whenever I took a step toward his shoulder and shook my finger (I was still saying "back up" before doing anything and continued saying it like I will while riding, though, so that he'll eventually learn this as the cue).

Now, it was time to ask for a little more. He had to back 2 steps before getting the cue. Then three. And before long he was having to back up as long as I was giving the cue, though I limited that to about 5 or 6 steps back since it was just his first time. Occasionally, to keep him going, I did put a little pressure on the halter as well. After a bit, I took the lead rope off and asked him to back without it.

OK, so he's doing good so far, so I want to ask for a little more "go" in his backing! So, I picked up my energy, stepped toward him a little more aggressively, and when I got to his chest (because he was dragging his feet), I gave him some firm (not harsh), smacks on the chest to get a move on. That did the trick haha. Though I only intentionally did this to get him to move his feet a little faster, it doubled to communicate that I don't just wan't him to move his feet, but that we actually needed to GO somewhere! After that lightbulb went on for him, he seemed to really get what I was asking him and was becoming really responsive and successful in getting his treats!

Somewhere around this time, he decided he wasn't interested in the treats. He's usually very attentive and excited about clicker training and we can go for quite a while, but after about a half hour of taking breaks when I said so, he was ready for his own break. So I let him have it :) He went to the middle of the arena and had a good roll, then took a stroll around the entire outside of the arena checking out the fences, and then came back to me ready to work. He's a funny guy  Knowing his 2 1/2-year-old brain was getting tired and his tank-like belly was empty, I only asked him to back up a few more times and ended after two particularly good back-ups in a row (he was even starting to back up just with the verbal cue and no movement from me!) complete with extra treats and rubs for a job well-done.

It was a good day! I can't wait to continue our backing up lesson next time!

Mouthiness

At this point, you've got a horse that is reliably targeting and lowering his head, understanding that he's working for a click that will be followed by a treat.

BUT, you've also got a mouthy monster mugging you for treats!

Mugging for treats is never ok - not even in clicker training. This is where clicker training and "treat training" are very different. Treat training, without a click to mark the correct behavior, usually fails to communicate the idea of "earning" a treat through correct behavior. Rather, the horse just knows it does some stuff and eventually gets a treat shoved in its face. Clicker training "marks" the correct behavior with a click, allowing for accurate communication of the correct behavior, and then your horse MUST politely wait for his reward.

Have you ever tried telling a kindergartener what NOT to do, only to find out they did something else you didn't want them to do instead? It's much more effective to tell them what they SHOULD do instead to direct their behavior into being what you would like it to be. Horses are the same way. I have no problem giving my horse a firm smack on the nose for treat mugging. However, I also make a point of showing my horse what I DO expect from him - by clicker training it! In order for my horse to receive his treat, he must be politely waiting for it until I put it up to his lips. This is when it's ok for him to take it out of my hand, and never before that. If he reaches for a treat in my hand, I close my fingers around it and take it away. Moreover, if he starts mugging the treat back or is just not getting the message about what he should be doing, I focus specifically on this behavior: I start clicking when he turns his head away from the treats. Between the clicking, the awarding or witholding of treats, and the occasional smack on the nose, it didn't take long for Flash to learn to be a polite little pony and wait until I say he's allowed to take his treat.

Targeting (Continued) and Head Lowering

The next step was to ask for a little more - I moved the water bottle. He already knew he had to touch it, so I didn't click and treat UNLESS he touched it. However, we took baby steps with how far I moved the water bottle. At first it was in front of him. Then a little lower. Then even lower. It took a few sessions, but I ultimately was able to set it on the ground.

This is often step #2 for clicker training: Teaching the horse to lower his head. This is our "calm down" cue. Asking a horse to lower his head gives us a "home base" for the horse to go back to paying attention and calming down if he gets excited. If you can do this on cue, it's like when your teacher held up her hand and said "Give me Five" and all the students got quiet and raised their hands. Once everything is orderly, you can move on with your students' attention - in this case, your student is your horse!

When doing this with the target, I practice by pointing at the target - ultimately, I want this pointing to become a cue for him to target anything I point to. Teaching a horse to target anything on cue is useful for a number of reasons. For training purposes, a number of things can be cued and shaped by first starting with a target. However, thinking about the "big picture", if Flash was afraid of something, I could ask him to target it. Given our previous training, he would know that this was a new challenge for him and just another training exercise, so, if I'm asking him to target something new and unfamiliar, it must be just another training exercise like all the other ones we've done.

Right now, targeting my green water bottle is more like a "brain break", a term teachers use for a quick and easy activity that allows students to relax but still be working for a few minutes while they take a break from more difficult activities. Flash now targets the green water bottle no matter where I put it - in fact, I'll even throw it and he goes trotting after it and touches it. (If I feel like it, I may take advantage of those new teeth growing and teach him to retrieve it!). No matter what, if I want to "end on a good note", all I ever have to do is pull out his favorite green water bottle ;)

Giving the clicker meaning/Targeting

The first thing you have to do when clicker training is to give the clicker meaning. Obviously, a simple click means absolutely nothing to the horse - and it may not mean anything to you. However, that can change for both of you if paired with something that IS meaningful.

The whole point of the clicker is to communicate "yes" to your horse when he does something correct (in traditional training, this "yes" is often a release of pressure). However, the horse won't know it means "yes" unless it's paired with something he wants. In most cases, horses will want food, so treats are often used with clicker training. It doesn't have to be treats, though - anything the horse will work for can be paired with the clicker to make it meaningful - maybe your horse likes a good rub on the neck? Treats are oftentimes the most convenient and motivating, though, and so from here on out I will describe clicker training like when it's used with treats (if you wanted to use something different and the horse does reliably work of it, just substitute your reward in place of when I say to give a treat).

So now, we have to teach the horse that a click means a treat is coming. There are two ways to do this. The first way is to "charge the clicker" - basically, you click and then treat, and then repeat. By doing this, the horse learns to pay attention to the clicker and learns that a click means that a treat will soon follow.

For me, I quickly lost attention and didn't really see any progress using this. Instead, I jumped to the next step to give the clicker meaning: targeting. Targeting is when the horse has to touch ("target") something. This is a very easy skill for the horse to learn, and, for me, it accomplishes teaching the horse that a click means a treat AND that he has to do something to earn it!

One principle of clicker training is that every behavior must be taught in baby steps. At first, the horse won't know what you want him to do. However, as soon as he does something in the general direction of your goal, he earns a click and treat. Sooner or later, the horse will figure out what it was he earned a click for and then do it over and over again. At this point, you ask for a little more before you click and treat (and repeat!), and eventually you've got the horse doing the behavior you set out to train in the first place.

So, back to targeting. I found the most interesting and odd thing that a horse would naturally want to investigate: A plastic water bottle covered in lime green duck tape. It looked funny, sounded funny, and smelled funny - perfect! I brought Flash into the round pen (you want somewhere small at first so they keep their attention on you) along with my bag of treats and clicker, then brought out the water bottle. I held it out with one hand a few inches in front of his nose. As soon as he reached forward to touch it, I clicked and treated. Of course, he didn't have any idea what had just happend and started looking everywhere for more treats - which earned him a firm smack on the nose. Pretty soon, he realized there weren't any free treats to be had, so he went back to investigating the odd-looking green object in my other hand. As soon as he touched it, I clicked and treated again! You could see the wheels turning in his head after two or three times, and within one session he was repeatedly nosing the water bottle and earning treats.

Now, Flash knew what the clicker was for - if he could play my game and figure out what I wanted, he could earn what he wanted. And it all was communicated through a simple click.

Clicker Training: Challenge Accepted

In the midst of all the clicker training debates, someone finally asked if we could show them what makes clicker training useful and valuable. Challenge accepted.

My goal is for Flash to basically be a reiner that I can ride tackless. I don't know that I necessarily want to compete with him (who knows what the future will hold for us?), but I want him to have that same responsiveness with quick and correct movement like many reiners do. I want him to sidepass, back, spin, slide - the works. And FAST. And, ultimately, without tack and using only leg, seat, and voice aids. Lofty goals? Yes. But SO worth the work I'll be putting in and I believe it'll be very possible using clicker training.

Since I just put the basics on him last year and then gave him the winter off, we'll be starting off from nearly square one. I'm going to do my best to recap the work we've already done to get to where we are now as well as update about our current progress. I'll post pictures and videos when possible. Well.... here goes nothing!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Pain in the neck.

Literally. I can't turn my head to the left without feeling a strong pinch in the back of my neck on the lower left side. It hurts even more to the right :S

This about summarizes how I feel about working with my horses right now. Nothing is going right. Yesterday was sunny, but very windy, so I had to take a rain check on my lesson, which sucks because I'm going to be out of town next week so it'll be two more weeks until I can have a lesson. Urgh. When I pulled up, they looked cute as usual - which didn't give me any clue as to how frustrating the next hour or so was going to be.

Today was sunny and not quite as windy, and I decided I wasn't going to really work on anything and rather just enjoy my horse. I went out later in the afternoon and caught Snickers. I needed to check to see how much he was bridging, which Karen suggested to do by shining a flashlight up under the fenders. There wasn't a lot of light, so I think we're ok, but Snickers was dancing everywhere and it was really hard to see much sometimes. It got really discouraging, especially since I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing and looking for. By the time we were done, I was so frustrated with the saddle and him that it was just better to put him away.

Then I went and got Flash, who seemed happy to come, but then it was just downhill. I picked his feet, which was more or less ok but he still tried to pull his foot away a few times. I couldn't get him to hold still during saddling, so I had to move him to a different spot where he couldn't move as much.




Once he was saddled, I took him into the round pen and got on. All I wanted was an easy walk for a little bit. We didn't even make it around one time when he threw this at me:









I tried to ride him around the round pen afterward: 


But he was still acting like a punk so I got off and lunged him with the saddle, which immediately started as this: 







And then turned into this:



Which led to this: 





And I was getting really worried about my brand new saddle, but luckily I got him stopped after a bit and got it off.


 After that I just lunged him, and he was acting really sensitive. It was ok :S I couldn't get him to cool down very well, and of course he was all sweaty as usual. Finally, I brushed him down, and he seemed OK-ish but still somewhat wet. I really hope he's ok tonight :S There really wasn't a whole lot else I could do.


So then I put him away and gave them their beet pulp, then went home. Somewhere in all this, I realized my neck hurt, probably from whiplash. Lame. Oh well, the good news is my butt stuck in that saddle like glue - so I know I won't be going anywhere! I really hope someone can get out there soon and help me with the fit, so at least I don't have to worry about that anymore. I really hope something turns soon because this is really just miserable!