By Alexandra Kurland: I'm just back from the Cleveland Clicker Expo, and my head feels stuffed to the rafters. You'd think after six or seven Expos, some of the lectures would start to sound stale, but not so. It doesn't matter how many times I hear the lectures on clicker basics, there is always a new twist, a new angle that emerges.
The "ah has" from the Expo are too many to list, but I will share some highlights. On Monday after the Expo we had a Faculty meeting to discuss plans for next year. The meeting is something we all look forward to because Ken Ramirez generally brings video clips of his current training projects. Ken is the Director of Training at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago so he's always got something fun he's working on. This year's video highlights included some work he's been doing with beluga whales at an Aquarium in Japan. Belugas apparently blow air rings the way some smokers blow smoke rings. The behavior is not well understood and there is no clear predictor of when it will occur. You could watch for days and never see the bubble rings, but by chance a Japanese film crew happened to be on hand at one point when the whales were blowing bubbles. They got some beautiful photos of the rings. The zoo started using the images in their advertising, but then of course the public wanted to see the whales blowing rings. So the zoo needed to get the behavior on cue. The whales were in tanks with glass side walls so people could watch them swimming under water. The trainers wanted to be able to cue the whales to blow air rings at the audience. The problem was they didn't know how to get the behavior in the first place. They couldn't rely on capturing the behavior since it occurred so irregularly. So getting bubble rings on cue was the training problem the zoo asked Ken to help them solve. Ken's solution illustrated everything I love about clicker training - the weaving together of a solid understanding of the science of clicker training with good training technique and creativity. He started with a behavior the whales had solidly on cue - spitting water. They would come up to the edge of the tank and on cue spit water at the trainers. So Ken started by asking the whales to spit water while they were under water. The whales readily transferred the behavior. The movement of their lips for spitting was similar to that of the air blowing behavior, but spitting water under water didn't create the same charming visual effect. It was however a good beginning. The next challenge was getting them to spit air. When the whales blew air rings on their own, they would first swim up to the surface and get a mouthful of air. So the next task was to get the whales to hold air in their mouths. This was the truly ingenious part. Ken used his own respirator. He cued the whales to open their mouths and then inserted his respirator so they got a big gulp of air. The whales seemed perfectly comfortable with this and held the air obligingly in their mouths. So the next step was to give the "spit water" cue and see what happened. Ken gave the cue, and the whales responded by blowing an air ring. It wasn't a very good air ring, but the whale was definitely spitting out his air bubble. To get a better formed ring, the trainers had to get better in their timing. The trainers Ken was working with tended to click too late. They were clicking when they could see the finished air ring, but that's not the information that was most important to the whales. They really needed to be bridged just as they were forming the bubble ring. So, Ken started looking at shaping micro movements. He said he got the idea for the solution in part from presentations he'd seen at the Expo. Kay Lawrence's discussions about shaping micro- movements in dogs got him thinking about doing something similar with the whales. To learn what the trainers needed to click, Ken had them study video of the whales blowing bubble rings. He slowed the video way down so they could see frame by frame what the whales were doing. Ken had all the trainers watch the video over and over again until they could recognize the changes and begin to see and respond to them in real time. When he first showed us video of the whales blowing bubble rings, it was hard to see what they were doing, but slowed down it became very clear. You could see the whale form a round circle with its lips, then pull them in and at the same time the shape of its mellon (it's forehead) distorted. It creased in and a micro second later, the whale produced the bubble ring. It floated through the water, a beautifully formed ring of bubbles, as if the whale were blowing kisses at the camera. At this point Ken could reliably cue the whales to blow bubble rings, but he was still supplying the air. The next step was to have the whales get their own air. As a preparation for that he had the aquarium's trainers include bubble blowing in the whales daily training sessions. When he returned a couple of weeks later, the whales had become practiced bubble ring blowers. So Ken did a session with them where he gave the cue to blow a ring, but did not first give the whales any air. The first whale spit water, but Ken did not bridge and reinforce him. Instead he cued him again. The whale hesitated, then went up to the surface, got his own mouthful of air, came down and very deliberately blew it straight at Ken. Success. Ken showed some enchanting video of the whales engaging with the spectators. They blew their bubble rings straight at the people so they floated towards them before bursting against the glass. The rings looked like fairy rings floating in the water. The whales began adding their own flourishes to the behavior, including blowing bubble rings out their air holes! They would also blow a ring and then do a back flip so they could "catch" the ring with their tail. It was pure delight watching them. The Horse Connection So why am I sharing this whale story on a horse list? Apart from the fact that it was just so enchanting, it was a wonderful illustration both of the creativity that is so much a part of clicker training, and of the value of micro-shaping. The analysis of the whale's movement using slow motion video is something we should all be taking note of. Once you get past the basic lessons where it is easy to see what your horse is doing, seeing detail matters. As clicker trainers we like to think of ourselves as positive trainers. We click and reinforce the behavior we want. We understand that the opposite of positive reinforcement is no reinforcement. It is not correction. But are we really giving our horse a truly positive training experience just because we are using positive reinforcement? Ken gave a presentation on advanced training concepts. He prefaced his talk by defining what he meant by a beginner and an advanced trainer. A beginner clicker trainer reinforces desired behavior and ignores unwanted behavior. It's that simple. If a novice trainer needs a more advanced tool, Ken said he shouldn't be working with that particular animal. He was speaking as the director of training of a major Aquarium where he routinely has seventy odd trainers on his staff. Part of his job involves teaching new trainers how to work with what are potentially very dangerous animals. We are also working with what are potentially very dangerous animals even though we are working with a domestic species. Just as they do with zoo animals, I recommend that horse owners begin with protected contact. This gives a novice clicker trainer the breathing room she needs to reinforce her horse for touching targets, putting his ears forward, backing up, etc., while at the same time remaining non- reactive to unwanted behavior. Learning how not to react to things you don't like can be a hard skill to learn, especially if your horse is presenting dangerous, unacceptable behavior. Protective contact helps. It lets you get your "sea legs" while you are learning the skills needed to be an effective clicker trainer. That's all well and good, but its the second part of Ken's statement that can get a lot trickier. Its easy to say that a novice handler shouldn't be working in a situation that requires advanced tools. The reality is horse owners are frequently working with horses that are not well matched to their experience level. That means the foundation work is all the more important. Protective contact is a wonderful thing. While you are developing your motor skills, perfecting your timing, and learning the basic concepts that go along with clicker training, it makes sense to keep things simple. That means focusing on the foundation lessons. The more solid you become with the basics, the less frustration you and your horse will encounter later. Positive Trainers We are clicker trainers. We want to be positive with our horses, but we need to separate out intent from tools. If you are a lumper, if you are raising your criteria too fast, if you are inconsistent in your timing, if you do not reinforce after every click, you can easily end up with a very frustrated learner. You need to look at the effect on your learner, not just the tools you are using, to decide if the training experience is a positive one. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz showed a wonderful example of this. One of his students was looking at the difference in response between following every click with reinforcement versus not reinforcing after every click. In the video clips he showed where the dog was being treated after every click, the dog responded promptly to the cues. He was animated. His tail was wagging. When the same dog was clicked but treated after only fifty percent of the clicks, his body language changed dramatically. The tail stopped wagging. The handler had to repeat cues, and in one very dramatic clip, the dog gave the handler a "time out". He left the training area completely. Jesus said that the dogs in the study belonged to a friend of the student. Normally when she went over to visit, they greeted her enthusiastically, but after she did the experiment where she clicked but did not treat, the dogs left the room when she came into the house. The experiment didn't just suppress behavior during the trial. It had a global impact on the relationship. The Gorilla in the Room Kathy Sdao shared with us some video clips produced by researchers who study visual cognition. I almost hate to describe one of the clips she showed. Once you know what to look for, the clip doesn't have the same impact. But it is so relevant to this topic I have to describe it. The clip shows a group of people passing basketballs back and forth. Half the group were wearing white jerseys. The other half were wearing black. Kathy instructed us to count the number of times the ball left the hands of someone wearing a white jersey. Everyone watched and counted. At the end of the twenty second clip she asked for numbers. Fifteen, sixteen, nineteen. One very observant person called out fifteen straight passes, plus four that bounced. That's showing off - or would be except for the one thing that very focused and observant individual didn't see - and that was the person in the gorilla suit who mid way through the clip walked across the basketball court. No one in the room who hadn't heard about the clip before hand saw the gorilla in the room. That's totally normal. Our brains filter out an enormous amount. We see what we are focused on, what we are directed to see, what we want to see. Think about all the ways this is significant for our horses, our dogs, our family members, our work. A trainer focuses our attention on one aspect of the training, and we fail to see the problems emerging in different areas. Our horse fails to see the cues we are giving just as the people watching that video failed to see the gorilla in the room. We think the animal is being deliberately disobedient, when really it is just a problem in perception. We're training one criterion, and we get so focused on that that we fail to see some other elements that are falling apart and need our attention. I'm sure you can find many other ways in which this video clip relates to your horse. For me one of the most important is this: we want to think of ourselves as all positive trainers so we miss the signs of stress when we are lumping our criteria and making the lesson too hard for our learner. Micro-Shaping and Positive Training I wasn't able to get to Kay Lawrence's presentation on micro-shaping at this Expo, but I saw it last time and I had many conversations with her through the course of this weekend. I wish everyone could see the video she shows in her talk of the dog she is shaping to put his foot on a stool. In the first clip she deliberately lumps criteria. She clicks the dog for putting his foot on the stool, but she does not click for micro movements. Over a sixty second trial the rate of reinforcement in the dog is very low. He offers a few paw touches, but he is not very focused on the task and shows signs of stress. In the next clip Kay micro-shapes. She clicks for any lift of the front paw. It doesn't have to be oriented to the stool. Even a slight lift of the paw earns a click and a treat. Over sixty seconds the rate of reinforcement goes way up as does the dog's focus and enthusiasm. So how do you learn to see the tiny shifts in balance that present clickable moments? Ken's presentation on the beluga whale showed us one way. You video tape your animal and slow down the motion until you can see all the tiny weight shifts that create the overall movement. You learn to spot the movement that occurs just before the clickable moment so you are ready to click. Okay, so you can see the weight shifts, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to click them in real time. How do you sharpen your mechanical skills so you are clicking on time? Theresa McKeon in her presentations on Tagteaching gave people some great exercises for sharpening their timing. She had people click when she opened her hand. She started out slowly, predictably so most people were successful, then she got faster and trickier. Sometimes she held up all five fingers. Sometimes only one or two fingers. Sometimes she started to open her clenched fist, but didn't. The number of missed clicks increased with the difficulty level. It's a great game to play with a friend. So here's the question: how good is your timing? Can you have a friend bounce a ball and click each time the ball hits the ground? Other timing games she suggested were watching television commercials and clicking each time there is a scene change. I hadn't intended when I started this post to give you an Expo Highlights report. I really just wanted to share Ken's work with the belugas, but everything truly is everything else. And it ties in so well with something I've been thinking about a lot lately which is this phrase "all positive trainer". When people describe themselves as clicker trainers, they often say they are all positive. But what does this really mean? And is it possible? If you are shaping and your animal is getting frustrated because you are lumping too many criteria together so the rate of reinforcement is low, are you being all positive? You are clicking and reinforcing correct responses, but your animal is not having a positive experience. When you add in some clues in the form of negative reinforcement, are you no longer being all positive even though your animal is now more successful and is clearly happier? I want my horses to have a positive learning experience. To that end I mark behavior with a click and a treat. But to judge if my horse is having a positive experience I must look not just at what quadrant of operant conditioning I am using, but at the experience my horse is having. I can be using what I would consider to be all positive methods, but if I am lumping criteria, or neglecting to reinforce after I click, my horse may be having anything but a pleasant experience. When you are defining yourself as a positive trainer you must look at a broader picture than just your immediate training plan. What is your intent, your underlying belief system about training and the animals you work with? What tools, concepts and strategies do you use in your training? What tools, strategies and concepts do you avoid? What is the effect of your training on the learner? How good are your mechanical skills? Are you experienced enough to be working with this animal on this lesson - or should you be working on something simpler? If you are clicking and treating but your horse is showing the kind of diminished response that Jesus saw in his study on treatless clicks, does that mean that clicker training doesn't work or that you need some other tool? Does that mean its okay to correct your horse for unwanted behavior? No. It may simply mean you need to go back a few steps and work on something easier for both you and your horse. There is always a smaller, simpler, easier step you can go back to. Clicker trainers focus on what they want, and they remain non- reactive to unwanted behavior. But this doesn't mean they don't see the "gorilla in the room". They see the unwanted behavior, but they manage their horse and the environment so that their attention remains focused on marking and reinforcing desired behavior. If you are new to clicker training I would urge you to be on the lookout for the "gorillas in the room". That means paying attention to what your horse is telling you about his comfort level. If he is getting frustrated, take a step back and evaluate your training. Are you asking for too much too fast? Are you inadvertently punishing behavior because your timing is off and you are raising your criteria too fast? Helix Fairweather gave a great presentation on keeping records. Finding some way of charting progress, whether it is a journal, or the type of record keeping she suggests, can be a huge assist to your training. Throughout the weekend presenters stressed the importance of a good foundation. Clicker training is a powerful tool. Those beluga whales blowing bubble rings are proof of that statement. Ken's presentation on advanced training concepts showed that clicker training includes a rich storehouse of useful problem solving techniques, but at the core of them is developing good basic skills. Whether it is a horse, a dog, or even a beluga whale, learning good foundation skills is the key to becoming a good solid clicker trainer. The better you are with the basics, the more truly all positive the experience will be for your horse. Add creativity and experience to the mix, and over time that's how great clicker trainers emerge. Alexandra Kurland theclickercenter.com
