A New Creed To Succeed

If you know me at all, you ought to know that I love dogs, and anything to do with dogs.  That includes playing and petting, exercising - even the nastier things like bathing and scooping poop - if it means I get to spend time with a beautiful canine, I'm in.  However, I ESPECIALLY love training.

To have a dog, or any animal for that matter, execute a behaviour perfectly and on cue not only looks good to others because your dog is "obedient" and "smart", it is also a hugely satisfying feeling to know that this animal has done this thing because you taught it to.

I've owned dogs for the past roughly 11 years.  I've learned some things about training and care and what works, as well as plenty that doesn't work at all.  I've built confidence in my abilities to teach and to handle a dog, and knowledge in how to approach different personalities.  However, nobody's ever finished learning, and if someone thinks they know everything there is to know, they're probably an arrogant person and not fit to hang around anyway.

That being said, I have recently (in the last three weeks or so), entered into the world of clicker training.  Clicker training is the use of a clicker (essentially a thin piece of metal that makes a clicking sound when bent) and reinforcement (food, play, or anything the subject likes) to capture behaviours and put them on cue.

For example, teaching a dog to come on cue is the first thing any trainer will do.  Essentially, you "click" the dog first when it even looks at you, and then for taking steps toward you, and eventually for running directly to you past various distractions.  Each time you click the dog, you offer it a reward, known as a reinforcer.  The dog does not understand that you are teaching it to 'come'.  What it does understand that every time it comes to you, you make that sound and it gets something it really likes (often a food tidbit works great).  You then add a "cue" (a word, hand signal, scent, flashing light), and as the dog continues to perform the behaviour, it will begin to associate with the cue given at the same time, and it learns, "Hey, when she says, "sit" and I put my bottom on the ground, I get a treat!"

This is known as operant conditioning.  What it means is that the subject learns that every time A occures, B follows.  A common example from human life is the stove - we've all learned that A - putting our hand on a hot burner results in B - getting burned.  At the same time, we've learned that removing said hand stops the pain.

Clicker training is the technology evolved from operant conditioning. There are negative reinforcers -  like in the example just given, when we remove our hand from the element (A), the negative aspect (the burning sensation) is removed (B), resulting in a more positive experience and something retained.  There are postive reinforcers as well.  The dog learns that every time it hears the clicker (A), a reward follows (B).  All that's required now is to pair the behaviour with a cue of some sort, transfer the behaviour reinforcement from the click to the new cue, and you shortly have Fido performing his sit quickly and reliably.

There are two major rules to clicker training, and the first is that there is no punishment involved whatsoever.  If the subject doesn't offer the behaviour wanted, it doesn't get a reward - simple as that.  Secondly, that you must set up the training in such a way that you ensure the subject will eventually succeed.  Ensure that your dog has nothing better to do while you're training it a new behaviour, so that it gets so bored it will eventually sit naturally - and you click.  The dog will go, "Heyyyy... what just happened?  Hm.  What did I do?  Maybe I can do it again..." 

You may have noticed that I've been using the word cue instead of command... on http://www.clickertraining.com/, author and clicker trainer Karen Pryor makes this statement in an article about clicker training falcons:

To do this, we need to understand more about cues. A cue is different from a command. We give our dogs commands all the time: Come here. Lie down. Get in the truck. Shut up. A command is a signal to do something, but it is also a threat: Come here Or Else. Or else I will make you do it. Or else I will reprimand you. If the command is not heeded, we often escalate the threat aspect: we yell the command, for example. This often works with dogs. Sometimes it works with people. But we all know it NEVER works with birds.

That doesn't mean, however, that you can't tell a bird what to do; you just do it with cues, instead of commands. We don't normally teach cues methodically; animals pick them up. You decide to go to the store, so you make sure you've got your car keys. The dog hears the keys jingle, and runs to the front door. That sound has become the cue for a behavior: "Get to the door fast, and I might get to go for a ride." A cue is like a green light: it's a window of opportunity to do the right thing and get reinforced for it. Here's the cue: my fist in position. Step onto my glove, and you'll get a click and a treat. The cue need not be so obvious: a whistle or a gesture that's nowhere near the perch can tell the bird "Get on the perch and I will click you.

The big difference between a cue and a command is that while a command is an implied threat, a cue is a positive signal: a cue is an opportunity for reinforcement. When the cue is well-learned, it becomes a sort of "on" switch for action. The animal WANTS to do the behavior the cue indicates, because it has paid off handsomely now and then in the past. It doesn't stop to ponder, "Yes, but do I want a tidbit more than I want to sit on this telephone pole?" It just responds. "Oh, he said 'Come!' Good, here I come!" So, once you have established a cue, you don't need to escalate it, to get results. When the light turns green, we step on the gas immediately; two green lights, or a bigger green light, would not make us step on the gas any faster or better. When the phone rings, we answer it, even though sometimes the caller is a roofing salesman and sometimes we were doing something we really enjoyed more than phone calls when the phone rang. It's a cue, cues mean a chance to get something good, and we respond.

Makes sense, doesn't it? 

So here's my thought for the day. 

What if we applied this to our lives? 

Not just training our pets to perform pretty tricks, but actually applied it.

We all know someone who is simply way too busy.  Activites, kids, meetings, travel - they just have no time.  What if you're that person?  You probably find that not everything you do gets done as well as you could do it, and I'm willing to bet that it's because of a lack of time to apply to it.  You haven't set yourself up to be successful.  It doesn't even have to be about reaping a reward, but even that would come.  By reducing the amount of things in your schedule, you free up time to better complete those events and tasks that you have still committed to - but you also have time for coffee with friends, for a warm bath with candles, or a date night with your spouse...

What about our kids?  Asking them to clean their room often seems like more of a headache than a help.  But what if you put a bit more effort into creating a situation where they are more likely to be successful on their own?  Instead of putting up just shelves for the toys, label boxes with pictures of Lego, dollies, and cars, then place matching labels on the shelves where the boxes should go.  Put organizational bins in the closet for craft supplies, and then put into practice the same principle clicker trainers use to teach a new behaviour - make the reward for offering the wanted behaviour (cleaning up) much more tempting and substantial than the children's current activity.  For instance, putting away your toys means you can help mommy bake and decorate cookies afterwards. 

There's even a training technique where trainers call the animal away from what it's doing (for instance, a dog chasing a squirrel), but then reward its obedience by allowing it to return to the same acitivity.  So let's say Sarah is playing with PlayDoh, but has neglected to tidy up her tea party things from several hours ago.  Her mother might say, "Sarah, dear, it's time to clean up your tea party, but you can go back that after you're finished."  Sarah obeys because she knows that the PlayDoh wasn't taken away, but rather postponed. 

If you think hard, you could come up with thousands of similar situations for anyone.  I'm not trying to compare people to dogs or birds, but sometimes the same principles work for both.  Why don't we start cueing ourselves and others instead of commanding? 

How can you set yourself and those around you up for success today?