This message is from: "Vanessa N. Weber" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
If anyone wants to read a great book on this, track down Karen Pryor's book 'Don't Shoot the Dog!'. She started out training marine mammals and has written the book so that everyone can understand how this can affect your dogs, your kids or even your spouse! (she claims.) She's a good writer and this book is really fun! Vanessa N Weber -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gail Russell Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:08 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: clicker training This message is from: "Gail Russell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The person who trained this lamb was using luring to get the behavior, i.e., holding the treat out in front of the lamb. Most dog agility trainers I have seen do the same thing. I think it works fine for them, and is easy to get the behavior, so they do it. In the end, the "luring" behavior by the human becomes the cue (command) for the animal to perform a desired behavior. If the trainer continued to hold a hand out, or point toward the obstacle, but eliminated the food in the hand, I doubt that the lamb would stop performing the trick. He is not really chasing the food, so much as reacting to a cue that tells him a certain behavior will be rewarded. If the trainer abruptly stopped all food rewards, but kept luring, the lamb would eventually stop performing the trick. Luring is not the only way to get a behavior. I do not believe the behavior is learned as thoroughly when it is taught via luring, but that is just my opinion, and is not based on scientific study. However, it is possible to deliberately train the lamb to keep performing for a longer period WITHOUT reward before the behavior is extinguished. The technique is to intermittently reinforce the behavior. (I learned how to do this in college 40 years ago, with pigeons taught to peck a button to get food. A similar behavior has been used in pigeons to guide missiles to their targets, essentially using pigeons who would keep pecking to keep the missile in which they were riding on target until it hit the target. ) As for complicated chains of behaviors, it does take some skill to link the behaviors together. Several years ago at Libby I watched Kongaard chase after and push a ball quite some distance back to his master's feet in order to get a reward. It was a pretty complicated behavior. Once learned, a clicker reinforced behavior is not easily forgotten. I taught Odin a trick about a year ago and then stopped practicing. Tried it again the other day and he immediately performed the behavior. There are people getting doctorate degrees in positive reinforcement training theory, so it is not easy to explain how it all works without writing a book....and,....I am not up-to-date on it. I do know that competitive dog obedience people have pretty much all gone to food-based reward systems. Gail The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
