This message is from: Gail Russell <g...@zeliga.com>
If one trains using negative reinforcement (like, say, wiggling the rope or doing one of Clinton's exercises where the stick is used to agitate the rope), oftentimes the skill of the rope wiggler matters. I had a trainer come to pick up two minimally trained horses. His rope skills were good enough that he could slap the side of a horse's face crisply, whereas I was wiggling the rope in a similar way, but it was not getting any success. The differences between me and the trainer were twofold: 1) I was not effectively creating the negative reinforcement that the trainer was, and hence the horse did not do the action that my negative reinforcement was intended to produce. See below the definition of "negative reinforcement." 2) Also, context matters. If a horse has learned a behavior with an outside trainer and/or at an outside facility, when you change the trainer or the physical context, the horse may not understand what you THOUGHT was your cue to do something like backing up. This may be interpreted that the horse is cooperating with the outside trainer, but not with the owner because the horse "respects" the trainer more, when the truth is that the horse does not see that you are giving him the cue to back up because THE HORSE thinks the cue to back up is, "trainer stands in front of me, while we are standing in trainer's arena, and the trainer is dressed in sequined chinks, and then trainer puts her hand up to start wiggling the rope." If the owner cannot wiggle the rope the same way as the trainer, or does not have on sequined chinks, or the activity is done in owner's barn, the horse may have no idea what is being asked of it. As an example, I have a corgi who is trained to lie down instantly on command. She absolutely flops herself down, no questions asked, and is happy to do it. BUT, if my husband asks her to lie down right before we go in the house, she does not do it. My husband thinks she is being disobedient/defiant,etc, but she just is not seeing the cue she is accustomed to. She thinks she should be someplace else (outside, or in our house, where we have practiced the "lie down" extensively. She also does not see my husband's "lie down" command (cue) as the cue to lie down. The context has changed, and she does not understand the "new" cue. It is not that she does not respect him...or me (because I am only slightly more successful when asking her to lie down just outside the door since she has the same problem with context that she has with my husband). DEFINITION NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT: http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/negative-reinforcement.htm <"Respect" is another word that has no meaning when applied to animals.? The behavior is either trained, or it isn't. > If that is the case, how do you explain the situation when a horse is trained to do something and another handler asks the horse to do whatever the trained behavior is in exactly the way it was trained and the horse says "no". This happens all the time and we've all seen and experienced it. A horse we've trained won't perform said task for someone else or we send a horse to be trained and we can't get the horse to do what the trainer can. Why does that happen? It's not because the horse is confused. It's because the horse either does not respect (or whatever you want to call it ) the person enough to cooperate and says "no" or sometimes senses a lack of confidence or conviction in the person and therefore won't cooperate. Sometimes if you try to do something with a horse and the trainer is there the horse does it and then when that person is not there, it won't do whatever you asked. That is because before it was doing it for the trainer not you. If you think a horse doesn't assess your level of confidenc! e with every interaction then you are mistaken. My friend who trained horses for 40 years always says they know your level of confidence as soon as your foot goes in the stirrup (and I would argue even before that).? My big warmblood is extremely safe and? well-trained so much so that you can completely steer him just with light pressure of your legs at the walk (and probably other gaits as well when he's being cooperative). Put a novice on him and he acts like he has no idea what they want him to do. Granted, they may not have much finesse in their aids but trust me, he knows what they want, he just doesn't think he has to do it. So training is not the only thing that goes into getting horses to do or not do what you want, there are other factors involved. IMO, that is. Robin ________________________________ Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw FH_L Shirts: http://tinyurl.com/8yky94l Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw FH_L Shirts: http://tinyurl.com/8yky94l
