Rethinking how to teach a horse to play fetch
Sadly, I have no video. It’s windy and the camera kept getting knocked over.
Zahra and I have come so far in the fetch game, but I’m puzzling over how to get to the end.
I was trying to use my “come to me” hand signal after she had the cone in her mouth…but she’s dropping the cone and then coming to me. I’ve been clicking it, but I think I’m both asking the wrong question and clicking the wrong behavior.
A friend whose only name is keysfins (who is an ex marine mammal trainer) has made some suggestions.
- Get more clear on the outcome I want
- Make a more detailed training plan.
- Break 3 steps into 12. (These aren’t necessarily literal numbers, but a solid reminder that with clicker training everything needs to be broken down into the tiniest bits. There is no other way to progress.)
- Consider using back chaining (more on that after I figure it out better!
Here are the tiny steps we’ve done just to teach TOUCH. One step becomes 7.
- touch a cone with nose while I hold the cone
- touch nose to cone when I hold it up high
- touch nose to cone when I hold it down low
- touch nose to cone when I hold it left
- touch to cone when I hold it right
- touch to cone when the cone is very very low but I’m still holding it
- touch to cone when the cone is on the ground
Big steps = failure
Tiny micro steps = success
Tiny steps seem slow but actually, the progress is rapid if I get the right tiny steps.
Currently, she can come to me with a hand gesture, so I’ve been trying to get her to come to me when the cone is in her mouth.
That’s a giant leap. That isn’t clicker training.
I’m also losing track of shaping and that’s not clicker training either. She can pick up the cone and she can come to me, but that doesn’t mean she can pick up the cone AND come to me.
My next big step:
Have her hand me the cone
So how does that ONE step become 7? (Or some other bigger number)
Maybe nudge the cone towards me on the ground?
I’m not sure if that’s a next good step.
Or maybe, when she’s already holding the cone, click for her moving it near me then?
Think smaller! 🙂 This is especially important with an animal that is new to clicker training/operant conditioning. Some animals have to figure out that THEY actually control the click/treat. Consider an animal that has been passive and has been guided through behaviors as the method of teaching/learning. Compare that to one who figures steps out himself with the clicker as a tool and guide, giving him information. It can take a while to see the wheels starting to turn in the former. You will see different things offered by the animal, which indicates that s/he is figuring out that s/he CAN make he clicker click, and get a reinforcer. The animal begins to try to make the clicker click! Now things really get fun, for both the operator (the animal), and the Clicker-er.
Smaller, she says!
Watching Zahra work out that she controlled the click was fascinating. We’d done ct before but I don’t think it was until this round that she really got it. You could almost see the cogs turning.
Thinking smaller…
First, she had to learn that the click even meant something.
Smaller…
If she showed any interest in the cone, she was clicked. Even just looking at the cone is a clickable moment for a new horse.
Smaller…
Sniffing the cone might be the next step from looking at it. Or maybe even any kind of moving towards it if you can’t get a sniff. 1 millimeter towards might be the starting point!
More?
Ahhh, and your steps for touching an object: I would break that down even smaller, especially for a naive animal. Zahra already knows “target”, which is why you could go directly to steps 1-7. What would your steps be for an animal that has no idea what a cone is, and what he is supposed to do? How would you train the very basic “target” behavior? You’ve got at least a dozen things you could describe as steps. Can you think that process out (for the benefit of someone who wants to start at the beginning)?
I might take this challenge into a separate post. I will call it the “smaller” challenge.
Though perhaps what I should figure out is my “smallers” to get to the fetch finish line!