Introduce Opposite Behaviors to Create Balance in Training
BALANCE isn't just physical nor does it only relate to bio-mechanics or self carriage.
Do you wonder if you are making progress or making a mess with your positive reinforcement horse training or when you are clicker training your horse? It's all about balancing REWARDS, BEHAVIORS and REPETITIONS and knowing how and when to increase criteria in increments that allow the horse to be successful without creating confusion and over training/tipping the scale too far in one direction or drilling.
We want to balance REWARDS by making sure the value of the reward matches the difficulty of the request FROM THE HORSE'S VIEWPOINT. This can mean using multiple reward types in the same session or even for the same behavior based on the horse's emotional response.
BEHAVIORS: when we are training, we want to keep in mind the behavior that might be similarly cued or similarly performed in relation to the goal behavior that we are currently shaping . We want to take care to address this similar behavior only after the specific behavior of focus is reliable. For example, training a horse to canter on a particular lead. Let's take the right lead in this instance. If we begin shaping the horse to respond to a cue for the right lead, once the right lead canter is reliable, we will want to address the left lead canter. If we change to the opposite behavior of the left lead (by introducing a different but perhaps similar criteria) too soon, we risk muddling the goal behavior or delaying its progress. Another example that I see often is people training a horse to pick up its foot versus training the bow cue. If the cues aren't taught separately and with great clarity the horse often get confused and offers one instead of the other.
To address when to increase BEHAVIOR criteria: do so when the behavior is being performed in a clean loop. This means that the behavior is performed reliably on cue and the horse comes back to the original state of readiness to receive another cue. Then, and only then should we increase criteria being careful to use successive approximations. And, when the behavior is performed in a clean loop, it's a sign that the introduction of new criteria is needed to avoid drilling or causing the horse to possibly become frustrated or lose interest.
REPETITIONS: We want to introduce the goal criteria in increments that will ensure the horse feels successful without creating boredom. If we drill the goal behavior too long, quality can be lost and the horse can cease to enjoy the exercise. Plus, we can artificially create a tendency for the horse to prefer that behavior to an opposite behavior (such as one lead over the other or bowing rather than picking up its feet), which may or may not be advantageous. A prime example of this is when a trainer puts too much emphasis on the halt and standing still, and then the horse doesn't want to perform the walk off simply because it has been reinforced so much more heavily for the opposite behavior of halting and standing still.
Bottom line, we just want to be aware of the potential need for BALANCE and incorporate it into all aspects of our compassionate training!
Happy Clicking!
