I have written about the clicker training concept of chaining in the past. It takes simple clicker training up a level.
Simple clicker training is clicking for a behavior and giving a treat. You ask your horse to stop, he does, you click and treat him. (This is Cole and Dante's most reinforced behavior--for safety reasons--but we still don't click every stop.)
Chaining a behavior links multiple behaviors to a single click. All the behaviors have to be properly taught individually, first. This is actually what I am doing when I work on Cole's line dancing. If I clicked after every behavior, how would we be dancing?
The reason it works, is because after doing behavior #1, asking for behavior #2, another clickable behavior, is a reward in itself. You can link multiple behaviors, mixing up the order or keeping the exact order--whichever works best with what you are trying to teach.
This happens even if we aren't clicking. If you have a dog that you take on regular walks or any fun thing, they will learn all the things you are likely to do before you give him the ultimate reward. We can see them get more and more excited as we go through our steps--until they can barely contain themselves with excitement for the reward.
Chaining can be a useful tool in all sorts of ways; not just line dancing. In fact, it is essential for many things. When I started reinforcing Cole's amazing arena trot, at first I just clicked for a great transition. Then, I clicked for a few steps. After that, I kept adding steps. In essence, each step is clickable, and asking for another step is chaining. Trotting around the arena is a long chain of steps. This has always been hard for me to wrap my brain around, but by putting it into action, I have proved that it works.
An example of something more complicated is riding a dressage or reining pattern, you can perfect the basic elements--and then put them together.
The reason I have been thinking about chaining is because I was riding with Shari on Bella on our hill the other day. Because Shari had been very sick, Bella hadn't been on the trail for a while. She was "Full Bella," prancing, dancing, wanting to trot and not paying much attention to Shari. To be safe, we just walked. Well, Cole just walked--and watched Bella's antics.
After a while, Shari got tired of it. It was time to bring out the clicker. (Not a real clicker, we use our tongues to make the sound.) She decided to click for stopping. She only clicked her for good stops. She would walk 4 steps and stop, click, treat and repeat. In no time at all, Bella was paying attention to her. Soon, all of her stops were good; and she was walking. Shari walked her for longer intervals, and she listened well. I explained to Shari that Bella chained the 2 behaviors. (Shari has clicked her for good walking in the past.) Finally, we were able to do a little bit of trotting, and Bella was great. We ended the ride on a good note.
That is an example of a good chain, even though Shari didn't plan it.
There are bad chains, too. Clicker training is so powerful, that we have to be careful we don't fall into a trap. Ellen realized that she did with Dante. Since she broke her ankle years ago leading Dante, she was nervous leading him. She knew that when a horse's head went up, that they are on alert and something could happen. When Dante lifted his head up, Ellen would feel a wave of anxiety.
She also knew that if you could convince your horse to take a more relaxed position, they start to feel more relaxed. She taught Dante to lower his head with clicker training. It is a great thing to teach horses, and it is one of the first things I taught Cole. Not only did it seem to relax him, but he would be paying attention to me. Ellen did the same with Dante. It was one of the ways we desensitized him to traffic. We taught him to lower his head when a car approached.
Here is where Ellen went wrong. She is an anxiety clicker. Since she got nervous every time Dante lifted his head, she asked him to lower it and she clicked him. Dante is too smart by half, and he figured out that if he raised his head, Ellen would get anxious, she would ask him to lower it, click and treat. Dante didn't have to be worried about anything at all to raise his head.
I had thought that something like this might have been going on, but the most important thing I wanted was for Ellen to not be nervous. As she was leading him, they would be doing it without even stopping. I really didn't even know how much it was going on.
Not long ago, Ellen figured out what was happening. She decided to try to ignore him when he did it and only click him when he lowered his head on his own. All this was going on when I wasn't there. When I did finally get to go with her and Dante, as they walked around the driveway, I saw a completely different picture than the one that I was used to seeing. Dante was walking with his head as low as a Quarter Horse--and Ellen was walking far more relaxed, too. Dante wasn't triggering her anxieties! It was very amazing. Here we thought he was a high-headed Morgan.
Dante had a bad chain going on. Ellen made it a good chain, because she soon made him go many steps with a low head before she clicked him.
Next, she decided to try and change his behavior when she was riding him. She didn't have many problems in the arena, because she wasn't very nervous in there. Once they would come outside--up went the head.
She tried it one day when I wasn't there. The following day I came out to see her ride before I went on my trail ride. She finished up her work in the arena, and we went outside. He was a different horse--after only one lesson!!!
Something like traveling with a lower head is more comfortable for most horses. I call it a self-reinforcing behavior. Once they get used to doing it, being more comfortable is a reward in itself. That might be one of the reasons that Dante got the hang of it so easily.
So the end result of breaking the bad chain is a more relaxed Dante and a more relaxed Ellen.
We just keep learning...
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