What is Clicker Training: Reward the Behavior You Want

Clicker training can teach us a lot about understanding the process of learning and how to influence behavior.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about clicker training and especially the clicker itself. Let me try to provide a brief explanation. The click is not a cue. So it is not like clucking to encourage more activity or chirping to encourage a calm down. It is more like when you say "good boy'. They are both 'conditioned reinforcers'. In other words, something the horse has learned is a good thing. Horses are not born knowing what "good boy" means.

What clicker training is (technically) is operant conditioning incorporating a conditioned reinforcer (the click of the clicker) and positive reinforcement (food reward, scritchies, rest, release, whatever). Maybe the reason why people don't get it is it is to complicated sounding? People also over react thinking that it is too "scientific" and that riding is about "feeling." This just doesn't bear out in practice. Clicker training requires as much feel and skill as anything else.

What is a conditioned reinforcer?

People have been using a "conditioned reinforcer" forever. What is different now is that we more fully understand how horses respond to it and can incorporate that knowledge into our work. So what is a conditioned reinforcer?

First, let me define "reinforcer" which according to the behavioral model I'm working with is "that which increases the frequency of a behavior." Then you have two types of reinforcers.

One is a "primary" reinforcer. A primary reinforcer is The Thing the horse will work for, like sugar or a rest break.

The second type of reinforcer is "conditioned." A conditioned reinforcer is something the horse is conditioned to believe is reinforcing. A learned thing. When I say, "good girl" there is nothing about the words "good" and "girl" that are inherently reinforcing/rewarding.

However, over time my horse has come to understand (learned, been conditioned) that they have meaning. How did she come to know that? Because I always seem to say it when I am dolling our sugar or petting her. I'm sure everyone has done the same. Our horses, being clever creatures, do get the picture.

So, let's say you have just asked your horse for a transition and he offers it to you very softly. Ah-ha you think, and you say Good! and stop him and rub his neck, maybe even give him a bit of sugar. There is nothing strange about this, and DLG documents similar activities in his book. What is the difference between this and clicker training?

Almost nothing.

I say "almost" because there is one small but important difference. The difference is I've taken the time prior to getting started with the training to really clarify to the horse that the word "good" whenever I say it means "what ever you were doing at the instant you heard the word is precisely the thing for which this sugar is offered."

I can assure you that horses "get" this. They really do. So, they begin to offer more of that "thing" you "pointed to" (so to speak) when you said, "good" at that moment. Just takes a bit of extra "preconditioning" which is generally taught through various training games. The horse actually starts to get into the game of learning and has some fun. Something I think a few far too serious dressage folk should give some thought to.

The clicker is simply a mechanical way of saying "good" at just the right moment. The reason why the clicker itself is sometimes better than just the word is it is more consistent. Horses are very sensitive to any small change. So if you use a verbal CR like "good" and use different tones the horse isn't 100% sure it is the same. So, the horse tells us (thru their behavior) that the clicker itself is more helpful in terms of being useful information.

Is this new?

This part about engaging the horse as an active participant in the training is also not "new" really. The very best of the best reward the slightest try in such a way that the horse happily becomes a part of the process. What I think is "new" is articulating the mechanism by which this happens. In doing so, it gives us "mortal folk" access to something that the masters knew instinctively. Perhaps you can see better now why I have said that this is easily integrated into one's everyday "classical" work and even helps one to know the classical spirit better. <G>

Some people still can't let go of their insistence that if it is good enough for the SRS then there is no reason to change. They want to stick with the "strictly classical" thankyouverymuch.

In thinking about it there is a difference between the strictly classical approach and what I'm proposing. In the old school days it would be perfectly permissible to consider certain horses "unsuitable" : the "vicious" stallion, the "bitchy" mare. These horses would be tossed out of the school because the system of "specific rewards and punishments" [the SRS uses] did not work with them. This is not to say that that system of specific rewards and punishments they use is wrong per se, but I say it incorporates a relatively narrow field of view. The middle of the bell curve you could say. But there is more to know and understand and as it turns out the more you know the more horses who would have been thrown away before suddenly can do the work. I say "more power" to me.

It was necessary for me to find a way to get through to my mare. She found the whole dressage thing to be rather unpleasant. I don't know why since there is nothing wrong with her conformationally that would make it obvious. I am positive that I made a multitude of mistakes when she was 4 yrs old which didn't help. Though thinking back on it she has not been easy since the beginning. She has always been a little too sensitive emotionally. Her first reaction to anything she doesn't understand is brace. I now see that she just didn't "get" it and it wasn't coming as easy to her as it does to other horses.

But, I adored her and refused to give up a quitter. So I just kept looking for what it would take to get through. I worked hard to be a better rider. Got a ton of help. Spent a fortune in lessons (obviously not with the right people!!) But it wasn't until I found clicker training and NH that I finally started to discover what I needed to do to get through to her. If it weren't for Tulsa, I may never have pursued it either. But, now I'm here and then I see people all around me that would be SO MUCH HAPPIER if they knew what I know about this stuff. So I go on about it!! Can't help my self!

So there you have it. Not exactly a nutshell but hopefully enough to get you started thinking about it.

--Sharon Foley