Very Simple + Efficient Clicker Training For Dogs Part 2
Operant Conditioning and Shaping - The two best tools you will ever find for training!
Operant Conditioning (Click and Feed)
Operant conditioning involves taking something that has no meaning to the dog (like the word, “Good!” or “Yes!” or the sound of a clicker) and pairing it with something that has intrinsic value to the dog (like food, play, or some other reward), to create an association between the two, which will be used to teach “on-cue” behaviors (command responses) to the animal. The food is called a “primary reinforcer” because the dog will work to get it–it is intrinsically valuable on its own. After the click sound becomes paired with the positive reinforcer, the click itself becomes reinforcing to the dog. It tells the dog, “Marvelous! You just earned a treat!” We call this click a “bridge” or a “secondary reinforcer.” We also often call it a “Reward Marker,” because it marks the event that earned the dog his reward. The dog will now work very hard to try to earn “clicks,” as they predict rewards.
To begin, take a whole pile of small treats and sit with the dog. Click the clicker and give the treat. Click the clicker and give the treat. Click the clicker and give the treat. Do this till you’ve used up the pile of treats (40 to 100 clicks and treats). Remember to use tiny treats–you’re going to be using them regularly. Just give enough to give him a taste of what you have. Just enough to let him know he has been rewarded. About the size of a small pea. After you have completed the above exercise, your dog should start perking up at the sound of the click. Keep the treats hidden in a hand or on the table in a bag, or between your crossed legs, or whatever. The only expectation he has of getting the treat is by hearing the click first. We don’t want him to associate getting the treat with seeing the treat–we want him to associate getting the treat with hearing the reward marker (the click). Now, when the dog perks at the sound of the click, you know he recognizes it as a predictor of good things to come. When he is doing something, and he hears that click, his brain will instantly file that information, and he will work to repeat the behavior which he was performing at the instant he heard the click. Now, you have the power of the Universe in your hand!
When you catch the dog performing a behavior you want to see repeated (a good behavior), then click and give the treat. Let’s say you want to teach the dog to sit. You could lure the dog with food, or wait for him to sit on his own. The instant his cute little butt plops on the floor, you click, then give him his treat. It doesn’t matter if you are a half-second late delivering the treat–it’s the click that is telling him to choose THAT behavior among all of the others he might have been doing in the last minute (like walking, turning, breathing, barking, straining at the leash, pawing you, sniffing the floor…). Timing is critical. If you are late, don’t click. You snooze, you LOSE! You have lost the opportunity to reward THAT SIT forever. Don’t panic. There will be more sits. Just be careful to reward them when they happen. If you click too late, and the dog is already switching behaviors to something else (like getting up, lying down, sniffing, barking, etc…) then you will be rewarding that other behavior, and NOT the sit! Be careful! Novices need practice developing their timing.
According to “The Culture Clash” by Jean Donaldson, Studies have shown that novice dog trainers:
A. DO NOT GIVE ENOUGH FEEDBACK to their dogs They are either daydreaming, doing an impersonation of a “post”, or not anticipating their dog’s behaviors, so that they could be ready to give FEEDBACK information to the dog when he deserves a reward or a correction.
B. ARE TYPICALLY “THREE BEHAVIORS LATE” delivering a reinforcement They are either daydreaming, doing an impersonation of a “post”, or not anticipating their dog’s behaviors, so that they could be ready to give FEEDBACK information to the dog when he deserves a reward or a correction.
C. CANNOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN WHAT TO REWARD AND WHAT NOT TO REWARD They don’t have a picture in their mind of what to expect. They don’t know a good behavior when they see one. Their expectations are far too high, and they do not settle for an “approximation” of the behavior they are looking for.
This will help you: Don’t Daydream! Pay attention to your dog. How else can you avoid missing that all-important first attempt at the desired behavior, so that you can reward it? Don’t Be a Post! If you stand there like a tree, which your dog is tied to, and don’t give any feedback to your animal, you are like a post! When a dog is tied to a post he gets something we call “barrier frustration.” He’s tied there, nothing’s happening, he wants to be somewhere else, he starts to dig, bark and pull at the end of the leash. You are NOTHING to the dog but an annoying anchor-point. YOU are making him disinterested in you! Don’t blame the class environment for “distracting” him! Be a TRAINER! Anticipate the dog’s moves and be ready to reward them. When the dog pulls out, move a little with the dog. If he even glances at you for one millisecond, reward him (click, praise, whatever you can deliver quickly) instantly. If he sits and looks up at you, well, holy cow, give him a jackpot! But don’t expect a more advanced behavior like sitting looking up at you in the beginning. Reward that first glint of eye contact, and soon you will have a dog which is ignoring the floor and the other dogs and is sitting there looking at you. You are the Goddess of all that is wonderful! Treats and praise flow forth from you like magic. Suddenly, you have become more interesting than the floor! I have been clicker training my dogs for 13 years. It’s only been the past four years that we have been incorporating the clicker option in the obedience classroom. We have asked the owners teach the dogs to “wave” using the clicker (at home). Recent evidence has shown that it is not as distracting as was originally believed to use clickers right in the classroom. The dogs can apparently distinguish between the owner’s click, and someone else’s five feet away. We are now encouraging our students to go to ALL training with the clicker.
Using a clicker as a reward mark has many advantages over using a verbal reward mark:
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There is no tonal inflection, as there is with a voice. It sounds the same every time. Therefore, each member of the family can use it, and it will sound the same. Also, you can never make it sound “emotional” if you are upset, angry, or a “lousy praiser.”
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Men (and inhibited, shy, or grumpy women and children) can use it without feeling stupid. We no longer have to brow-beat the men in class to get them to fork up some excited praise for their dog (it’s easier to get blood from a turnip!). This is not meant to “bash” men–I realize that they are socialized completely differently from women, and aren’t prone to gushy, appreciative remarks, bursts of joyful adoration, or giddy excitement at seemingly small accomplishments (that’s what we women are here for!).
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It is instantaneous. A click only takes a quarter of a second, so you can mark a behavior which is occurring amidst an onslaught of rapid-fire behaviors being offered by the dog. If you took the time to say, “Gooooood Dogggggg!” The dog would wonder which one of the 18 behaviors he offered during that time span actually earned him the treat!
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Once conditioned to the click as a reinforcer system, the dog will actually work harder to earn the click (secondary reinforcer) than he did to earn the treat with no click (primary reinforcer).
Some rules for training with a clicker:
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Never let a young child (or an adult idiot) get his hands on the clicker. In one afternoon, he could extinguish much of the work you have done! “Extinguishing” is taking a behavior and pairing it with nothing (no reward) until the animal doesn’t offer the behavior any more.
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Don’t click the clicker close to your ear or the dogs ear. The sound is quite loud at close range.
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Always follow the click with a treat. Treat can mean food, play, or anything which is rewarding to the dog.
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Make sure you have established the clicker as a reward (create a reward history) before you use it to reinforce the behaviors you are learning in class. It’s the same with the click, or the word “Yes!” or whatever you use. If the dog doesn’t understand that it means, it will have NO REINFORCING VALUE.
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Remember, when you start shaping a behavior, THE QUALITY GOES IN BEFORE THE NAME GOES ON! Don’t NAME the behavior (create a cue word) until you have been getting the behavior regularly and reinforcing it for a while. When that behavior becomes the dog’s “favorite,” then you can name it. You will know this when he sees you take out the clicker and treats for training and he starts doing the “watch me sit!” thing. Then, and only then is it safe to name the behavior (“SIT”).
CUES
Cues are the names of the behaviors you want your dog to produce (on cue). We used to call them commands, but that sounded too controlling and authoritative. We also want to think of cues a little differently than commands. A cue is an OPPORTUNITY for the dog to earn something–attention, treats, or play. The dog sees it as just that. He can’t wait to “obey” a cue. A command has sort of an “or else” connotation to it. Operant conditioning works best when NOT paired with any aversives. So, to maximize your training efforts, do not throw punishments and corrections into the equation. The only punishment for the dog is a NON-REWARD. If a no-reward situation does not affect your dog, then your reward needs to be more powerful. If I gave out stickers to people who were on time for class, and you were late, you’d say “Ah No Big Deal!” Right? What if you found out I had given out hundred dollar bills to everyone who was on time, and you were late? DARN! You’d be a little upset, right? You may choose to use a NO-REWARD marker, or “conditioned punisher.” This tells the dog, “I’m not ‘paying’ you for that behavior!” A no-reward marker can be chosen from the following list: Too bad! Try again! Oops! Ah ah! Sorry! This has to be taught to the dog, just like the secondary reinforcer does. He has to learn that this specific word means, “Sorry,–No Treat!” Use this word when you withhold a reward from your dog. He hears the no-reward marker and he sees the reward leaving and going out of reach. He’s thinking, “Darn! I blew it.” Then when your dog is exhibiting a behavior you don’t want, you can let him know it’s no good by giving him the no-reward marker. I suggest you don’t use “NO” for this. First of all, “NO” is a swear-word for dogs (in my book). Second of all, people tend to use it for EVERYTHING, which is inappropriate. And Thirdly, the word NO conveys no information (you could usually substitute a cue, which DOES convey information to get a dog to stop a behavior you don’t like). You can train completely without a no-reward marker, using just the reward marker when the dog is on track. If you are used to the outdated, correction methods, you may be too focused in to telling the dog when he’s not right, instead of looking for an opportunity to reward. Sometimes it’s fun just to watch your dog figure something out on his own, observing which behaviors pay off, and not saying anything to distract him when he’s off track. Operant Conditioning with Positive Reinforcement is the Best Way to teach anything. This goes for dogs, children, employees, and spouses, too. For some reason, though, our society is very dependent on the punishment system to get cooperation from pets, kids, underlings and citizens. The punishment model fails miserably as a behavior modification tool. To quote Morgan Spector, author of Clicker Training for Obedience, “Behaviors built on a foundation of punishment REQUIRE punishment to maintain the behavior.” A classic example of this is the speeding ticket. If cops did not give speeding tickets, how many of us would speed? For that matter, how many of us speed when we know there is no cop around, and only mind the speed limit when there is danger of us getting slapped with a heavy fine? However, if the police pulled us over unexpectedly, and gave us gift certificates for exemplary driving practices, we would be far more likely to drive well, even when there were no police in sight. Like at Dog Scout Camp, for example, when the “poop police” check to see if you have your baggies with you (for dog doo clean-up). Those with baggies get tickets to get into drawings for neat prizes. Those that don’t get nothing but the dreaded no-reward marker: Too bad! Our camp is always clean. People don’t leave any excrement behind. As a matter of fact, we even have a drawing for people who go beyond the call of “dooty” and pick up “unclaimed” droppings that may have been missed by the dog’s owner. The only danger this has presented is that there have been a few near collisions with potential head injuries as two or more people have claimed, “I’ve got it!” as they all dove in the direction of the stray poop at once, to earn the ticket!
Shaping is a Process of Rewarding Successive Approximations
Shaping is a tool which incorporates the click and feed to get a more complex behavior. Shaping is how we teach the dogs to paint pictures at Dog Scout Camp (see The Art of Shaping page). Not too many dogs would just walk up and start painting a picture on their own. It’s a complex behavior, made up of many parts. Shaping takes you along a path from the very beginnings of a rudimentary behavior, to the completed product by successive stages. You have to know what to look for along the path, to know what to reward, and when to go on to reward what comes close (an approximation) to resembling the next part. This is the Art of Shaping. The use of the clicker is crucial in shaping. It is important to communicate to the dog the exact instant he is performing the desired behavior. If your goal is to try to get him to raise his foot a half-inch higher than he did the last time, you have to time your reward marker to coincide with the instant his paw is reaching up that very slight bit HIGHER than it has before. It won’t do to try to reward the higher wave AFTER the fact. He’ll know that something he did was good, but he won’t know what part of it was good, or better than before.
To get a behavior like painting, first the dog must lift his foot, so we would reward any movement on the dog’s part which involved sitting or standing still and lifting one foot. Remember, you’re not looking for the finished product, here. You’d never get it in a million years by accident. So don’t be stingy! Reward anything in the direction of what you want. Reward the dog shifting his weight to the other foot so that he can lift the remaining front foot. The thing about shaping is you have to know when to increase the criteria. If you continue to reward a certain level of performance, it will be difficult for the dog to go beyond that level of performance. You have to “up the ante,” to make the dog see that there is more and more to this new behavior. Just as with regular operant conditioning, you do not name the behavior until after you have the behavior completely finished. You could teach sit in one step, and once the dog “has it,” you can name it. But with waving, or painting, there are many steps to go through, and you have to be careful not to get impatient and start blurting cues or instructions to your dog prematurely. You must gradually get the dog to raise his paw higher and higher. You can do this in a number of ways. You can have him try to reach for something, or touch something (eliciting the behavior), or you can wait for the behavior to happen on it’s own, which can take much longer. When the dog will stroke his paw through the air, then we will teach him to do several things: stroke repeatedly on one cue, stroke a cardboard “easel”, stroke while wearing the “Paintin’ Paw”, and finally, to Stroke repeatedly on a cardboard easel while wearing a Paintin’ Paw which has tempera paint loaded onto the sponge applicator (on one cue). Now you can add a verbal cue, like “Paint” to the action your dog has learned to perform. The key element with operant conditioning AND shaping, is that the dog’s behavior is voluntary. You do not use any force to get him to do what you want. If you were to try to pick up the dog’s paw and FORCE him to lift it, he would probably pull in the opposite direction. The dog will not learn to do things for himself, if you are always doing them for him. This is why operant conditioning and shaping are such valuable tools. When the dog does something for himself, and gets rewarded, he will try to perform that behavior again and again. If you pushed or molded the dog to get him to do a particular behavior, he would be so busy resisting you and not performing the act on his own, that he will not know how to “graduate” to doing the behavior without help. In other words, it is not only more humane and more fun to teach things this way, but it is faster and easier as well.
Source : www.dogscouts.com
This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 3:07 pm and is filed under My Golden and My Shih Tzu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
