Going back to kindergarten - one of the guidelines of Shaping

“Going back to Kindergarten” was one of the phrases Karen Pryor used when she described her Guidelines for Shaping in clicker training. It relates to the recommendation that when introducing new criteria, it’s a good idea to relax the criteria on previously trained behaviours, until the new behaviour is acquired. It’s a way to support our learners, help them to be successful, enjoy the training and not feel overwhelmed because we are expecting too much ie. our criteria is too high. It’s also another way to incorporate ‘errorless learning’ into your program, where we might let ‘errors’ slide as we introduce new criteria to the training program.
I’ll add the link to my post on Karen Pryor’s guidelines to shaping here:-
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Positive Reinforcement training teaches us many skills as trainers. We need great observation, timing, problem solving skills, patience and creativity and we also need to be humble.
It would be easy to say that my horse Flash has done all this before and he should be fine. That I want to do more exciting things with him than the boring basics. But his behaviour tells me otherwise, he’s not fine. So I have to lower my expectations and meet him where he’s at, where he’s comfortable and where he’s hopefully enjoying the training.
I need to resist asking too much to start with and also pushing too hard for more. Even more challenging, I might need to draw him back to something easier, even if he seems like he might be able to do more. I’d prefer to keep things easy and enjoyable for him, than let him drop off into the deep end where he may sink.
It’s not easy having a horse like Flash, especially when I have a horse like Mercedes, who is quite the opposite and is very laid back and what you might call bold.
I hope you enjoy this video, there’s a couple of interesting things to notice, such as his body language and facial expressions, the fact that I use (gasp) pressure on the lead rope and how simple things like buckets, can have a huge positive reinforcement history and create a safe place and an anchor for your anxious and fearful equine.
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