I whipped up a quick video and voiceover to try to illustrate a point I’d like to make that is super important!
I’ve talked about generosity before and I’d like to talk about the importance of it again. I realise “generosity” is a concept and can be extremely subjective. So let me explain.
You are training a horse or donkey who might be reluctant to interact, offer behaviour or perform cued behaviours and you struggle because you suspect fear, discomfort, pain, worry, etc. You know this because you are observing escape and avoidance type behaviours. If that’s the case, you are not only training behaviour, you are Systematically Desensitising and Counter Conditioning various things in the process as well. Sometimes the focus might be more on Systematic Desensitisation and Counter Conditioning, or more on shaping behaviour and it can even switch back and forth quite fluidly.
It’s important to remember that both Operant and Classical Conditioning are always happening at the same time, but sometimes we may be MORE generous because we are focusing more on the Classical than Operant side of things. This means we might be more generous with food because we need to focus more on how the equine FEELS (Counter Conditioning), rather than what they are doing or offering, in the moment.
What that can look like is that we are seemingly feeding for nothing. It could even look like we are reinforcing things we don’t want. It could also look like we are reinforcing problematic behaviour, for example, you ask for a hoof lift and your horse tries to bite you – I would still feed them, because not feeding them will be worse for them and you. I would say to them, I’m so sorry, I made a mistake, I asked too much, I missed some steps, I missed some signs and ask their forgiveness. Remembering also, you cannot reinforce fear or any emotion, so if the horse behaves in a way because they are scared or worried, you cannot reinforce that and in fact, not feeding often makes things worse and unwanted behaviour can escalate. Obviously if that happened, you would need to go away and review what you are doing and perhaps get more experienced help.
For whatever reason on that day, Seymour was not lifting his foot on cue, even though it was trained, but also taking into account he’s still in the process of feeling ok about the whole thing. I can assume and imagine all kinds of things about what he’s feeling and thinking, but all I have to observe is his behaviour. As you can see, I gave it a good try and he was not cooperating, so I continued to be generous and flipped it around to being more of a Counter Conditioning session and didn’t worry if he didn’t lift his hoof. I wanted him to feel safe, not feel pressured, coerced or frustrated, to enjoy the training and to look forward to the next session with enthusiasm, which potentially may not happen if I had withheld food for non-performance of behaviour.
Finally, please don’t ever make the equine wait for food, please don’t ever withhold food for non-performance or for “calm” or “relaxation”. Withholding and making them wait makes things worse, not better.