The challenge
Recently company president Aaron Clayton and I, with ClickerExpo faculty members Virginia Broitman and Sherri Lippman, traveled to the West Coast to take on an exciting assignment. At the request of one of our business clients, we had developed a very specific curriculum for teaching pet owners the basics of clicker training. We now had the job of teaching six business executives enough about clicker training to enable them to begin to teach other trainers in their employ.
Our six class members were experienced "lure and reward" dog trainers. Some were also experienced in correction-based training. Most had been exposed to some clicker training and had used it, but had never really adopted it. Our goal was to enable these six trainers to understand enough about clicker training to be able to teach others to use the curriculum. And we had two days.
Day one: we begin
The first task was to teach them clicker timing and mechanical skills. We started with games and exercises developed by TAGteachers (and fellow ClickerExpo presenters) Theresa McKeon, Beth Wheeler, and Joan Orr, to teach children to use the clicker while learning athletic skills. We then went through a series of other games designed to introduce clicker training skills one at a time. We used carefully crafted positive language, also based on TAGteach practices. We reinforced with attention and recognition as well as with verbal praise.
We led our students through examples of the kinds of exercises and games that made up the proposed curriculum. We had them practice teaching elements of the exercises to each other. We led the group through team-teaching exercises in which they clicked each other. In the afternoon, we brought in some dogs from the San Diego Humane Society so everyone could practice target training and free-shaping with friendly but naïve animals.
Reinforcing humans: using the Clicker+
In addition, I used the Clicker+ throughout the day. I chose the ping sound, which is very different from the clicker. When someone said something insightful, or clicked a partner's moves especially well, or burst into laughter at a dog or human's success, I pinged, and handed them a Hershey's chocolate. I was reinforcing for participation, for signs of enjoyment or enthusiasm such as laughter, and for improvement in any exercise, especially if someone had been having difficulty. I tried to make sure I found some reason to ping each person at least two or three times in the course of the day. I didn't explain myself, and I didn't verbally identify what I had pinged; I just did it.
At first the ping, and especially the handing over of a candy, seemed to be mainly an interruption. "Huh? What's this? I don't want a candy!" By the second or third personal ping, however, people glanced at the candy, took it without comment, and stuffed it somewhere: pocket, bait bag, nearby purse. No one questioned it or remarked on it; they ignored it, at least verbally. However, the fact that they were accepting and even collecting the candies suggested to me that the ping sound was becoming a significant reinforcer.
Of course I was also, unavoidably, pairing the ping not just with candy, but with visible public attention from the head trainer, me; and that is not necessarily rewarding! So I was careful not to specify specific behaviors verbally, which might make them focus on "pleasing" me or avoiding me, rather than just doing their stuff. And I was careful not to embarrass or distract them as I handed over the chocolate, by giving verbal praise, or social interaction such as smiles or eye contact, which would oblige them to give a social response. I hoped my public attention would thus be at least a neutral experience rather than stressful. Mainly I was hoping that the people in the class might come to experience for themselves the profoundly elating sensation of earning an unexpected reinforcer.
I had never done exactly this in a group before. Was it working? Reinforcement is defined by its effect on subsequent behavior. Time would tell.
Taking the Clicker+ into the trenches: day two
The very next morning, before class began, the KPCT folks and the six members of our class were working together to set up the room. Everybody seemed very upbeat and excited. Sherri said something funny and I pinged her. Instantly the six class members' heads swiveled around.
"Who got pinged?"
"What did she do?"
My heart leapt. YES! It's working! The ping had become an unequivocal positive reinforcer, doing its job for them and for us, in a very, very challenging situation.
In the afternoon, we brought in eight pet owners, with their own dogs, to be a "practice" class. None of them had any clicker training background. Many of them had no training at all. There were puppies. There were clueless bouncy adolescent dogs. There were at least two very reactive dogs, one of them plunging, snapping, and snarling at the other dogs. Whew.
We gave each owner a specific chair to sit in, so we could spread the dogs widely around the room. We put visual barriers—more chairs—between the most excitable dogs and their immediate neighbors. We passed out clickers, treat bags, and treats. Sherri took the really aggressive dog and its owner into a quiet corner and worked with them exclusively. Virginia and I started teaching and demonstrating exercises. Our six executive trainers took turns leading the pet owners through games and exercises from the curriculum; and they did it flawlessly.
Then our executive class members each chose an owner and dog, drew up a chair, sat down, and started teaching the owner how to build the behaviors that were being demonstrated, click by click. I went around pinging and giving candies to the teachers and the newbie dog owners too. I was catching behaviors I liked: laughter, intense concentration, rapid reinforcement. Since I knew the ping was working, those behaviors would be bound to increase.
By the end of the class (90 minutes, long!) every dog was sitting or lying attentively at its owner's feet, gaze GLUED on the owner's face, a big new experience for some owners. Every dog had a good start on two or three tricks. Many had considerably improved their manners, including skills such as taking the food gently, and maintaining self-control and attentiveness.
Even Sherri's students, the owner and dog with real aggression problems, had made huge progress. The dog had learned "sit," "leave it" with eye contact, and a couple of tricks. It had stopped creating uproar at any glimpse of other dogs. Sheri excused them a little early, asking us all to step back against the walls and give them room. They passed quietly through the room and out the door, the dog being clicked and treated for looking at the owner, not at the other dogs, as they went. The whole place—owners, trainers, and us too—burst into applause.
The head honcho came in to see how his trainers were doing. They were all doing great. They were a success. What had begun as barky chaos ended as complete serenity, with radiant smiles from teachers, from pet owners—and, judging by the gently waving tails, from the pets.
THAT's what a clicker class should look like, I thought. Ping!
Using the Clicker+ with people
So, you can clicker train people. You can clicker train people to clicker train dogs. You can even clicker train people to clicker train other people to clicker train dogs! Wow.
In the process, I learned at least two things to watch out for, which I am glad to pass on to anyone who is thinking of trying this out:
- Watch your timing. Use the new sound as a reinforcer, while the behavior you like is still going on—never as praise after the behavior is done. If you use the sound after the behavior is over a) it is useless, as your learner is now doing something else, and b) it immediately acquires some of the negative values of praise. It draws unwelcome attention from others; being meaningless it seems insincere and therefore manipulative; and probably it seems a little condescending. With or without interpretation you can see that it is now unwelcome, i.e., aversive, by the look on the person's face. A ping during the action, they absorb internally and keep going. A ping when the action is over? They give you the fish eye.
- Practice with the Clicker+ , before you start using it in real life. There are very clear instructions on the back of the packaging telling you how to toggle from loud to soft or from one tone to another, and how to run through the repertoire of tones to get the one you want. Work your way through the instructions until you are comfortable with the device.
For the advanced trainer or for anyone who is teaching others, this new tool has a lot of potential. Some of the ClickerExpo faculty members are exploring the possibilities. I know we'll be teaching and learning a lot more about using clicker training methods and principles to teach clicker training methods and principles, in the coming season's ClickerExpos. Join us! Beginner or expert, you'll have a remarkable learning experience and a lot of fun.
Karen Pryor is the founder and CEO of Karen Pryor Clicker Training and Karen Pryor Academy. She is the author of many books, including Don't Shoot the Dog and Reaching the Animal Mind. Learn more about Karen Pryor or read Karen's Letters online.
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