Mechanics Flashcards
“Pavlov is on your shoulder.”
Bob Bailey’s reminder not to neglect Pavlovian ramifications during OC. Be careful about aversives because they carry nasty side effects.
Four key elements of good training
Rate!
Criteria!
Timing!
Mechanics!
Mechanical skills of training
Quiet body
Timing
Prompting and fading
R+ storage and delivery
Set position
Standard ready trainer pose. Usually hands behind back, unless using for antecedents or consequences.
Quiet body
No extraneous movement by the trainer. Focus dog’s attention on the movements that do matter: prompts, cues and reinforcer delivery. Hands behind the back is a good standard position.
Moving parts are always salient—don’t let them get lost in the “noise” of other movement
No “tell” before click—make click itself the best possible predictor of R+
Hand prompt/signal
Hand delivering primary R+
Timing
Latency between behavior and R+ or P-
“You don’t get what you want, you get what you pay.”
Secondary reinforcer (like a click) are especially important for fleeting behaviors like blinking, eye glance, or nose touches for timing.
Clicker
A secondary/conditioned reinforcer used to improve timing of reward marking correct behaviors. Also allows more time between behavior and reward for correct behavior.
Types of clickers
Box clickers—loud with unique sound, may need desensitization, good for distance
i-Click—faster and quieter than a box clicker
Tally counter—very quiet clicking sound, counts reinforcers and facilitates rate checks, especially handy when rate dictates the action (example: free-shaped retrieve)
Clicker charging
Classical conditioning—click must 1:1 predict R+
“Click like a statue.”
Sequencing—click first THEN reach for and deliver treat
Blocking—reaching, bag crinkle, beginning treat delivery
Overshadowing—be mindful of more salient stimuli
Critical: Vary time between click and treat! Random seconds within session, or, preferably, randomly throughout day followed by high value R+. Click itself MUST be best predictor of R+.
Prompts
Lures, hand signals, or other antecedents which elicit a behavior.
A cue must come before a prompt, creating a predictive relationship between the cue and the prompt.
Prompt Jumping
When a cue-prompt relationship has been classically conditioned, the learner will begin to perform the behavior when the cue is given. They no longer need the prompt.
Once reliably jumping the prompt, make it criteria. If they need the prompt again, use a lower value reinforcer (praise) than cue-only (praise & food).
