Bragging on Electrolux
I want to lose 15 pounds before I really start riding Mr. Lucky. I can't really get a saddle on that sway so how else can I spread some weight out? The only thing I can do is shed a few myself.
Meanwhile I've got him trained to ground drive. He'll walk, whoa, back all on verbal or cues. Then he knows to bend his neck in response to direct rein, move his front feet laterally in response to indirect rein, and move his hips away from where a leg would put pressure. Heck, he's almost ready for dressage! But of course, only at the walk with me at the reins beside him.
Do you end up with a less trained animal as a result of training with positive reinforcement? You end up with a different set of problems if you aren't careful. But let me tell you what they find with negative reinforcement in the lab.
Negative reinforcement is just another name for pressure/release training. What it does for animals is make them attend very carefully to the behavior that finds them release. You can get the animal to totally obsess on attending to your whims by regularly inducing pain any time they loose focus, until they are back on task. Mild discomfort or hurt, it all works. The mild discomfort won't provoke as many attempts to escape or avoid the pressure. But over time with pure pressure/release, be it mild or severe, the trainer, the reins, and everything about it becomes a conditioned punisher. They all aquire a status of TOXIC in the animals mind. The animal continues to perform and attend to business because he doesn't want trouble, but ....
Pure positive reinforcement is not a solution that I am always comfortable with either. The animal needs to be able to handle some level of aversive stimulus. Right now Lucky is that stage where he will do everything because he wants to. When I want to get more energy out of him, it might turn into a different story. If I get on him and it makes his back hurt, all bets are off about him being a sweet little mustang. I'm gonna be laying in the dirt wondering what happened. No, no, no! I don't want to go there. I'm on a diet.
Meanwhile I've got him trained to ground drive. He'll walk, whoa, back all on verbal or cues. Then he knows to bend his neck in response to direct rein, move his front feet laterally in response to indirect rein, and move his hips away from where a leg would put pressure. Heck, he's almost ready for dressage! But of course, only at the walk with me at the reins beside him.
Do you end up with a less trained animal as a result of training with positive reinforcement? You end up with a different set of problems if you aren't careful. But let me tell you what they find with negative reinforcement in the lab.
Negative reinforcement is just another name for pressure/release training. What it does for animals is make them attend very carefully to the behavior that finds them release. You can get the animal to totally obsess on attending to your whims by regularly inducing pain any time they loose focus, until they are back on task. Mild discomfort or hurt, it all works. The mild discomfort won't provoke as many attempts to escape or avoid the pressure. But over time with pure pressure/release, be it mild or severe, the trainer, the reins, and everything about it becomes a conditioned punisher. They all aquire a status of TOXIC in the animals mind. The animal continues to perform and attend to business because he doesn't want trouble, but ....
Pure positive reinforcement is not a solution that I am always comfortable with either. The animal needs to be able to handle some level of aversive stimulus. Right now Lucky is that stage where he will do everything because he wants to. When I want to get more energy out of him, it might turn into a different story. If I get on him and it makes his back hurt, all bets are off about him being a sweet little mustang. I'm gonna be laying in the dirt wondering what happened. No, no, no! I don't want to go there. I'm on a diet.
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