On clickers, jerkers, dancing bears and starting over

“We are what we think…with our thoughts we make the world.” – The Dhammapada (The sayings of the Buddha): Choices

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post. Life has its ebbs and flows and for me, my focus this winter has been on starting over. What I mean is taking things I have been doing, looking at how I have been doing them, and when possible, taking a few steps back and learning how to do them better.  So for the past few months I have been learning to swim like a swimmer instead of a spaz, running like a gazelle instead of an elephant, playing agility with more clarity and connection, and in general, learning to be a better dog trainer and student of animal behavior. 

And now, as spring begins, I am ready to restart dharmaspoon. And in the spirit of starting over, I’ll be working my way through the passages of the Dhammapada in order.

Today’s quote is from Choices.  Essentially it about how we actively create the world we see around us, choosing what we see and how we react.

A common theme throughout the Dhammapada is one of dichotomy: Wakefulness vs Sloth, Love vs Hate, Wisdom vs Foolishness, Unity vs Separation.

I mentioned that I have been working on becoming a better dog trainer. To that extent, I recently, along with dharmaspoon gal, Maebe and Cadence, attended a three day animal behavior conference that focuses on the science of operant conditioning using positive reinforcement.  Basically it’s about how to create conditions in which a dog, dolphin, horse, third grader, spouse, neighbor, etc.,  does what you want them to do and in doing so is rewarded and is thus likely to repeat the behavior to the point where you can, through a signal or cue, cause the behavior to happen when signaled. There is no punishment. There is no coercion. The conference is known as Clicker Expo, the clicker being the tool most often used used to mark the behavior to be rewarded.

The attendees of this conference form one part of another dichotomy:

Clicker trainers (those who use positive reinforcement exclusively) vs Jerkers (those who use punishment, jerking on leashes, etc.)

 

The keynote speaker of the conference was famous behaviorist and author, Dr. Patricia McConnell.  Patricia closed out the conference with a lecture on the emotions of animals. In her final comments, she proposed final dichotomy:

Those who find comfort and solace in the idea that humans and the rest of the world are connected in many ways, including emotion and cognition vs those who find the blurring of the lines between humans and the rest of the animal world a frightening prospect.

You can guess which way I choose to see the world on that one.

Speaking of choosing to see, Kathy Sdao, one of the speakers at the conference gave an excellent talk on the topic of seeing behaviors, which is key to training, because if you can’t see the behavior (or more importantly it’s precursors), you can’t reward the behavior (either at all or on time).   Kathy challenged the group with a number of video tests to highlight the importance of being clear about what you’re looking for, lest you don’t see it. One of my favorite tests is presented below. See if you can pass:

 

So we see what we expect to see, don’t see what we don’t expect to see, so keep that in mind when you make your choices about how you view the world.