A weblog with random thoughts and reflections on society and ecology.
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Sunday, June 22, 2003
Clicker Training
I started yesterday with using clicker training with a housemate's cat. He is catching on quickly and can now sit on cue.
Some basic principles:
1. All positive reinforcement (no punishment)
2. Partner approach. Equal partners and free choice (the best is when the trainee initiates the sessions, as Parsifal - our previous cat - did, and my new trainee now is doing, after only a day).
3. Brief sessions. Keep it brief and fun. Stop while there is still a good deal of interest from both of you. It works better with brief and frequent sessions rather than long ones.
4. Appropriate reward. Use a reward that works with the trainee - food, praise, etc.
5. Follow nature. Help the trainee learn behavior that is close to natural behavior, especially in the beginning. Sometimes it may work well to just wait for the behavior you are looking for, and click when it occurs. Sometimes it can be induced easily. With a cat, an easy start is to bring food directly over its head so it sits down naturally, and click.
6. Clicker as communication tool. Use a click to communicate a desired behavior. The click is then followed by the reward (the click indicates the exact behavior, and acts as a bridge to the reward). Click whenever a desirable or interesting behavior occur - you can train several behaviors parallel with each other.
7. Keep it fun. If it is fun for both of you, that is a sign that you are on the right path.
8. I have found that it seems easier and quicker to train older animals. They tend to be more grounded and focused, while younger ones are have a more fragmented and shorter attention. With clicker training, old age is no drawback.
The general principles in clicker training are important principles for all learning - for all of us and in all situations...
09:00
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Happiness
Researchers at University of Wisconson (in Madison where I lived for five years) have found that Buddhist practitioners are - on average - more happy than others.
I assume it is due to a combination of mind training and sitting meditation. The mind training (lo jong in Tibetan) offers tools to approach situations in a more fruitful way. The meditation practice offers sentering and a sense of spaciousness and perspective.
05:35
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Partnership, Choice & Positive Reinforcement
I read Horse Sense for People by Monty Roberts a couple of days ago, on my way from St. Louis to Portland (coming back from Europe).
His approach seems to be in the same family as that of Clicker Training and Nonviolent Communication. They are communication tools and languages, they offer ways to establish good connection between living beings, they help us meet our needs more effectively, and some of them work accross species lines (although NVC is more verbally oriented than the two others).
They also share specific insights and tools. First, a partnership and power-with orientation allows us to seek strategies that will meet the needs of all involved. It allows for choices (giving choice to the other, taking responsibility for own choices), and requests (no punishment). Second, an emphasis on positive reinforcement (punishment is not effective in meeting our needs - we may get the behavior but also resentment, suboptimal performance and loss of connection).
I am working on bringing NVC more into my life, along with the principles from Clicker Training and the Horse Sense approach. One training ground for me was using Clicker Training with our cat, Parsifal. He learned the basic principle quickly (click signals "correct" behavior and food), and quickly picked up tricks such as sit, lie down, sit up, stay, jump up on table/down from table, jump through a hoop, and follow a stick/cone of light - often in one or a few sessions. It engaged his mind (and sense of urgency) to an extent that I suspect only a life in the wild can.
05:06
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Monday, June 02, 2003
Reverse Perspectives
It is often helpful to apply perspectives reverse from those we habitually apply or typically find in mainstream community.
I was reminded of two areas today where perspectives reverse from the mainstream appear to offer valuable insights.
The G8 countries are currently meeting in France. The mainstream view, at least as reflected in mainstream media, is that it is terrible for (a small portion of) the demonstrators to use violence. The reverse is often ignored - the daily and massive violence engaged in by the G8 countries. This is a systematic economic, cultural and military violence aimed at maximizing profits for the few at the expense of the many. (A sidetrack: As is so often the case, the vast majority of the demonstrators are peaceful but the media focuses on the small minority who use violence - against property. The media also portay the demonstrators as "anti-globalization" while they in reality are concerned with one particular form of globalization - the current one that benefits large multinational corporations at a terrible cost to people and ecosystems worldwide. A true grassroots globalization, one that is people and ecosystem focused, is strongly desired by the majority of the demonstrators.)
Another example is tagging. I am visitng family and friends in Norway, and notice tagging at certain locations. What is striking is that the tagging seem to occur on structures most people would find severly lacking in aestethic appeal (aka incredibly ugly). A reverse perspective here will find that the true "crime" may be committed by those who built those structures - structures which do not improve the quality of the community but rather detracts from it. The taggers seem to do us all a service by drawing attention to the most unappealing elements in our built community.
10:47
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