When Classical Conditioning Accidentally Goes Operant

That's a confusing title but I wanted those terms in for search purposes.

Classical conditioning is known as learning by association. We can pair something we know the horse likes with something new, and that helps the new thing be associated with the same calm and/or happy emotions.  

Operant conditioning is learning which takes place as a result of consequences. If your horse walks up to you in the paddock and gets a carrot, that consequence will affect the likelihood of the horse walking up to you next time you enter the paddock. 

We often say that classical conditioning and operant conditioning go hand in hand. It's impossible to separate the two. If I am training with operant conditioning in mind by offering treats when my horse does things I like, the fact that I am giving treats will give an overall happy association to training with me. 

It also goes the other way. If I am trying to make a simple associations with food and something else, such as hoof trimming, and I hand treats to the horse, the horse will find any patterns in when I feed. If I happen to feed when the horse swishes her tail and then coincidentally do that two or more times, the horse may think that swishing her tail is what earns the treats. The consequence of getting a treat after she swished her tail, even though it was coincidental, will inform her decision about whether to swish her tail again. 

I experienced this challenge this morning while trying to classically condition my Kizzy pony to the sound of clippers.  In my 30 Days of Husbandry online course, Kizzy demonstrated some concern with clippers. In the last week I have been focusing on that as a training goal. She has made good progress in her comfort level and I was almost ready to try doing a little clipping, but decided on one more step first. I had been working on a lot of classical conditioning with running the clippers around her, but I know that when the clippers actually do some cutting they can change sound. I decided to let her listen to me clip another horse while she ate treats. 

Walter's "cat hairs" under his jaw

I don't clip my horses as a general rule. I like to leave them with their whiskers and other hair which serves a function. But sometimes clipping needs to be done for veterinary purposes so I like to prep my horses and ponies for those just-in-case situations  Another thing I tend to clip are the long hairs which grow along the jawline in winter. During cold and icy months, I think those hairs serve to wick water and ice away from the face. But they tend to hang on long after cold weather does so in spring I sometimes decide to clip them to neaten up the appearance. I often wait until later in the year so I hope I haven't jinxed us by using Walter as an example for Kizzy and clipping under his jaw. 

Luckily, I have been videoing my daily sessions with Kizzy and so I caught this on video.  You can watch it here. 

Self-Clipping

Self-haltering and bridling are common things to teach a horse with clicker training. Percy is very good at self-haltering....I just need to remember to give him time to do it. I hold out his halter at my waist height and he puts his nose down into the noseband and holds it very still so I can slip the crownpiece over his head.

Today I decided to do a little clipper work with him since I had gotten the clippers out to trim up bridle paths and such on the others. As he's just a baby, I'm not worried about any fuzzy bits on him, but clippers can be Scary Things so I might as well introduce them long before I ever have a need to really use them. I first let him sniff them all over. I was carrying them to the barn when he accosted me with his typical "hey, whatcha got there? What are those things? Can I sniff them? Can I eat them? What are you going to do with them?" So that was a pretty simple process.

Next I waited until he was about 10 feet away but looking at me and I turned them on. I wanted him paying attention so he wasn't startled but not so close he was frightened. At this point, I was in the barn with a panel between us. I just wanted to see his reaction. His head went up and his eyes got very big- and he came closer to investigate. As soon as he began to approach, I clicked and turned them off. So of course he came to me for his treat and to check out those clippers again. I turned them on again and he leaned away with his nostrils flaring and keeping a close eye on them. As soon as he moved toward them at all, I clicked and turned them off.

This was one of those things I didn't really have a plan for. I was just flying by the seat of my pants. The concepts going through my head were: any approach needed to be rewarded and I wanted him to feel in control of the situation rather than at risk. So by clicking and turning them off when he approached, he was getting reinforced for approaching them AND was able to make them stop being so noisy. The other thing I hadn't planned out but that worked well was the panel between us. I certainly didn't feel the need for any safety reasons, but realized that it was preventing ME from falling into my traditional training of "just get it done" and try to approach him with the clippers rather than letting him approach me. The added benefit was that I was able to sit my camera on the edge of a stall and not worry about him investigating IT instead of the clippers!

Once he got to the point where he was staying right with me and sniffing the running clippers willingly although very cautiously, I stopped turning them off. I just left them running and held them out and he began his "self-clipping". I held them in different positions so they would touch different parts of his muzzle as he investigated- C/T for each touch. Slowly, the whiskers on his top lip got trimmed pretty well! I was careful not to move them as he investigated. As it was, he got poked by them several times and startled himself but came right back. I think it was different than if I had reached toward him and he'd gotten poked.

During this time, Rumer heard the clicking and came running. I had just fed everyone their noon hay so both these guys had been eating 2nd cut hay and had left it to come play with clippers. This is just another example of how much horses love this training. Some people claim it's because we are using food but I don't think many horses unfamiliar with clicker training would leave a large pile of green 2nd cut hay out in their paddock to come in and get clipped in exchange for hay stretcher pellets being doled out 2 at a time.

Rumer and I had played with clippers last year when she was a yearling and had not been too successful....I had done much more of an "approach" method with her. So I just let her hang around and any time she touched the clippers, she got C/T'd too. It was pretty funny to see the two babies pushing each other out of the way to get at the clippers! She was not nearly as bold as he was but I just let her do as much as she felt like. She certainly had a lot more whiskers left afterward than he did. She also was not as patient when I walked away to reset the camera and would get halfway back to her hay pile before hearing me clicking again and would come hustling back.

It was a great introduction for Percy and a good re-start for Rumer. I think I'll do a little bit each day when I spend time with them.