Build the behavior

There are a lot of steps to training an animal, and many steps between steps. We often do them without realizing or they happen organically, until we reach a problem and realize we missed a step. Whether we train with R+ or R- the same steps exist for each, but sometimes when we are using a new technique like switching over to R+, we have to relearn how to do these things with more awareness. We don't do it as instinctively because its not how we've always done it and were shown to do it, but now we have to consciously go through and check if we're doing all the steps.

We often harp on the steps of shaping a new behavior with R+. We use our techniques like capturing, free shaping, following or stationing at a target or body targets and so on. Then we put the behavior on cue. But then what? This isn't where training ends, its where it enters real life. Its no longer just a thing we work on in session, now that its on cue we can incorporate it into daily functioning. But we need to develop the behavior in a cohesive way, just like we did with R-. Just because a horse knows the cue for the behavior doesn't mean they know how big or little to do it, how long to do it, when to stop doing it, how to adjust it, how to respond to generalized ideas of the behavior, how to do it in new places, at different times, and so on.

As we work on our skills outside the structured settings we need to develop distance, duration, chains and distraction-proof the skill. We need to build the reliability on the skill. Just because we taught it in a structured training session doesn't mean its fully understood. We need to generalize it into all of life and within all its variations.

For some horses and some skills this will happen without us even noticing or thinking about it. But for some it will take more awareness to how we bring it out of the structured setting and generalize it into our regular use.

We'll make future posts that go into how to work on each of these individually.