Some years ago behaviourists used to think that animals are passive.
But animals are active, they have their own goals and aspirations. We have to be aware of this fact. I wrote before that during clicker training we reinforce not only behaviours but also decisions our horse makes.
In this PreWorkshop material I will show you that with your training you mainly reinforce your horse’s emotions.
And emotions are the most important thing that influence and drives us. Emotions are the real decisions and thoughts. “How I feel is what I think and what I do”.
This is very important fact and during this Online Workshop we will take huge advantage of it. We have to remember that nothing is neutral. Everything is emotional. Everything that we feel, see and hear affects our emotions and thus motivation. Emotions suggest us what is really important. They are answers for the “choice crisis”. They tell us what we should think and do and in what order. It is believed that emotions are necessary to think. Human’s frontal lobes are big they modulate emotions very well. Because of this fact many emotions remain unconscious. We believe that we make decisions using logic, but we do not. If you even realize that emotions are present and are part of decision-making process it happens usually when the decision we made was wrong. For making the wrong decisions we blame emotions.
Emotions are immanent part of all decision making processes. There are no logic decisions. This is still valid for humans and for animals.
We can distinguish four main emotions needed for the survival of the individual and three main emotions needed for the survival of the species.
FOUR EMOTIONS NEEDED FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE INDIVIDUAL
- Seeking: is a self-reinforcing motivation system. Seeking promotes exploration. The bigger the chance to find or get something, the bigger the motivation. In the nature this emotion is usually inhibited by finding what you’re looking for. It can be compared to the feeling you have when going to the attic and not knowing what you will find there. This means that Seeking is mostly reinforced by finding or getting something unexpected and unpredicted. Seeking is not reinforced by the real reward, but by “the coming of the reward”. We take use of this fact during clicker training. Clicker means “unknown and unpredicted reward is coming” and thus is creating a WANT to get something. Seeking is a main, however non-specific, emotion responsible for learning. It can be described as “curiosity of the nearest future” – it is the conviction that if we keep on looking/interacting something interesting may happen. Simplifying the process we can say that during Seeking we have specific neural pathways active that communicate through certain chemistry. And in Seeking process they communicate with Dopamine which enhances the whole process and makes it extra pleasant. During clicker training we will take advantage of seeking process. Clicker/Cue that means “good, reward is coming” activates Seeking and thus creates a WANT to get something. I wrote before that Seeking is a non-specific emotion. In practice, it means that the signal of the treat/reward coming is reinforcing even when the horse is full.
- Fear: presented as freezing or flight. Extremely unpleasant emotion. Fear determines learning in a very specific way: the animal must do something to avoid punishment. If you use fear during your training you can quickly “teach” your horse behaviours that are naturally presented during flight. For example, it is easy to teach your horse piaffer by hitting his hind legs because short jumps are one of behaviours presented during flight. But fear memory is permanent, it doesn’t vanish! Fear is extremely unpleasant emotion and your horse will try to avoid all situations when he felt fear. That is why it is so hard to motivate horses that had been taught exercises by taking advantage of activation of the emotion of Fear. And that is also why our first objective will be to have a calm you and a calm horse. Not to feel the emotion of Fear all the time youngsters learn slowly by observing their mothers interacting with the environment. If we think about the Emotions we can come to the conclusion that Imprinting is actually very cruel. It is activation of Fear System and/or Rage System “until exhaustion”. Imprinting has nothing in common with habituation. However, please do not go “too crazy” about this now. We all need boundaries, and probably some of you had situations in your life when during a disagreement with a partner he suddenly hold you still. You didn’t want to cuddle, but he hold you, and finally you gave up and felt relief. So, please remember that all emotions are still subject of research. Researchers are drawing brain sketches and showing you “HERE is PAG /periaqueduct al gray/ and here all emotions come from”. I smile. Cause, for sure, it is all so much more complicated than we now think and we still know nothing for sure. So please remember, that you deal with Nature. And is one living molecule is more information than you could put in 6 books of 1000 pages each. Stay open and trust your instincts, because you are part of Nature as well. And if you are connected with yourself, you will always act in accordance with Nature. Because you are a part of Nature yourself.
- Rage: Extremely unpleasant emotion. This is defence system. Rage is a very primitive emotion and is universal in expression. Rage is activated when other emotional systems cannot be fulfilled. For example, if I cannot escape the situation – I feel rage. All physical or mental limitations activate Rage. That is why we hit a jar on the table when we can not open it. Rage limits creativity. Rage can be also activated by a long and monotonous training even if we use R+. If we punish animal that feels rage we only inhibits behaviours that are connected with this emotion, not the emotion of the rage. That is why the calmness is always our first objective.
- Panic: panic and numbness caused by social isolation and limited interaction with other horses. Morphine-type drugs act on this emotion. Feeling panic causes almost physical pain. Horses that are traveling a lot learn how to deal with this emotion, but they still feel it. Testosterone inhibits that emotion. I think that it may be one of the reasons that for many years people preferred to train stallions.
Each emotion activates or inhibits other emotions:
FEAR activates SEEKING, RAGE and PANIC.
PANIC activates SEEKING, RAGE and FEAR.
SEEKING inhibits FEAR, RAGE and PANIC.
RAGE inhibits FEAR, SEEKING and PANIC.
In practice we say that “Seeking replaces Fear”. This means that clicker training activates seeking system and inhibits fear and helps to cope with “fearful” situations.
THREE EMOTIONS NEEDED FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES
- Lust: desire and lust needed for survival of the species. This emotion is universal for all mammals. Oxytocin is levels go up when you feel this Lust. And thus we say that “Lust inhibits Rage”. For this emotion we have different neural pathways for females and males. In utero we have a female brain, and a cascade of changes turns it into a male brain. It’s believed that stress during pregnancy in the female brain determines the sex of offspring’s brains. The higher the stress the bigger chance for offsprings with so called “female brains”. But don’t take it too seriously. Brain sex is determined biochemically, and is not a binary state. You can have a mixed brain.
- Care: care of the youngsters, care of the members of the herd. Emotion of Care is fully developed only in the females’ brains. It determines a very fast learning how to deal with the offsprings. This emotion develops in females’ brains very early. That’s why little girls play with dolls.
- Play: Play is pushing, changing roles and wrestling. Activation of this emotion is very relaxing. Mediators here are beta-endorphins. But be careful: Excitement activates SEEKING or FEAR, not PLAY. Seeking System and Emotion of Play are antagonists. That is why you are not playing with your horse when you clicker train him. You teach him, but this is not Play System when we think about it in terms of Emotions Systems. And that is also why during our Online Workshop our first objective is to achieve true CALMNESS – to teach our horses more effectively and to be able to play with them later.
Positive emotions are: SEEKING, PLAY, LUST and CARE.
Emotions are innate. During our life we have to learn what to do with them. For example, we feel rage but we have to learn how to come out of rage.
Pleasant emotions are emotions restore the balance in our emotions. Everything that leads to this is perceived as pleasant. For different species different emotional systems have an advantage over other, for example:
- Rats have weak Panic emotion system and very active Play emotion system.
- Horses have very strong Fear emotion system. Fear is activated here by any unexpected fast movement in the environment.
Feeling Fear greatly deactivates Play System. So, for example: if you study behaviours of rats and you keep cats in the same room your rats probably won’t play. If you study intelligence of horses and you are doing your research on a horse that doesn’t go out, has no social contact with other horses and has stressful trainings – you can come to the conclusion that horses are not as intelligent as dogs.
If we do not take emotions into account the results of various studies become adulterated.
We know that Intelligence is not the result of a linear evolution. Each species has the best and optimum intelligence needed to survive in the environment in which he lives. Intelligence is inextricably linked to the experience of the world. Frontal lobes generalise emotions and experiences and allow to draw conclusions. The smaller the frontal lobes, the greater is the perception of detail and weaker ability to generalise.
At all times we have to remember that emotions of animals are like children’s emotions – very strong and very real. They are not well modulated by the frontal lobes and thus they are very strongly perceived. Animals and children do not want to feel extreme emotions, even if they are positive. And again, that is why our fist objective during our Online Workshop is to reach CALMNESS.
PRACTICAL GUIDELINES
- At all times our main objective is calmness. Calmness is relaxation, calmness is not doing something.
Calmness is not reading a book or watching TV. These actions are part of Seeking system. - Never trade calmness for fake, fast training results.
- Small and unpredicted treats stimulate seeking most. It’s not about the size of the treat it’s all about gambling – your horse should be always surprised with the size, type and kind of the rewards. However, as I wrote before, some animals are by nature very willing and their seeking is very nicely stimulated with clicker training. Not to over-heat it with young horses and horses that are very active I use only one type of treats. This is my practical experience.
- Animals kept in cages that do not have social interactions learn slower. Because of emotion of Rage being activated by physical limitations and emotion of Panic activated by lack of social contact these animals are depressed and their creativity is very limited. Please remember about it when you come to train your horse and in order to make your training optimal – let him spend as much time in the fields with other horses as you can. Let him stay out for 24h. You will be amazed with the results it will bring you and your horse.
- Quenching behaviors without command activates Rage.
- A treat you give your horse without a preceding signal of a secondary reinforcement (CLICK!) doesn’t trigger beta endorphins. That is why schooling with clicker is more effective.
- Clicking with your tongue doesn’t equal clicking with a clicker. Clicker is a very sharp, specific acoustic signal that is not part of the sounds that your horse hears in the environment and thus is very well discriminated. This sound is also not interpreted by the frontal lobes (your horse doesn’t have to think “what is that” and “what this means”) so it activates hormones and emotions quicker.
- Humans’ Seeking System is currently overloaded. It’s being activated all the time by too many incentives and there is no closure. There is no consumption. When we shop, socialise on Facebook, even when we do our hobby or read a book we activate our Seeking System. The rewards are small, random and totally unpredicted (“Let’s see if someone liked my posting”, “Let’s see if someone txt me”, “Let’s see if I got new email”) – SEEKING SYSTEM IS LITERALLY GOING CRAZY. During this workshop I will ask you to rest a lot. I will ask you to lie down for 30 minutes a day with your eyes closed and relax. You can also pray during that time or meditate. In order to be able to learn your inner self you have to have powers. We have to charge you again. We need to rest your Seeking System.
- If you have children please make sure that they do not are overloaded with activities before they are 15 years old (when Seeking System is believed to be fully developed). It is very important. Our Seeking System is responsible for the ability to focus attention. Inability to concentrate and to focus attention are Seeking System’s dysfunction. The mind can not focus attention because it has been learned to kept looking for something.
- I believe that the same applies to our horses. I know that many of you have young foals or young horses. If you will overload their Seeking System with training and you will not pay attention to CALMNESS it will be very hard for them to concentrate and keep focus for longer. And we need that attention and focus to teach them all complicated dressage exercises at the later stage.
And that is why, again, achieving CALMNESS is always our first and most important objective.
I hope that by now you understand why Calmness is so important. I know that before joining this Workshop many of you thought “calmness-shramness I want my horse to do spanish walk!”. But now you see that there will be no good spanish walk, and no graceful and focused Dressage without the true Calmness.
