Human training exercises

[loverocksalot]

Hello there,

Looking for some ideas for shaping or operant conditioning to do with humans.
I plan to do this with a person at the training lecture Im doing next month.
I already have a willing subject that I will be comfortable doing this with.
First I am going to set up something that I want her to do. I will lure her toward it but not tell her. When she does the wrong thing I am going to Yell NO! in her face and pull her away.

After that I will then set up something and not tell her what I want only I will tell her this time I am just going say YES when she does what I want then throw her some M&ms or something.

When all done I am going to ask her how she felt during the first part.

I need ideas for the set up. Like what should I want her to do. I need something good so that she will not do what I want on the first try so that I yell at her.
But for the second session I want it to be something like she touches it I say YES!

Has anyone done an exercise like this?

[catstina]

That's a great idea! I'll try to think of an exercise for it!

[loverocksalot]

Not taking the credit for the idea. I came up with the idea of dong it at the lecture after reading this article from a trainer out in New Jersey
www.positivedogs.com/articles/switched_positive.html maybe if you read it then it can help you to help me to think of a good exercise to do.

[RealPitBull]

You can shape:

*Picking up a specific item off a table

*Walking across the room to sit on a chair

*Spinning in a circle

Just a few ideas.

[RealPitBull]

Stay away from Leerburg. He was a HUGE anti-R+ person until he realized there was a market for it. He produces a lot of HIGHLY aversive training videos. Wouldn't want to push/promote anything from him.

[loverocksalot]

OMG Thats why I asked cause I saw other stuff that seemed odd to be on the same website and the clicker human stuff did not look like these girls knew what they were doing.

[loverocksalot]

Well many old school trainers turned around. But the idea of using the props the way they were used in these clicker human videos is kind of what I want to do.

I got this idea from Pamela Dennison who talked about this in her article "why I switched to Positive Training".
Here is a copy and paste of that part of the article she is talking about Carolyn a herding trainer that was using positive training.
Four months later, she asked me a simple question that was to change my life. “What do you do when Cody looks away while you are heeling?” I then demonstrated - we started heeling, he got distracted, (of course he got distracted - we were on a SHEEP! farm for dog's sake! )) I popped the leash and when he looked at me, I told him "good dog,” and gave him a treat.

Thus started my “great adventure.”

Carolyn told me that she was going to give me a demonstration, by walking me through some simple behaviors, no talking - just hand lures. If I made a mistake, she would tell me. “OK,” I said grudgingly, “I’ll do it.” At first, I thought I was supposed to touch a hat. “NO!!!” she screamed in my ear. I was startled and backed up. She lured me to the hat again. I reached down to touch it and then paused. “NO!!!!” was bellowed at me again. I tried one more time and reached down to pick up the hat - Hallelujah! I finally got it right! Whew! No screaming! We continued through a few different behaviors and each time, my responses got slower and slower and by the end, I flatly refused to look at her.

Then we tried the flip side. I would only get a “yes,” when I got it right, but nothing happened if I got it wrong. It certainly was more pleasant and I made less mistakes, but because of all the prior screaming, I was unable to get over my fear of her. I would not look at her directly and my responses were slow and reluctant. I felt I could no longer completely trust her.

I was terrified. Pure and simple.

Then she asked me how I felt. I told her. She then informed me that was what I was doing to Cody. I was upset and went home to think about my experience. Everything I had learned up until that point was suddenly threatened. I called her to ask more questions. Carolyn lent me a video by Ted Turner, the head trainer of SeaWorld. I watched it in amazement. One part that particularly impressed me was a scene of killer whales in the wild, hunting sea lions. It was an awesome, chilling, frightening sight. Then the video panned back to a training session, teaching the whales to accept handling for animal husbandry, complicated behavior chains, fancy jumps, etc., all without the use of punishment. Wow! I had goose bumps! I was being exposed to an entirely new way of thinking and it was darned exciting!

[RealPitBull]

Anyone who has been training for more than like 10 or 15 years is probably a crossover trainer. The problem with Leerburg is IMO he does not have the knowledge to be teaching anyone anything about clicker/marker training. He is NOT a positive trainer, he uses/promotes prongs and shock collars. He is a business man, and he's put out some positive stuff because he saw a market for it. If you visit his main site, on the home page you'll see dogs in prongs and shock collars. There are 50 billion better trainers out there to be learning from.

[loverocksalot]

Well then I will Delete my post as I have no interest in someone who also uses shock collars and positive training. I overlooked it as I saw the human clicker training on youtube and did not see his other stuff.

[loverocksalot]

Deleted I dont want to send people in the wrong direction.

[RealPitBull]

You didn't have to delete it, it's good for discussion/educational purposes.

[loverocksalot]

Sorry felt compelled to delete it as a matter of fact I for some reason I almost did not post because I was getting some weird vibe off it and I did not even see the shock collars. You want me to put it back for shi8ts and Giggles