Page 152 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

124 7 The Art of ‘Active’ Training

The rate of reinforcement can also decline
VetBooks.ir for a wide variety of stimuli in the environ- when trainers make too large an approxima-
ment to interrupt training sessions and
impact an animal’s motivation to participate.
instance, teaching an animal to step inside a
A contact call from a conspecific can disrupt tion when shaping a particular behaviour. For
a session as an animal stops what it’s doing to travel crate typically involves many succes-
listen or establish communication with other sive approximations. There is often a critical
animals. An alarm call can send an animal point in the process when the animal’s whole
bolting from the session just as it would in the body is inside the crate, except its back feet.
wild where the alarm call might signal the Up to this point, the animal has performed
presence of a predator. Some animals show each approximation without hesitation, but
more motivation when they can see other ani- is now stalled and reluctant to make that final
mals in the group. For others, it might be dis- step. If a trainer holds out too long for just
tracting for one animal to see another during a ‘one more step’ the animal may lose motiva-
training session. Training environment should tion and just walk away, no matter how much
be adjusted according to each animal’s behav- cueing and prompting the trainer uses. The
iour to maximise motivation. best approach in this case is to return to an
Some trainers prefer to train in a quiet and earlier successful approximation and rein-
controlled environment with few distrac- force smaller approximations at a higher rate
tions. This enables the animal and trainer to of reinforcement. Instead of waiting for both
increase focus on the session at hand and hind feet to be inside, reinforce approxima-
reduce distractions to the point that it actu- tions associated with lifting one foot, moving
ally disrupts their motivation and perfor- that foot towards the crate, touching the
mance in the future. What might be small crate, etc. The size of the approximations is
distractions for most animals can be huge determined by the progress of the animal. If
distractions for animals trained in uncharac- the animal is slow to move forward, make the
teristically tranquil settings. Quiet settings approximations smaller until each approxi-
are helpful to establishing new behaviour, mation is performed without hesitation.
but once an animal has learned to perform a With this approach a trainer builds behav-
behaviour without hesitation in response to ioural momentum (Mace et al. 1988), which
a cue, the next step should be to generalise often helps the animal move past the point in
that behaviour to novel environments, the approximations where it hesitated before.
including new people, locations, and degree
of distractions.
7.3 Two‐way Communication
7.2.6 Rate of Reinforcement
Contemporary trainers operating at the
Maintaining motivation to participate in highest level are skilled observers of animal
training is often related to the rate at which body language and give the animal a strong
an animal earns reinforcers. The rate of rein- voice in their relationship. They form part-
forcement can be thought of as how many nerships with animals that supersede the
reinforcers per minute the animal receives dominance‐based relationship that was once
during a training session. Trainers may thin so prevalent in the zoological world.
the reinforcement ratio when using an inter- Through careful observation of an animal’s
mittent schedule of reinforcement to shape body language a trainer can empower the
various behaviours, such as duration of a tar- animal with a level of control in its environ-
get hold or open‐mouth behaviour. Stretching ment where its ‘voice’ (through its body lan-
the ratio too far or too fast can lead to perfor- guage) is as meaningful as the trainer’s voice
mance breaking down, a phenomenon called and actions. A trainer gives a cue for the
ratio strain (Chance 2014). animal to perform a specific behaviour, then