How to learn learning?

 

What is learning?

 

This text is an excerpt from my book "Who's training Whom?", which I'm currently translating into English.

Learning happens all the time in our lives and in the lives of the animals under our care. When learning something new, an animal must also experience something which is previously unexperienced and thus create a history for itself from these experiences. 

Learning is based on memory. In practice, the brain's way of functioning changes and nerve cells react and transmit nerve impulses differently than before. Learning, therefore, not only changes behaviour but also, in the best cases, means the expansion of certain brain areas. In terms of behaviour, learning means some relatively permanent change in an animal's behaviour. Usually learning is beneficial, although an animal can also, of course, learn negative non-acceptable things.

Learning occurs passively, almost imperceptibly and unintentionally. Such learning is quite mechanical and usually does not require any great effort. Active learning on the other hand, sometimes requires quite significant effort; each of us certainly has our own very personal experiences of this, some with a foreign language, some with mathematics, etc. This kind of conscious learning is called cognitive learning.

Every training session with your animal is uniquely valuable.

Create a trustworthy
relationship with your
animals

Every training session, or rather, every interaction we have with our animal, is unique as it creates new history between you and your animal. We must focus on shaping our relationship to be trustworthy and respectful. Every behaviour is shaped by its consequences, so creating a history of our interactions is especially important. Creating something new is how we can influence those positive experiences and reinforcements that lay the groundwork for different behaviours. The next time you start interacting with your animal, remember that your attitude towards that moment is fundamentally up to you. Forget all your bad experiences with the animal for a moment, start fresh with a new attitude. When I say forget, I mean that our own behaviour should not form anticipatory emotional transfers or mindsets based on those experiences when starting a new encounter. The idea behind this is to create good opportunities for the animal to succeed.

In Finnish we have a saying; "Learning and age all", which roughly means that leaning happens while we age and gain wisdom - our learning builds up by our experience. This applies for animals as well. It is an old saying and it holds deep wisdom about learning of our own meta-skills. So, let's learn from the encounters that our shared history has already taught for us, but let's keep our minds open to new, pure interaction experiences.

 

Often, there is not just one right way to achieve goals; the destination can be reached through many different paths.

Development of one's own learning lifecycle.

It is therefore good sometimes to stop and reflect on and review one's own behaviour in a behaviour management or animal care situation. The matter can be examined from many different perspectives, either the entire interior from a distance or in more detail up close.

When seeking distance, it should be done broadly enough, so we can find our illogical ways of interacting with animals. Our influence on the behaviour of the animals under our care is the most significant. We may find explanations for the behaviours or patterns of our animal companions. Some may have been created by the environment or its influences, some we may have unintentionally reinforced ourselves without realizing what we have done.

From the results of the final conclusions of behaviour management or care situations, we can consider whether we have opportunities to modify the environment, or to what extent by changing our behaviour or our ways of operating with the animal we can achieve a desired change in behaviour of the animal being trained.

In short, we are talking about our meta-skills. Meta-skills refer to the analysis of our self-directed learning process, the regulation of our learning, and the development of its life cycle. How do we learn to learn, to think and to objectively observe our own learning and the development of our skills? Where do we seek perspective for the development of our training skills and how do we analyse it ourselves? They are thus skills that help us develop ourselves and enable us to learn to be increasingly better trainers.

Meta-skills refer to the analysis of our own self-directed learning process or working process, the regulation of our learning, and the development of its life cycle, how we learn to learn.

 Good mastery of meta-skills leads to skilful metacognitive activity. Metacognitive activity is the implementation of these learned skills and strategies as trainers in learning, thinking, and problem-solving situations.

How can we in practice develop ourselves and our skills in practice?

Surely many options immediately come to mind. Lectures, literature and the internet are all excellent sources of information, it is worthwhile to acquire valuable knowledge from them to support practical work. It is always constructive if you find a channel to discuss challenges, successes and even failures related to training techniques with your colleagues. Often it is different challenges and the failures which elevates us to achieve goals that boost our creativity, forcing us to seek innovative ways to reach our objectives. Often, there is not just one correct way to achieve goals; the destination can be reached through many different paths.

My animal training related
book was published in 2023, 
in Finnish - now it's under translation
into English.

An excellent way to develop one's expertise is to use external individuals for assistance. Consulting an experienced trainer to evaluate one's own techniques is an excellent way to get constructive feedback on one's training principles and practices. On the other hand, I am also very grateful to all those students or so-called "laypersons" who, out of curiosity, have asked for more detailed explanations of the principles of my animal care or training techniques. In these situations, we are inevitably forced to explain to another person the reasons and foundations of our actions. At the same time, we articulate them out loud to ourselves, which can lead to excellent insights; we just need to be open enough to new ideas for developing our operations. Utilizing modern technology also offers many opportunities, for example, for developing our body language communication. Video recording a training session is, on the one hand, quite merciless and revealing but at the same time so very corrective and developmental.

The purpose of all this is to achieve a way of operation where our communication with the animal is clear, consistent and effective. We ourselves need feelings of success. Similarly, our "behaviour" as a trainer or animal caretaker develops through positive successes. Animal success strengthens our self-image as trainers and develop our body language for calmer, more confident animal handling, care and training. At this point, I also want to remind you of the importance of our breathing technique, which will give strong message of firm existence; it significantly affects our entire body's communication. Good experiences of success also increase our motivation in animal training and encourage us to seek more successes. We also dare to better respond to new challenging goals that arise in the future, even those that might seem overwhelming to us without these experiences.

In my consulting situations I have so many times enjoyed the discussions with my clients of our/their nonverbal expressions to their animal companions.

Being with animals and managing their behaviour is such a challenge but on its best is so very rewarding to us as well as to animals under our care.

If you think you need advise with you animal companions - contact me and I'd be delighted to be of assistance.

P.S.

... if you are a managing business or in such position at work or of a company; you can just change the wording in this text from trainer to director.. and this all is valid for you too.

Sincerely

Kai Mattsson

"Spend Merry Times with your animals."

                                                                       

Meritime Consulting

www.meritime.net

Meritime in social media;

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https://www.instagram.com/elainkoulutusk_mattsson/

Tiktok; @Kaitzoo

Who's training who?

 Have you ever bumped into this thought?

Recently, at the end of last year, I managed to publish my first book on animal behaviour management with the very same title; Who's training who? (Kuka kouluttaa ketä? - in Finnish).

This is a question that raises every now and then when I've been working with my clients. 

..and to be honest I've been trained this way by several animals under my care in my early career as an animal trainer.

In principle we have similar need as our animals; 

We want to be successful and goal oriented and achieve those goals in a reasonable time. Animals have a strong similar driving force. However our goals when training an animal can easily be overruled by the energy centred nature of animals. Most animals still have their dna-written "instinct" of "surviving strategy" with the least amount of energy to be used in order to thrive.

It is very easy to get lost with your goal while animals are behaving this way. It all can start from a very small "different" or "unbalanced" nuance of behaviour which we may easily ignore and unaware of what we are actually doing, reinforce it ... and the story continues. At some point we may wake up and start realizing the outcome!

Untraining this type of behaviour may last quite long; especially if the "unwanted" behavioural twist is within a longer chain of behaviours, not to mention a situation that some superstitious behaviour would be involved.

"It's me who needs this training ...!"

I remember working with one cat owner who had some issues with her cat. We had been working on those matter a few times when again we did some analysing of the situation. Suddenly she straightened herself up and said; "Right - now I got it! It me who needs more of this training than my cat!" 

From there on the progress was surprisingly fast and just with a few training events together we did accomplish a good start to make the everyday life a whole lot easier and less stressful especially for the owner but as well as for the cat under her care.

Another example could be a couple who had quite a bit of difficulties while taking their dog out. In short - it was mostly the dog who decided the pace of the walk, the direction etc etc. There would be several more examples ie. when animal are expressing their natural behaviour but we may consider them as "bad" unwanted behaviours. This reminds me of a situation where zoo animals were protecting their pen while keepers were cleaning or feeding them - agonistic behaviours were present quite a bit. Animal behaviour (protection of their territory) was reinforced in this situation when keepers left the pen; In a way it was a relief for both but reinforced unwanted behaviour patterns. The solution was to start to re-establishing more positive human-animal relationship by reinforcing positive acceptable behaviour via diminishing pressure and trying to enter the pen only when animals were behaving calmly. Sometimes we need to find out in a more overall perspective what are eliciting stimulus behind animal behaviour and then we may find solutions on achieving our behaviour management  goals.

We should be aware of the small changes in animal behaviour or I'd say on any tendencies the animal is expressing. Once we can react on those in the very early stage we are winning the battle a whole lot easier, faster and before the situation escalates into more difficult situation or even into a problematic behaviour patterns. It is also through learning that animals create these unwanted behaviour patterns and once the behaviour gets fixed on certain stage by repetition it's a lot harder for us to untrain or correct the behaviour. 

The key element in avoiding the evolvement of this type of situations is anticipation and a close passionate monitoring of the animals behaviour. Be specific what are the criteria for a correct behaviour and stick to it.

Gee - it just sounds so simple !

Variability

Now what has variability to do with this matter?

A whole lot but maybe in a bit different context. 

This I think is connected to our behaviour and on what we are expressing through it. Remember; animals are excellent in reading body language even across different species, they learn easily our general expressions. If our behaviour is easily predictable the animals under our care will rather quickly pick up presignals in order to take "advantage" of them (remember their energy efficiency). If the consequence of our distinct behaviour is some what unpleasant for the animal in question it will surely start to change its behaviour. It can be avoidance of the situation or not coming back to owner (in recall) or even a slight change in response time to a cue can be a hint for us that everything is not in order.

Mirror mirror on the wall

I've always said that the behaviour or a responsive behaviour of  any animal under our care is all about us. How we response to our animals and how we are reading the animal's behaviour - but also how we behave ourselves while being with them. The animal is reflecting our behaviour or energy level & intensity back to us. In my early career I was taught that if you've got a bad day try not to be too much with your animals; Well, I don't quite underline this type of thinking any more as we do have to be professionals even when we're not having the best day ever. 

So - be alert and follow what your animal is doing, how it's expressing itself and if there are any changes in its behaviour react on them in a proper way to keep the every day life with them a bit easier. Observing animal behaviour is also vitally important in the respect of their health, after all the only common language we have with them lies within their behaviour. Even slightest changes in the behaviour of our beloved animal companion can be a sign of a change in their wellbeing.

Be consistent and unpredictable (in a proper manner) and pay attention on any changes in the animal behavior.

Have some Merry times with your animal!  

Sincerely

-Kai-

www.meritime.net

https://www.instagram.com/elainkoulutusk_mattsson/

https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kai-mattsson-36967819/

Kuka kouluttaa ketä? - haastattelu ; Kangasalan Sanomat 30.11.-23

 

HUOM! - Tämä ei ole omakirjoitukseni, vaan Eija Koivun 30.11.2023 Kangasalan Sanomissa kirjoittama haastatteluni esikoiskirjastani; Kuka Kouluttaa ketä?

·        Arjessa mukana

·        Pääuutiset

Kuka kouluttaa ja ketä? Särkänniemen delfiinien kouluttajanakin tunnettu Kai Mattsson tiivisti vuosien varrella omaksumansa kirjaksi, jonka hän sanoo olevan syväsukellus eläinten hyvinvointiin vaikuttaviin asioihin

Eija Koivu

 30.11.2023

0

    

Sähisevästä ja sylkevästä Viiseli-löytökissassa on osaavissa käsissä kehkeytynyt ihmisrakas lemmikki. Kai Mattsson sanoo vierastavansa temppu-sanan käyttöä, kun puhutaan eläinten kouluttamisesta. Hänen mukaansa se ei tee oikeutta sen paremmin eläimelle, kouluttajalle kuin kaikelle työlle, jonka tuloksena haluttu käytös on saatu aikaan. – Voi kestää vuosia, että kokonaisuus saadaan rakennettua vähän kerrassaan.

 

Seepra ei pääse raidoistaan eikä eläinkouluttaja Kai Mattsson pullokuonodelfiineistä, joiden kanssa hän työskenteli Särkänniemen delfinaariossa sen toiminnan lopettamiseen asti.  

– Olen kiitollinen pitkästä yhteistyöstä delfiinien parissa. Iso, antoisa ja etuoikeutettu luku elämässäni on päättynyt. Sain tutustua eläinten käyttäytymistä muokkaaviin voimiin varsin huikealla tavalla, upeiden eläinten opastuksella.  

Mattsson pitää onnenaan sitä, että merinisäkkäiden parissa työskentely on mahdollistanut kansainvälisen yhteistyön paitsi kollegoiden, myös erittäin kokeneiden ja nimekkäiden eläinkouluttajien kanssa.  

Perin ainutlaatuisen työuran tehnyt Mattsson on kysytty kouluttaja ja luennoitsija sekä Suomessa että maamme rajojen ulkopuolella. Euroopan eläintarhaliiton (Eaza) akatemian kouluttajiin kuuluva Mattsson palasi hiljakkoin Serbiasta, jossa hän jakoi eläinten hyvinvointiin ja koulutukseen liittyviä oppejaan sikäläisen eläintarhan henkilöstölle.  

– Kalat ovat ensimmäisiä eläimiä, joita olen tietoisesti kouluttanut. Särkänniemen akvaariolla opetin muun muassa ampujakaloja käyttämään niiden luontaista saalistustapaa paremmin, ja kotiakvaariossa taas Elviira-taistelukalani oppi syömään kämmenelläni.  

Yksilöiden välistä vuorovaikutusta

Vuonna 2004 perustettu Meritime Consulting on Mattsonin oma yritys, jonka kautta hän kertoo laajentaneensa kokemuspohjaansa kotieläinten, hyötyeläinten ja eläintarhaeläinten käyttäytymisen muokkaamisen ja hyvinvoinnin edistämisen saralle.  

– Kärjistetysti väitän, että eläimet delfiineistä koiriin ja eksoottisista eläimistä kaloihin käyttäytyvät samalla tavalla. Koen taitojeni jalkauttamisen uusien lajien koulutukseen ja käyttäytymisen kiintoisana.  

Mattsson korostaa, ettei eläinten koulutukseen liity mitään yliluonnollista tai -inhimillistä. Kyse on kahden yksilön välisestä vuorovaikutuksesta, jossa pätevät tieteellisesti todistetuttujen käyttäytymisteorioiden lainalaisuudet.  

– Kaikki eläimen seurassa vietetty aika on koulutustilannetta – eivät vain ne hetket, jolloin tietoisesti koulutamme. Esimerkiksi lemmikkieläintä kannattaisi kehua ja palkita silloinkin, kun omasta tahdostaan lepäilee rauhassa lähelläsi.  

Samaa viestii Mattssonin esikoisteoksen nimi: Kuka kouluttaa ketä? Alaotsikkonsa mukaisesti teos sisältää eläinten oppimisen teoriaa ja käytäntöä sekä tarjoaa lukijoille opastusta johdonmukaiseen ja positiiviseen tapaan eläimen käyttäytymisen muokkaamiseksi.  

Omia oivalluksia ja lainattuja ajatuksia

Mattsson luonnehtii kirjaansa syväsukellukseksi eläinten hyvinvointiin vaikuttaviin asioihin. Teoksen sivuilla hänen omat oivalluksensa kytkeytyvät vuosien varrella luennoilla ja muissa yhteyksissä muistiin merkittyihin laina-ajatuksiin sekä eläinkoulutuspsykologian ja käyttäytymistieteen tutkimustietoon.  

– Lemmikkiinkin kannattaa suhtautua välillä tieteentekijän asenteella, jolloin on mahdollista löytää eläimelle ja itselle paras tapa saavuttaa haluttu tavoite ympäröivistä ärsykkeistä huolimatta. Kannatan tutkimustiedon hyödyntämistä. Arvailu on turhaa, sillä se menee todennäköisesti pieleen.  

Kai Mattsson on kirjassaan pyrkinyt kertomaan eläinten kouluttamisesta tavalla, jolla asiasta ei ole aiemmin kirjoitettu. Kuva: Kai Mattssonin albumi

KIRJATILAUKSET: QR-koodilla tai täältä         https://www.meritime.net/contact

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Mattssonin mukaan keskeisiä tekijöitä eläinten kouluttamisessa ovat myönteinen asenne, luottamus, johdonmukaisuus kärsivällisyys sekä eläintä tekemiseen kannustava, oikea-aikainen palkitseminen. Kouluttajalla tulee tietenkin olla myös selkeä päämäärä, millaista käytöstä hän haluaa eläimeltä.   

Vankan pohjan luottamukselle voi luoda perehtymällä eläimen rodullisiin ja lajityypillisiin ominaisuuksiin ennen kuin saa sen hoidon vastuulleen.  

 

– Edistyminen edellyttää meiltä kykyä lukea eläimen käyttäytymistä ja pieniä vivahteita, joita se käyttäytymisellään viestittää. Samalla opimme itsestämme ja käyttäytymisestämme eläimen seurassa. Suhde vahvistuu, kun kumpikin hyötyy yhteisestä työskentelystä.  

Toisinaan on hyvä eläytyä eläimen osaan. Sitä kautta saattaa löytyä uusia tapoja saada esiin haluttua käytöstä.  

– On erittäin tärkeää, että kaikki eläimen kanssa työskentelevät toimivat keskenään samalla tavalla. Ristiriitaisesta toiminnasta voi seurata ongelmia, joiden ratkaiseminen ottaa aikansa ja hidastaa tavoitteiden saavuttamista. 

Tavoitteena selkeys 

Mattsson sanoo pyrkineensä kirjoittamaan selkeän ja johdonmukaisen kirjan, joka sopii luettavaksi niin ensimmäisen lemmikin hankintaa harkitsevalle kuin eläinten parissa jo pidempään työskennelleillekin.   

Kuka kouluttaa ketä? jakautuu kolmeen osaan, joista ensimmäinen sisältää eläintenkoulutuksen perusasioita ytimekkäässä muodossa. Toisessa osa pureudutaan välineelliseen ehdollistamisesta yksityiskohtaisemmin ja laajemmin esimerkkien ja vertausten avulla.   

Ehkä hieman yllättäenkin Mattsson on poiminut esimerkkejä ihmislasten kanssa toimimisesta.  

– Yksinkertaisesta peruskäyttäytymisestämme löytyy paljon yhtenevyyksiä eläinten käyttäytymismallien kanssa. Meidän tulisi olla mahdollistajia sekä eläimillemme että lapsillemme.  

Myönteisyyden voima

Voimakeinojen välttäminen kaikessa kanssakäymisessä on aina ollut Mattssonin tapa toimia.  

– Eläinten koulutuksessa se on osoittautunut ehdottomasti eduksi. Se on myös hyvin tukenut nykyisin vallitsevaa positiiviseen kokemukseen ja vahvistamiseen perustuvaa koulutusmetodia.   

Kirjan kolmas osa koostuu englannin- ja suomenkielisestä termisanastosta.  

– Halusin raivata termiviidakkoa yhtenäisemmäksi. Osan termeistä olen itse kääntänyt englannista suomeksi, koska niille ei ollut vakiintunutta, käyttökelpoista vastinetta aikaisemmin. Kansainvälisten tehtävieni vuoksi käytän itse usein englanninkielistä termistöä. 

Tällä hetkellä Mattsonien kodissa Liuksialassa asustaa kaksi naurukyyhkyä, kolme riikinkukkokyyhkyä, kaksi marsua, yksi kissa, akvaariollinen kaloja ja kani. Ne ovat Kai Mattssonille työkavereita, joiden kanssa hän on vieraillut muun muassa päiväkodeissa, kouluissa ja ikäihmisten parissa kertomassa eläin edellä toimimisesta.

 

Vaikka liki 250-sivuinen kirja tarjoaa paljon asiaa, Mattsson harkitsee jatkavansa tietokirjailijan uraansa.  

– Olen erittäin kiinnostunut eläinten osallistavasta terveydenhuollosta. Sillä tarkoitetaan eläinten terveydentilan ylläpitämistä ja seuraamista vuorovaikutteisen, eläintä mahdollisimman vähän stressaavan kanssakäymisen kautta.  

Eläintarhamaailmasta lähtöisin olevasta menetelmästä on hyötyä myös lemmikki- ja hyötyeläimille. Eläimet voidaan kouluttamisen ja osallistamisen kautta saada tottumaan tutkimus- ja hoitotoimiin niin, ettei rauhoittavaa lääkitystä tarvita.  

– Valasta tai tiikeriä on vaikea napata kainaloon ja alkaa hoitaa sen enempää kyselemättä. Jos joudutaan käyttämään lääkeaineita, ne saattavat esimerkiksi muuntaa verikoetuloksia.  

Kai Mattsson: Kuka kouluttaa ketä? Eläinten oppimisen teoriaa ja käytäntöä. Momentum-kirjat, 2023  

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A spoonful of target training (vs luring)

 Using target in animal training is often times more commonly understood

 than luring as a training technique.

The title of this blog formed in my mind because of a puffer fish training I started recently and the first target I used with it and still am using is a spoon.

It got me thinking of luring in a wider perspective;

A spoonful of some yummy food surely is more tempting than just an empty spoon. .. but what if you could turn that setting up side down? What if eventually the empty spoon would do the magic twice if not three time more effective than a full spoon?

Sounds confusing? .. or does it? Well, let me open the set up a bit more.

A few decades with animals ...

I feel very prosperous as during my animal care & training career (which got started in early 80's)  I've had possibilities to work with so many different species belonging in such many different orders of animals. Thirty years with dolphins was the grand school of operant conditioning.

In 2004 I also started gradually my own consulting work ( www.meritime.net), it has opened doors to many other opportunities with other species. I find it fascinating that what ever species I've been working with the behaviour modification laws apply in each and every one in such similar way. In recent years I've been again more involved with aquatic species, namely fishes. They definitely are another challenge & extension in implementing my training skills. This is an exploration into less well-known area of animal behaviour modification. Training buffer fish, shark, sterlet and cleaning scrimps etc. just to name some - Who wouldn't be mesmerized ?

A classic example of luring is a picture of donkey following a carrot

Luring - good or bad?

It is very easy to fall into using luring during the time we spend with our animals, temptation to use it  i.e to get the animal into a specific direction; into a pen, stable, trailer etc. is some times quite compelling. It is easy to get some treaty out of your pocket and present it to the animal in question or even toss it into a pen where we'd like to have the animal to move in. Often times it works and is quite harmless. 

However there are a few traps we should try to avoid when using luring as 

a animal behaviour modification technique.

Pre-cue's / precursors

The luring term is often rather discredited and given a bit bad reputation and there is a reason for it. What happens easily is that the animal will pick up even our subtle pre-behaviours which will turn into a (new) cue for it to react upon. An easy example of this is opening the fridge door or a food can lid. They are very strongly telling to the animal that some food is about to be served.

I remember from my early days of animal care when we had two seal (a grey seal & an harbour seal) at the aquarium I was working in, no training was done with them, at least not consciously. They were fed twice a day in a very regular schedule at eleven and four o'clock. Both seals were very conscious about their  feeding times and they were jumping half way of their body out of water just prior to feedings. 

Can animals learn timetables? 

Most likely if it happens in such regular schedule as what we had. Often prior to these occasions we were also checking how they are from a window facing to the pool, also most of the times there were some public around the pen to see the feeding of those seals. So there were many other quite out standing cues for the seals to notice just before feeding.

Animals are super-creatures and just brilliant in reading body gestures & -language even of other species. This is something we should be always aware of. Even slightest nuances in our own behaviour can become a precursor to the animal. This means that if we are using luring as a behaviour modification technique we should be very cautious of not making any continuous pre-cues before we are giving them treats.

Fading the use of lure

I guess one reason for the discredited reputation is that often times luring method is not faded away or transferred into some other more advanced way of behaviour reinforcement. If we'd fade out luring and change it into ie. following or touching a target. We would most likely avoid most of the above mentioned traps. The behaviour would be rather reliable and there wouldn't be such a possibility for the animal to respond to any other cue than the one we've trained it to react upon. All in all my opinion is that target serves better our aims and common purposes when working with animals.

I do use luring as a tool in animal behaviour modification 

but only as long as it seems reasonable. 

I do use luring as one type of training with animals; Quite recently I started to train my guinea pigs, in a very similar way; The plan is to first lure them to reach my fingers and later change it into following a target.  However - I wouldn't use luring too much (or too long) on getting animals from one space (exhibit / stable etc.) to another or in the a case we'd need to separate one individual from some others. This type of luring is quite commonly done and I can confess that I've done it too - but I would try to get this type of behaviour modification rather soon under a cue and use training tools like target or stationing to establish it properly. The relationship with our animals to my opinion is based on trust. If we use luring too much in ie. separation of individuals we will eventually run into difficulties. Let's be fair with them and let them know what our aims are, by using differential reinforcement and positive surprises we can work  these situations into a reliable behaviour responses.

Fahaka puffer fish

It has been interesting to get to know this species (Tetraodon lineatus). According to some sources it is considered to be the most aggressive (terrritorial) fresh water puffer fish species but at the same time it is said to be an enigmatic species. In other words; it gets easily interactive with its owner, even in such amount it can develop into a pet like relationship. So I hope this gives me a good start in getting into a relationship with this little fellow. How ever it is not the first puffer fish I am training, as earlier I did train a Mbu puffer (Tetrodon Mbu) to follow a target and swim through a small hoop. This was one of the first training experiences I had with fishes just out of pure curiosity and interest to see how cognitive they can be.

Working with fishes is a bit challenging. Often times the only way of getting started is via luring and that's how I got started this time as well. I did introduce a target in a very early state and used a piece of shrimp to lure our Fahaka next to the spoon to get the treat. 

In my youtube-channel you can see one of the first target training session of this Fahaka. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uobJ5O8tcw

A wrong direction
in eyesight - past the spoon.

Before this I had trained it to eat from a tweezers. One training task at a time is a so important rule in training animals. So, once I got that into a reliable stage the next step in training was to present the target; wait for the puffer's reactions and then reinforce correct behaviour or a correct direction of behaviour (approximation). I still use luring every now and then to strengthen the new meaning for the spoon-target. 

On this level I am not only following the direction where the puffer is swimming but also where it is looking. 

Reinforce already the direction animal is looking.

 Puffer fishes are cute and one reason for that is their ability to move their eyes.  It enables them to look better forward. Many times this fellow is swimming in  right direction but it is following me through the water surface, not the target. Once it's eyes sight is changes into spoon (or to another target I'm using) I can reinforce it. So with this puffer I can easily reinforce it directionally even before it reaches  the target or lure.

This time the direction and focus of eyesight is correct

Animals tend to go where their eyesight is focusing.

Where are we now?

As much as I would like to say and tell how far I've proceeded in this training and how excellent this still little puffer fish is ... I just cannot. 

Any animal trainer knows that behaviour modification doesn't always proceed progressively or at least not linearly. With fahaka I had to get back to easier state in training. So, we're back in luring - luring this puffer fish to eat next to the spoon, as the spoon lost it's "magic".  So I'm reinforcing the spoon - to make it again more meaningful for the puffer fish. 

However I am very optimistic on my task and I do believe that eventually the empty spoon will have a strong meaning to this puffer fish, hopefully stronger meaning than just a piece of food.

Thank you for reading this blog and remember to enjoy every bit of the time spend 

with you training & companion 'mates'.

Sincerely

- Kai -                                                                      (The training is being done @ Särkänniemi Aquarium, FIN)

ps. check out my renewed webpages

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Where is the limit?

Rats !!

I have to admit that I was not so happy to find these pests living in my stable.

They just are not the most commonly beloved creatures of nature and of course there is a historical reason for fearing them, as diseaces are know to sped through them. 

However - I was absolutely mesmerized when I read an article of a rat called Magawa, a landmine sniffing hero of it's species but of course it isn't  (or actually wasn't) the only one doing the lifesaving job in Cambodia. The gambian puoched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) [in Finnish; savannihamstraajarotta] are doing unbelivably valuable work in sniffing land mines ie. in Gambodia. These rats are far more accurate and quicker in finding land mines than any other mean of doing it; as it takes a fraction of time from these quided sniffers to cover an area of appr. football field than what it would take from us humans. Magawa was one of the most successful rat trained to alert human handlers of landmines to be safely removed there after. Trainer by Apopo organization these rats have been detecting (and destroyed) according to their web page now more that 25.000 land mines. Magawa alone during it's appr 5 year career sniffed more that 100 landmines.

A power of a small treat ..

Any small delicate treat will do it's effective work - all is based on positive reinforcement. The animals are trained to mark the place of mines or as far as I understand they are trainer to detect the smell of TNT. By marking the spot the handlers can then inform about it to professional people for destroying safely the landmine. These rats are great in this type of work: They have excellent capability for smelling the explosives plus they are very light in weight so it is safe for them to do the detection. 

I am, aften decades of working with animals and their training still just absolutely amazed of how much we can do with different animal species for the safety & well being for us humans.  

Android, windows, apple or some other ...

Wait a minute -what does these have to do with landmine detecting rats or any other animal species, like dogs? ...or with any animal heroes trained for the higher purpose of ie. protecting human lives? In reality any operating system really has nothing to do with animal training: Expect - What I've found so fascinating during the years of my career with different animal species; No matter which species I've worked with they are all 'programmed' in the very same way. All of them has similar or same "operating system". There's no windows, no android nor any other difference in that sense.

Come to think of  - it is quite astonishing that all species are behaving under the same principles of consequences; positive or negative ones.

Of course you need to know the capabilities of each species and each individual. Individual differences can be rather outstanding. When ever I'm tutoring animal trainers, animal care personnel or owners I'll always emphasizing the time spend with one's animal companion. We just got to learn their personal ways of behaving. At the same time we are also providing them valuable quality time to learn and observe our natural essence.

Where is the limit - within species.

A few years back a video in socialmedia / internet went viral of bublebees learning to pull a rope in order to collect valuable reward. We all know what is done with dogs; scent training to detect different diseases (including covid-19), drugs, lost people etc.

Often times animal training is related to mammals as it mostly has been within my career as well. However this should not limit our thinking. During the last few year I've gathered more experiences of training reptiles and aquatic animals. Aquatic environment is very familiar as I do have decades of experience with marine mammals therefore "diving" underneath the surface should not be a surprize. Recently I've done work ie. with buffer fish, shark and now the last experience is with copperband butterflyfish & peppermint shrimp.

I am just fascinated of the power of positive reinforcement. Taming peppermint shrimps to eat from my hand is just a fun thing to do and an experimental training with no further higher value. On the other hand it could be quite valuable in case there would be a need to transfer this tiny crustacean to another environment (aquarium) as it would be a hole lot less stressful for the individual. We are talking about voluntary participation in animal care which is getting more and more popular in animal care as part of daily animal keeping and welfare. This type of every day training is truly valuable in diminishing stress of handling of animals. it is also providing safety and less stress related feelings to any person dealing with the situation. It is also giving an advantage for management of animals and in long run savings in expenses.

You can find the result of  crustacean training from the following link to my tiktok-channel. 

(You may have to copy the link)

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNdWHSta/?k=1

Enjoy watching !

Every change is a possibility !

Remember not to make any defensive blocks in your mind of all possibilities we are having with our animal companions. 

Enjoy of being an enabler for any animal under your care and have fun.

Sincerely

- Kai -

ps. check out my renewed webpages

www.meritime.net

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kai-mattsson-36967819/

https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394

 

Milk spilled on the floor - everything is not always smooth-going in animal training

Animal training is not always linearly successful !

Most of us have experiences the mornings when it just would have been better to stay in bed, pull the blanket over us and get buried in the warmth of the bed.

I just recently experiences one of those days; I got up and while I was doing my breakfast I happened to dropped an almost full carton of milk on the floor just to find out later, after cleaning the kitchen floor, that the other carton I had was out of date and soured in my coffee.

  

A bit too brownish and flat pancake came to picture a lot later that day in the evening. 

 - Sometimes it just feels that we're not meant for success. -

Spilling the milk vs animal training

Spilling milk on the floor does not have anything to do with animal care or training - except that my cat got pretty curious and came to see how I am doing with the mess. Fortunately it was not too keen on milk and passed my "service". This was actually the first delight on my day; On the contrary to an old belief that cat should be given milk - we should avoid it. Most of adult cats are lactose intolerant as they don't posses the lactose enzyme in their intestine to digest the sugar in the milk. Drinking milk can make them feel unwell - at least in greater volume, it can cause vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain - like it does to some of us humans.

When things go wrong

Note I am not saying that if things will go wrong when we are spending time with our animals - but my wording is "when they do". It is inevitable that at some point of our journey with animals - things or training, the life together is not hitting  A+ (or to us Skandinavian 10+)

What do we learn, when making a mistake?

Making the mistake is not the end of the world. Being a parent I do know this sometimes too well; via my mistakes but also of the ones my children are doing. Fortunately this world was not made to be perfect - so making mistakes is very much ok. 

Doing thing wrong is actually something that is in the very core of learning. Getting negative feedback (reinforcement or punishment) does regulate and form our future behavior or thinking as it does with animals too. 

If we think for a moment how things are set in the wildlife; the strongest and smartest will survive. The answer to this lies in making mistakes and through learning process via those experiences; getting "smarter" by not always being perfect hunter or by not being the best in foraging generates each individuals innate talents to a completely different "higher" level.  For the wild animal populations & individuals life is not linearly successful. Success does of course plays a major factor in getting positive experiences and those will sharpen one's behavioral skills. Positive reinforcement is the one factor we want to uphold in the daily life and behavior management with the animals under our care.

The morning when my milk was spilled on the floor didn't really give the best vibes to start a day but at the same time it didn't mean I couldn't be successful in some other task. I guess my point is that getting stuck in training sequence or making sometimes major mistakes does not mean that we couldn't achieve the ultimate goal at some point, we just may have another unexpected twist on the way to reach our destination.

All the roads lead to Rome.

Being creative is one talent we as animal trainers do need quite frequently. I've faced this kind of situation so many times; But remember there is more than one way to achieve your behavior management goals. If one way of thinking is for any reason blogged - find another way. Take a look at your situation either a bit further apart or get in closer and try to find out triggers or reasons why the one (method) you used is not working. What are the reinforcements in the environment which are guiding the animal behavior to it's current path.

If there's will there's a way.

These are famous proverbs know by most of us. So finding a new way to our ultimate goal is nothing new. Sometimes when things just hit the wall - so to speak, we tend to give up. Seems like there wouldn't be any way further. In case this may happen several times there is a possibility that we - animal owners, trainers, keepers - may also learn a very unwanted behavioral form called learned helplessness. 

In such case we start to think that this is how it is and instead of trying to find some new innovative solution to the situation - we are gradually starting to accept the way of incorrect behavior. as normal. You may hear something like; "Well she/he is always like that." or "He/she has done it this way since I can remember." - At that point it could be wise to sharpen a bit of your memory! There must have been some triggers which have affected the behavior in some way, reinforcing the animal to perform them as they are now.

Learned helplessness is just a painted cattle guard in our way of getting further with our training.

Cattle guards, also know as cattle grids, are structures placed in the ground in order to prevent livestock from escaping a closed piece of land or border. 

Cattle guards have been know to be in use already from late 1800's and it is used world wide from Australia to Lapland, where I found them preventing reindeer's crossing the border. Cattle guards are effective in protecting livestock to escape from their pasture or field. 

Sometimes a fake cattle guard is used to do the job for livestock owner. Once animals have learned the effectiveness and meaning of the cattle grid this "knowledge" can be used to manipulate their behavior. Just by painting some distinct lines ie. on the road to create the "visual" effect of a real cattle grid would do. This is know to work .. at least for a while - until some daredevil will try it's luck and find out that it is just bluffing.

A link to further info on cattle guard:

http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.fol.005

Another trap we may fall into in this kind of situations is self fulfilling prophecy.

By saying kind of sentences described earlier in this text is not fair for the animals under our care. We should be enablers - not excluder for the success of it's behavioral progress. When we are expressing ourselves with negative expressions like - It's not gonna work, we are actually expressing a "prophecy" for our failure.

- Be optimistic and creative with your behavior management with animals under your care. -

Conclusion:

"If life gives you lemons - make lemonade."

Cheers

- Kai -

www.meritime.net

https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394

https://twitter.com/KaiMattsson

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Click - you've been liked !

 

A split of a second

In the past - actually quite recently - this sound was more or less commonly connected to a camera shutter sound; a fraction of a moment that was captured to remind us of some memorable moment, a highlight in our life.

That was before selfies were "a hip" thing to do?

Who would have thought then - to take multiple photos of oneself smiling or grinning to a disposable or any other camera,  then take the film to be developed and wait for about a week to get those photos done. Finally, when the great day arrived, one would go and collect &  pay those photos from the camera shop. 

After that ... Would anyone ever thought of going out and giving those prints to our neighbors, friends or any stranger one happen to meet on the way home?? 

Well - No! 

"Not in a million Years"

Would you like to be liked?

Hmm.. a bit of a strange question:  - who wouldn't ? 

For the majority of us - this is a very strongly built-in need or an essence of human nature. Think of children or another evidence of this need is the popularity of all different social media's. Who wouldn't like to get "likes" of our posting ? This is brilliant marketing "plan" of the social media app's, as it is getting us quite easily hooked up on to follow "feeds and reactions". It makes you look up your phone multiple times in a day. One study stated that an average person (done in US.) touches and looks at one's phone roughly 2500 time a day ! Not all is of course time spend in some social media, weather it's right or false news - it still is a very surprising number! ...and it's all because we get reinforcement when our body generates some endorphins etc cheering hormones.

Affective states and our feedback

How about animals? Do they posses similar needs? 

I believe they do. I believe they also have a need to be accepted, noticed or even liked ...maybe in a bit different way as we are feeling those states of mind. Topics on animal emotions or feelings and their affective states are more and more often heard when talking about animal welfare or even behavior management and training. If you are lucky and you're blessed with a pet , I believe you do know the answer to the question I presented earlier. Animals do like to get positive attention even from us and other inter-species companions.

What is a definition of an affective state?

Animal welfare is considered to be both biological and psychological state of an animal as it attempts to cope in its environment. Taking this into account, welfare includes both these elements; pleasurable and unpleasant mental states or experiences in their life. Animals may show quickly emotional responses  to a stimuly, affective states are longer lasting states of different moods (ie. depression) which are not only caused by a single stimuly but are more like an accumulation of multiple experiences. Those can be called affective states with animals.

How can we have an influence on these different states?

The feedback we are providing to an animal of course depends on what and how we are giving it. Feedback can be divided roughly into 'good' or 'bad', this would be the very common way of expressing it. In the theory behind animal behavior management, operant conditioning, we are talking about positive and negative feedback. The word feedback is nowadays translated into two other forms; reinforcement and punishment.

Simply saying when we are using the word reinforcement, it means we are trying to increase some form of behavior. On the other hand when we are using the word punishment, we are trying to decrease some form of behavior. When we combine these two ways of expression we are talking about positive or negative reinforcements and positive and negative punishments. The positive (+) and negative (-) just simply means that either something is added (increased) or taken away (decreased) from the environment of the animal in question. 

As for the term punishment - one must always remember that we are never physically punishing the animal. The concept of punishment must be understood: It is always affecting the behavior by the means of behavior management theory.

Find more on reinforcements & feeedback from my previous blog from here: 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/641880151475095364/4904237641956606255

Showing affection

We have of course multiple ways to show our affection to animals under our care. Showing affection is absolutely positive feedback to an animal. It is what we want our pets to experience.

 ... but ... it's not really a handy tool in behavior management. It is too vague and it leaves too much "air" for interpretation - on both sides; to us and the animal. We can't center it in the precise moment we'd like to reinforce.  Also - In many cases, it may not often be the primary force or reinforcement the animal is seeking or valuing.

Showing affection is good, however it is also one of the things I'm facing most often in many private consultation I am doing. The idea of thinking; what-the-animal-is-thinking is never fruitful. Many emotions are connected to this type of situation and animal owners do behave according to those - which often is not of the best interest of the approximation to achieve the goal in those situations, on behavior management viewpoint.

Bridge over troubled waters

Simon & Carfunkel sang this song into many hearts in 1970. It is a nice song and actually has nothing to do with operant conditioning - BUT:

The idea of using a bridge (clicker, whistle, "good boy" - wording etc. etc.) is kind of expressed in that saying. The signal is like a bridge over the physical space in between us and the animal, therefore it is giving us a very powerful tool to tell to the animal the very precise moment in action which we want to see again. Simplifying the situation; we are marking the exact moment in animals behavior repertoire by means of  a "remote control" = a bridging signal. Afterwards we can then reinforce the correct way of behaving by other means.

B. F. Skinner is considered to be the one who discovered these principles in 1940's & 50's. He was also the first one to use this technique publicly when training dogs, as the Look magazine reported in 1952. However it took almost 30 years before this marvelous technique concurred animal training field more widely. The first one's to use and adapt it were marine mammal trainers, especially dolphin trainers. They started to use different cues for different behaviors and whistles in stead of clickers in capturing and shaping the behaviors of those mesmerizing animals. 

Something to think about;

- I believe that this could also be used in some athletic sports couching - a new kind of tool for the couch to tell the exact moment of action of the athletes rehearsal.

Sincerely

Kai Mattsson

Meritime Consulting

www.meritime.net

https://www.facebook.com/Meritime-345171735503394

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kai@meritime.net