10 things I learnt at The Convergence of Human and Animal Training and Technology Conference (CHATTCon) in Seattle.

My trip to Seattle in July showed me that people’s kindness is extraordinary! By reaching out to people online I had the opportunity to learn from them and with them! Complete strangers helped me with accommodation, making sure that I’m ok, invited me to hang out with them and many more. And by staying open and friendly I made incredible friends!

Throughout the conference I got to spend a lot of time with Ryan’s team and friends. Me and Gina talked about her perspective on behaviour from human training side and I could share my animal training perspective. If we could, I think we would be talking for days non-stop! Similarly, I had incredible discussions with Alex Diaz, one of the speakers on the conference! It amazed me how closely we think. On Sunday, some of us stayed till 1 or 2 am and we had a passionate discussion around behaviour science. You can learn so much through discussion, sharing opinions and listening to knowledgeable people. It’s how we consolidate knowledge. I’m so grateful that I had this opportunity!

It’s been over a month since the Convergence of Human and Animal Training and Technology Conference (CHATTCon) but the knowledge and passion stayed with me. I would like to share 10 key points that I learnt while being there.

1. The learner is always right!

Phenomenal Theresa McKeon, TAG teach International, was showing us great human training examples around giving instructions. We might think that we’ve explained our point clearly but it’s our learner that will feedback to us what they understood. You might say to your learner: “I want you to keep the dogs’ lead in your right hand while you have the treats in your left hand and I want you to feed the dog when he is on your left side by your foot. But when he dashes out in front of you, you wait for him to disengage and lure him with the food to come back to the position by your leg and only then feed him again.” Now, how many instructions did you just give to the person? And when it doesn’t go as planned, which behaviour do you want to improve in your learner? Is there anything that your learner actually did right? It is easy for us to focus on the “problem” behaviour and miss all of the good things that the learner did. Just looking at this instruction seems like a lot of things to do. How can we then blame the human for “not listening” if we overwhelmed him with our instructions? As B.F. Skinner said: “The rat is always right!” and so is your learner. It is your responsibility as a teacher for your learner to understand. No matter the species. When you take on the responsibility, you actually give yourself a chance to change the outcome. When you blame the learner, well… There is not much you can do, can you?

2. The behaviour has a profound impact on all organisms and it’s what humans have in common with animals!

Firstly, I can never recommend Susan Schneider’s book “The Science of Consequences” enough! Broad-spectrum of applications of the science. And not only behaviour science but also neuroscience, biology, epigenetics and more! At CHATTCon Susan provided us with many examples of extraordinary findings in animal research that shows very human preferences in them. From well-documented chimpanzees who enjoy watching the sunrise to sparrows preferring melodic music over dissonant 20th Century classical music. But what is even more extraordinary is the fact how behaviour is related to genetics! Learning from consequences activates or deactivates gene expression. It was studied across many, many species and behaviour is one of the environmental factors that does that! The way you behave determines which genes you will express! And it holds true for both humans and animals alike! If that’s not a profound finding, I don’t know what is! 

We sometimes think that we are doomed to behave in a certain way – we tend to think “that’s who I am”. But science shows that new behaviours can be taught both to animals and to humans. Delayed gratification is a good example that can be shaped across the species. Both humans and animals share a preference for smaller and immediate rewards rather than a bigger but later. But it’s not all lost! Delayed gratification can be taught by gradual exposure and a gradual increase in waiting time before a reward. It is so relevant for Susan’s current focus point which is climate change. We can actually learn to delay gratification which has the potential to save our planet! If you want to learn more, please check Susan’s book, The Science of Consequences.

3. How to handle mistakes positively and give your learner the best chance to succeed.

Ken Ramirez talked about redirection tools as our best options for handling mistakes. When our learners (human or non-human animal) make a mistake, we should see that as information, feedback that there is something to change in the scenario. We as teachers have the power to change that. We’ve been told that we should learn through trial and error. That we need to be told when we make a mistake and we need to point them out to our learners. But imagine a scenario where you are trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle and every time when you put an incorrect number or you take 1 min to think about the next move you hear a firm “No” from your teacher. How would that make you feel? It doesn’t mean you won’t learn how to solve it but would you like this teacher to be around? Would you like learning and solving Sudoku? What if you will be solving Sudoku level one at your own pace and never hear any “No’s” from anyone? You can then solve it nice and easy and later increase the level of difficulties. Is that not learning?

I don’t know about you but I prefer my learners to think that I’m a great person to be around. I don’t want them to avoid me or the training situation. And of course, sometimes things do not go as we planned (possibly quite often). But could we use something else instead of communicating every mistake to the learner? Ken Ramirez talks about taking a pause and about redirecting. Ask for different behaviour and evaluate what else can you try. It keeps the animal engaged and it doesn’t cause any frustration. Sometimes it’s about going back a step and asking for less next time. If it’s not going well, then try decreasing your criteria of the behaviour. Or maybe change something in the environment to give a chance to your learner to try again, try fresh. Many of us don’t realise how big of an influence our environment has on us! Sometimes just a shift in my body posture changed the way my dog learner reacted. It can be a small change that you were not aware of. And then you give a chance to your learner to try again and succeed! Isn’t that what we ultimately want to see? Our learners to succeed?

4. Cues or commands? And why does it matter?

Kathy Sdao started clarifying the difference between command and a cue. When you give your animal a “command” you expect him to perform a behaviour, or otherwise, there will be a negative consequence. When you give your animal a “cue” you ask him to perform a behaviour because there is reinforcement available for him. You expect him to choose to do this behaviour to gain access to the reinforcement, not to run away from unpleasant consequences. As humans, we tend to hear commands all the time. At home, at school, at work.  So it’s only natural that that’s our first tool to use. However, we can reverse that! Our animals don’t have to obey us, they can actively participate in our training session as it is fun and full of positive consequences. And cue only means that the reinforcement is now available. When you pair them, your animal will naturally choose a positive consequence. It is an incredibly effective tool of behaviour change!

The problem is, it can be so easy to misread the cues. For our animals, it’s like learning a new language. We have a tendency to not make it easy for them! Think about “down” and “bow”. Is it easy for you to differentiate between those two? Dogs don’t use language at all. Just think how confusing it must be for them! They hear the same thing from you but now the behaviour that was previously working no longer works… In this scenario, the animal that you work with won’t respond not because “he disobeyed you” but because he didn’t understand it! Maybe he didn’t see or hear the cue – for example, a visual cue can be masked by the Sun shining to his eyes or verbal cue can be lost in a loud environment. When we make it clearer for them, we can speed up the learning process. Don’t just assume that he “knows it” but he chose not to do it. We all want to be successful rather than fail. Assume the best from your learners.

Remember, the learner is always right! Make it easier for him with the use of clear signals that are paired with positive consequences and you will see amazing results!

5. Virtual reality is an incredibly efficient tool for teaching new skills

Annie Escalante and Andy Chavez talked about virtual reality and how it can be used in training staff members to provide service in the field of behaviour! With virtual reality, you can use programmes shown to speed up the process of learning and more importantly – you learn without jeopardising your client’s welfare as it is the virtual client you work with! It can have a tremendous impact on the field by spreading out the knowledge and speeding up the learning process! Virtual reality has barriers to overcome though. And it’s not the cost that is the biggest problem. It’s the accessibility (not enough headsets available), the time needed to develop a program and not enough data to prove the amazing results you will get from it. I would assume that there are also humans’ reluctance to change and do things differently (which is tied with not enough reinforcement for trying the new thing). I keep my fingers crossed for further development of this technology as I believe it can improve the lives of both humans and animals alike. Developing programmes and spreading technology has a big potential to create more qualified professionals in the field. Therefore, more people can develop crucial skills and provide help to people in need. Both in the field of human learning (challenging behaviours, autisms and more) and in animal training.

6. Body language signals can tell you a lot about your learner but it all depends on a context.

I already talked a little bit about dogs’ body language and how important it is to notice it. But how about humans’ body language? How good are we in recognising the signs in our human learners? Theresa McKeon talked about important human behaviours and their meaning. The problem is, one signal can mean 2 very different things (possibly a lot more than 2). If a woman is smiling, does it mean that she is happy? Could it be a signal that is designed to avoid a difficult situation? So she might actually mean: “I don’t want to reply so I’ll smile awkwardly instead in hope that you will leave me alone.” It brings to mind dog behaviour that is commonly misinterpreted. What does it mean when the dogs’ tail is wagging? When simultaneously he snarls and growls, do you think that the tail wag means happy? It’s not just the signal that we need to get good at recognising, it is the context in which this signal occurs! The context is oftentimes the key to understanding. The more you start paying attention to them, the more details you are able to see. It’s all about practising your observational skills and asking yourself: what does it mean in this context? I believe we all can get better at it and it has a huge potential to improve communication between us.

7. To create the most effective training plan, learn to observe and ask yourself: What’s The Function of this behaviour?

 I can never get bored of listening to Susan Friedman’s talks! She always teaches me something new and I’m incredibly grateful for all her work! At CHATTCon she shared with us examples of complicated behavioural interventions in a zoo environment. To change or modify behaviour, we need to firstly look at the big picture of how, when and where this behaviour occurs. Observing behaviour is a crucial skill. We then need to ask ourselves a question: WTF? Meaning What’s The Function of this behaviour (thank you, Susan!). When we look at the behaviour from our animal’s perspective we can see what is it that this animal is getting from it. Susan shared an example of an orangutan that used to squeeze baby orangutan’s head. Keepers were horrified by this but couldn’t quite get why the orangutan does it. It was only after looking at what the orangutan is doing while squeezing baby’s head that made this situation clear. She was looking at the keepers. The function of the behaviour of squeezing the head was to get keepers attention! Only when you know what is reinforcing the behaviour you can start to come up with plans on how to modify it and provide the same level of reinforcement but for more appropriate behaviours.

8. Digital Training and its exponential capacities. We can all achieve more!

Alex Diaz provided us with a big overview of the changes happening in the World and how we can leverage them to reach more people with our messages. It’s through digital training. That is something that I’m looking into at Woofs & Purrs. It’s the online training and digital meetings with clients that are catching my attention. Part of the reason I’m looking into it is so I can travel and enjoy beautiful sunset like the one in Cayman Island but more importantly it’s the reach that I can achieve. Now we are connected more than ever before! Even people miles away from you, in a small village where no one ever saw a dog trainer can have access to the Internet. It was never before possible for them to learn and improve communication with their dogs. But now it is! The more people do this, the more value we can provide in this World both for humans and animals in their care. Technological advances aren’t stopping. We should try to move with them.

9. Behaviour science helps to teach any skill not only very efficiently but also makes you enjoy the process of learning!

One of the most amazing talks and definitely the most surprising one was by Ann Bergeron, a dance teacher implementing TAG teach with her dance students! She even shared a tap dance performance with all of us in the audience! She showed that it is not criticising and pointing out mistakes that give teachers the best results. It’s clear instructions, use of a clicker (or another marker that is pinpointing the correct behaviour) and reevaluating the instructions that made all the difference for her students. All her students fell in love with not only the dance but also with the process of learning! Even when you fail while learning a new skill, you just get right back at it! You get a new, clearer instruction that helps you try again and succeed. It’s about seeing what you did well and reevaluating what’s the next thing you can try to learn, the thing that you haven’t yet mastered! Can you imagine learning in an environment like that? Do you think you would learn more or less efficiently? You will still receive feedback but this time you will be working on one thing at a time. I think it is brilliant and it has applications to every area of human learning. When you have a great teacher you can master a new skill not only efficiently but also enjoy the whole process of learning!  

10. Promoting natural behaviours in animals have the potential to improve the welfare of all animals in our care.

 We might not like the idea of keeping animals in zoos but the fact is that when animals are already there under human care, we should do our best to keep their welfare to the maximum possible level. Christy Alligood showed us amazing ways of how to design environmental enrichment for those animals so they can practice the same behaviours as they would in the wild. It’s not just about giving them feeding puzzle they need to solve to get food. The puzzle could be designed in a way that promotes behaviours you see in the wild. Have you ever seen a video of a fox jumping up in the snow to catch his prey? What if we could promote that? It’s not just about access to the food. It’s the whole process of getting the food that matters. Susan Schneider shared about epigenetics and how behaviour influences gene expression. If the animal does not behave in the way he would in the wild, what effect would that have to his gene expression?

I believe we should also consider that with our domestic animals. Do you feed your dog or a cat from a bowl only? Does he ever get a chance to practise the behaviours that he would while hunting? How you could change his environment to promote safe hunting behaviours? I think it is worth considering as we all want what is best for our animals. Could you try to hide the food on small plates around your house to promote hunting behaviour in your cat? Will the idea of improving his mental and physical health overcome the barriers of cleaning all of these plates after? We are all busy and I know that taking this extra time might be frustrating. However, it might have the potential to save you some money on the vet bills or behaviourist consult later on. When you get creative, you can come up with great ways to promote natural behaviours in your pet. Internet is full of ideas, you just need to find one that will work for you and your beloved animal.