Clicker Training a Wild Donkey
My training tool of choice is looked down upon by many. Oh well!
Sometimes, I have to remind myself that it was once a political statement for women to wear pants.
Today, nobody blinks when I wear pants — which is, regrettably, most of the time. I actually love wearing dresses. You’d never know, though. Rural Montana is a sore beast when it comes to opportunities to dress up. I have lamentations about this.
Anyway.
Clicker training — in the popular horse world — is akin to women wearing pants in the mid-20th century. I went many years under trainers who would chew you out for giving a horse a treat.
“They get muggy,” the trainers said. “You’re spoiling them.”
Food is Both Survival & Motivation
Under the circumstances, they weren’t wrong. Horses get intense about food when they’re fed on a regular schedule. If a barn feeds stalled horses every morning at 7am, feed them ten minutes late and catch the ruckus of the barn. Pawing, neighing, posturing. You’ll see it all.
Food is, after all, survival. It’s in a horse’s best interest to get as much of it as possible. But in times of plenty — as in domesticated life — we humans are tasked with managing their intake, lest they, like us, become fat off both the land and the hand.
But it remains that food is the primary motivating factor for 99% of equines. And, of course, many four-legged and even two-legged animals among us. My mom potty trained me with M&Ms. I still remember the colorful glass jar of candy sitting on the back of the toilet. The power of M&Ms compelled me. To date, I have mastered the art of using the bathroom. Thank you, Mom…and M&Ms.
A Mare Named Lou
A mare named Lou inspired me to get more into clicker training when I couldn’t get her past a sour attitude. I bought her for a song. And together, we learned the basics of horsemanship. I’d never worked with horses that weren’t “made.” That is, fully trained. Lou was what we call ‘green’ and she was, perhaps, the greatest teacher I’ve had.
I knew someone had clicker trained Lou a bit. When I bought her, she knew how to ‘smile’ and would show her teeth in a silly bid for a treat. I decided to give it a whirl, and a brand new horse bloomed in front of me. She was always good-hearted, but she became good-minded, excited to see me. She’d meet me at the gate to come play. I taught her how to hand me a bottled drink. I got her almost to the point where she’d get it out of the cooler.
Tricks are fun. But the better aspect was how smoothly our riding relationship bloomed when I added the clicker into her sour spots. After two years, I sold Lou at a decent profit to a cute family who wanted to trail ride, and she was a doll for that. I’m grateful for our time together, and for the gift that ‘smile’ gave me. An intro to ‘clicker training’ had begun.
Clicker Training 101
The history of clicker training started in scientific labs. Really, it’s operant conditioning — which is a branch off of classical conditioning.
Remember Pavlov’s dogs? That is classical conditioning. That’s akin to the horses causing a ruckus at 7am as soon as they hear the barn door open and a human walking toward the grain bins. They’re conditioned to the stimulus of both time and sound. I assure you, before that human walks in, there are expectations of arrival.
Operant conditioning is attributed mostly to B.F. Skinner, though a man named Edward L. Thorndike developed the initial theory of ‘instrumental learning’ and the ‘law of effect’ . Skinner, however, popularized the system.
At its most basic, operant conditioning is the notion that an individual will repeat a behavior that are rewarded and will diminish behaviors that result in unpleasant outcomes.
It relies solely on the operant — or the student, in my case, a wild donkey — to determine which behaviors he chooses to repeat. Choice is the most important word here, because it’s up to the trainer to set up the conditions for the student to make the best choice.
To me, choice is the most important element of this training tool. More on that in a bit.
Positive Reinforcement has Nothing to do With Positivity
There’s so much on the internet about the four quadrants of operant conditioning, and I encourage you to read up on them. But for now I’ll tell you that they are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.
The four quadrants can be confusing because we English speakers have preconceived notions about these words that don’t apply here. Positive and negative simply mean addition and subtraction. Reinforcement aims to increase a behavior, and punishment intends to decrease a behavior. Better put:
Positive reinforcement — adding a desired stimulus to increase behavior
Negative reinforcement — subtracting an aversive stimulus to increase behavior
Positive punishment — adding an aversive stimulus to decrease behavior
Negative punishment — subtracting a desired stimulus to decrease behavior
This gets confusing. Here are some clear examples.
Positive reinforcement: giving a treat after a dog sits on command
Negative reinforcement: the car stops beeping once you’ve put your seatbelt on
Positive punishment: getting a speeding ticket after, well, speeding
Negative punishment: Taking away a teen’s phone when they’ve broken curfew
This is where things begin to get fun.
Clicker Training, A Highly Effective Tool in the Training Toolbox
Clicker training as a tool uses positive reinforcement to increase behaviors. There are people online attach themselves to the idea that positive reinforcement is the only way because of the assumed positivity of the endeavor. This is a falsehood.
The issue is that I also use aids to get to the behavior. Halter pressure, for one, is an excellent tool to communicate. If I am putting pressure on the halter to encourage my donkey to back up, I can release the pressure once he takes a step back (negative reinforcement), mark the step back with a click (a conditioned reinforcer), and then give a treat to even more deeply reinforce that behavior (positive reinforcement).
Let’s say my donkey responds to the pressure by trying to bolt. I may have to dig my heels in, use an exorbitant amount of pressure to turn the donkey’s head toward me, and say “No!” to tell him that this is not acceptable. This is positive punishment (the post-behavior increased pressure & additive verbal cue) followed by negative reinforcement (the release of pressure when the donkey stops moving).
Releasing the donkey when he bolts is an unfortunate but sometimes accidental outcome. It provides the whole scale release of pressure following an unwanted behavior. This is negative reinforcement, to the nth degree. Moments like this are where we see horses learn to buck riders off, pull away from people, or worse. The release of pressure is so powerful a tool with equines that most people rely on it as their main tool — often without understanding the underlying construct.
Clicker training gives us a tool to do more with less. Plus, it’s fun.
I use clicker training to create a deeper understanding about pressure cues, to see pressure as a conversation rather than a tool, and to get an outcome that both of us are happier with. I have friends who are phenomenal riders and trainers with a tremendous amount of what horseman call ‘feel’. I don’t have that talent, but I can figure out the timing with a clicker.
How I’m Using It Right Now, with Brasso the Wild Donkey
The first step to clicker training is what clicker trainers call “loading the click.”
To teach the animal that a reward is coming, you use a marking sound in combination with a treat. I click my tongue, since I’m ADHD and lose clickers. You can also say “Yes!” or bang a drum. Basically, any sound you associate the treat with works. Blow a high C note on a tenor sax. Or say the word “Sick!” Anything works. Consistence is key.
Both donkeys are currently in a phase of ‘intolerance’ with humans. They currently have the choice to not allow me in their space, and for the most part, this is what they choose.
Brasso, the big shaggy donkey, belongs to my friend Elise. He’s more intolerant of me in his space, but is now conditioned to the clicker. If I click, he knows a treat is coming. Since he’s less tolerant of me, I’m training him through the fence, meaning he has the option to leave. But he will now touch a target — I use a long livestock whip — and follow it, touching it with his nose. When he touches it, I click then treat. I can also pet him with the whip, click a moment where I see him get more comfortable, and treat. This will lead to me being able to pet him, probably pretty soon.
But, giving him the choice means that we move at his speed. I’m happy to do that.
Kevin, A Different Kind of Wild Donkey
Brasso has been out of the ‘wild’ for a little over a year, he’s younger and more curious, but also more scared. At 13, he’s young for a donkey. They can live well into their forties.
Kevin, on the other hand, is 21. He’s been in captivity for three years and has a clear dislike for humans and a general curmudgeonly attitude with other beings, including Brasso.
Funny enough, Kevin is more tolerant of me in his space than Brasso. After a few retreat/approach sessions, he learned to like the feeling of the lunge whip petting him. He’ll now stand next to me, smell me up and down, and lean into me with his body. I can scratch his neck, pet his back, and feel comfortable with him in my space. Initially, if I turned my back on him, he’d pin his ears and stomp at me. He’s stopped that. He’s decided I’m his friend.
The one thing he isn’t interested in is taking a treat directly from my hand. He is scared of anything under his nose. His eyes sit high on his head, which means his eyesight is limited underneath him.
I have to figure out how to slow down my steps to help him feel more comfortable, but Kevin is also more tolerant of easy negative reinforcement. He is more resilient to pressure than Brasso. Remember, it’s not a worse sort of reinforcement. For him, I can do less training — in a way — and get the same result.
For now, Kev and I will work toward clicker training and live in a very intentional state of limited pressure and big releases.
Well, This Got Long AF, but Here are Some Resources
Remember when I said a lot of horse folk hate treats? Telling horsepeople that you clicker train can earn you an immediate ‘idiot’ status in the field. But, I think the results speak for themselves over time.
I also think they’re right. Giving a horse treats without conditions will illicit a response, whether you want it to or not. Oftentimes, that response sucks. Horses get bity, pushy, they ‘mug’ you as trainers say.
But clicker training induces the opposite. When I work with Seven — who is further along — she will show me every trick in the book trying to see where the ‘click’ will come in. She can ring a bell, step on a plastic bag, back up, move sideways, stop quickly, and more, and she’ll show you all of it before she’d ever think of mugging you for a treat.
Why? Because the ‘click’ indicates the reward. Instead of begging for treats, she begs for the conditioned reinforcer.
My clicker trained Boykin Spaniel is the same way. He’ll go through every trick in the book to see where the ‘click’ will come from.
And that’s where treat-aversive people are, in fact, missing an advantageous tool in a program. A conditioned reinforcer marks the exact moment a behavior occurs AND quickly communicates to the horse that it is correct. It’s an incredible opportunity for precision.
That said, I’m still learning. I’ve leaned on the following books. And I’m excited to keep the donkeys going. More to come.
Clicker Training for Horses — Alexander Kurland
Clicker Training for Dogs — Karen Pryor
Don’t Shoot the Dog: The Art of Teaching & Training — Karen Pryor (ignore the title, the book is great)
I loved your article and insight. It brought me back to the days when I owned a ranch and worked horses and cows in Eastern Oregon. Prior to that however, I was a practicing master falconer. As an apprentice I was required to read Karen Pryor’s book, Don’t Shoot the Dog. I returned to that book over and over again until it was dog-eared and I understood the principles. Operant conditioning is the best training method to achieve a working “hunting” relationship with a bird of prey as they are very food motivated. Contrary to popular belief you can’t “ starve” a bird of prey into submission to get it to hunt with you. They will always be wild (unless captive bred) and would rather be free. They are athletes and must be in top notch condition to hunt and actually catch prey. If their condition is too high they most likely will refuse to hunt and will just go sit in a tree until they’re ready to come down. Conversely if they’re low in weight they probably won’t have the energy to hunt and will do the same, or, be so frickin hungry they’re unmanageable and scary. When you introduce operant conditioning into the bird’s training you don’t have those issues. It’s happy to hunt with you and weight isn’t so critical….. And, you want your bird to return to you when it fails to catch something instead of going off hunting on its own, or flying off forever. So, you use operant conditioning and train your bird to a whistle because that sound travels farther than a clicker and birds can fly a long distance away chasing after a grouse, duck or rabbit. This is an over simplification of the falconry process, but like your wild donkeys most birds of prey have their own personality and preferences and training can be distinctly individual. However, in the long run, if you’re patient, persistent and consistent enough, operant conditioning works. I like how you simplified and explained the 4 different types of conditioning because they can be confusing like you stated. Also, I admire what you are doing with the older and/or unmanageable donkeys/horses, training them humanely so they can be serviceable, bring joy to people who acquire them, and of course, by giving them a quality of life and a second chance. Bless you and thank you!
Great work! We’ve got three (house) dogs and I’ve found that learning about training and implementing the training are for the lifetime of the trainer and trainee.
Also, there is so much in trying to understand the animal you’re trying to train/communicate with – rather than just trying to make them understand you.
I was excited when I read you would be sharing these. I’m looking forward to more!