In a few of my posts I have mentioned waiting for the animal to offer behavior instead of physically positioning them. But what does it really mean to wait? What, specifically, are we waiting for? How do we get a behavior if we are just waiting for the animal to move? In this post I will help you understand “active” waiting and how to use it during training sessions!
What does it mean to wait?
When we think of waiting, I have a feeling that many of us imagine one of two types of waiting. Some of us might imagine someone standing nearby with their arms crossed tapping their foot. While others might imagine someone calmly sitting, possibly with their eyes closed, relaxed and patient. However, I would like to point out a third style of waiting, active waiting. What is active waiting? Active waiting is essentially a combination of the two waiting styles I just mentioned. Active waiting involves the purpose of the first type, combined with the calm and relaxed demeanor of the second type. Active waiting is partly waiting with a purpose or a goal in mind. However, there is another aspect to active waiting that is very important and that is action. But how does one act and wait at the same time? Read on.
What are we waiting for?
If we have a goal in mind, and we are pursuing that goal, what are we waiting for? Well, we might initially say that we are waiting for the animal to do something. While that is true, I encourage everyone to think about this with more depth. We are waiting for behavior to begin. Now why is this distinction important? This distinction of waiting for behavior is important because we must be able to identify when the wait is over. When we train animals, we first need to decide what we are training. One of my favorite strategies in training is shaping. To shape something, we must decide what the goal behavior is, and then we must break it down into all its behavioral parts and train those approximations, building on those parts until the complete behavior is learned. So now put all these parts together. We are waiting for behavior, but we are waiting for a specific behavior. We are actively waiting, with a goal in mind, for a specific behavior and when we see that behavior, we know the wait is over and it is time for us to respond (often with a click and/or a reward).
How do we get behavior by waiting?
Okay, so at this point you might be thinking this is all fine and dandy, except how does one get a behavior while waiting for it instead of making it happen? The first answer to this is that as the trainer it is not our job to force a behavior; it is our job to identify and encourage behavior which leads us into the second answer. The second answer is that we must set the learner up for success. To set someone up for success we must first do two things. We must give them the tools they need to complete the task, and we must communicate our intentions to them. For example, when I train an animal to stand on a mat, I place the mat on the ground between me and the animal. The mat is the tool they need to complete the goal behavior and my picking it up communicates to them that I am interested in the mat, and thus they should be as well. Now, remember that I am actively waiting for behavior. In this situation with the mat, my goal is for the animal to step onto the mat, but the behavior that I am actively waiting for is movement toward the mat (I am shaping the behavior of standing on the mat and movement is the first “approximation” or “part” that I am rewarding). And since I am actively waiting, I will be ready when the animal leans in to investigate the object I have placed on the ground. This moment is what I am waiting for! We have behavior! Click, reward!
What just happened?
What just happened is that as an animal trainer I am always actively waiting for behavior. I am always looking for something to reward the animal for. If I am not training, the process simply is less formal, but I am still actively waiting and looking for what I can reward. As a pet owner, it is important to be an active waiter much like we are active listeners to our friends and family. With people we do this all the time. It is called “reading the room.” We observe others in our environment, looking for behavior, so that we will know when to act or speak. With animals it is similar, except we are looking to find out when we can interact with or reward the learner.
Closing Thoughts
Anytime we are with an animal, or someone else for that matter, both of us are learning. Learning is a constant process that takes time and happens throughout our lives. As a result, try not to be intimidated by words like “active”, “learning” and “wait.” By waiting for behavior and setting the other party up for success, we only add a small amount onto what we already do. Many of us already use the process of waiting for behavior and then rewarding that behavior with our children and our friends. We want to reward them for behavior that we like. For example, parents might wait for their child to take a bite of food, and then praise them for it, or we might say “thank you” to a friend for opening a door for us. When we interact with animals, both during and outside of training sessions, it is similar. During training sessions, we usually reward with food or a toy. Outside of training sessions we might reward the animal with an opportunity to do something they love or even the simple use of a calm, happy voice rather than a harsh one. This process does not have to be complicated or hard, but we must remember that many of the reward systems we use with each other can be effectively applied to animals as well. The more we practice the processes discussed here, the more second nature they will become, and the more fun we will have with their pets!
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