Equiosity

We’re beginning a three part series with Dr Michaela Hempen. The overall topic explores the question: What is the “Mind?” And how is that relevant to assessing animal welfare?

This conversation grew out of our previous discussion with Dr Joe Layng on public and private events. I suggest you listen to those episodes as an introduction to this discussion.

Why are these philosophical discussions relevant to horse training? Michaela begins with a historical perspective. What are the cultural influences that have shaped our attitude towards animals? Why do we have this cultural bias that has created a hierarchy of animals? Primates are high on the evolutionary scale, other animals are lower, and non-vertebrates are lower still. How does this influence our training and management choices?

Michaela is a scientific officer at the European Food Safety Authority. Part of her work focuses on animal welfare. She’s part of a team that is preparing reports for the European Commission, which, hopefully, will be the basis for updating the European animal welfare regulations.

To prepare for this project Michaela did considerable background reading. She wanted to understand the “great divide”. This refers to a philosophical split between behaviorism and cognitive ethology.

So join us as Michaela guides us through a historical look back on the evolution of these very different ways of viewing behavior.

For a list of references visit Equiosity.com and refer to the show notes for this episode.

This is Part 3 of a Three part series on public and private events with our guest Dr Joe Layng.

In part 1 Joe talked about Helen Keller who became blind and deaf after an illness when she was 19 months old. Without language she had no sense of self. It is through language Joe argues that we become aware that we are aware. Without language animals lack consciousness.

In Part 2 Joe began by holding up his coffee mug and describing it for us.

“It’s a black cup. It's got a handle. I can tell you a whole bunch of stuff about it,”

No one listening to the podcast can see the mug. You have to imagine it.

We can’t see what you’re seeing as you imagine Joe’s mug. But we couldn’t see what you’re seeing it even if the mug was sitting in front of you. I assume that you’re seeing the same mug I’m seeing, but even something as simple as color is something we assume but can’t determine.

Joe asks: “What makes one a public event and the other one private?

For answer he says: "There is no difference, except in how that seeing comes to be . . . The seeing isn't in the stimulus, it's in the relation of the organism to its environment.”

At the end of Part 2 Dominique brought us back to the statement Joe made in Part 1 that animals do not have consciousness. She asks again: what is consciousness?

That’s where the conversation picks up as we begin Part 3.

This is Part Two of a Three part series on public and private events with our guest Dr Joe Layng. Joe is a behavior analyst. He's been our guest before. We’ve talked about contingency adduction, non linear analysis, the effect of schedules on social behavior, and degrees of freedom among many other topics. Most recently we did a series with Joe on Schedules of Reinforcement.

Last week Joe talked about Helen Keller. Most of us know who she was through the movie “The Miracle Worker”. Helen Keller was born in 1880. When she was just 19 months old, an illness left her blind and deaf. Until she was seven years old she lived in a world without language. If you’ve watched “The Miracle Worker” you know the scene where her teacher Anne Sullivan spelled out water on Helen’s hand while holding her hand under a hand pump. The connection was made. These odd hand movements meant water. She could communicate!

In the clicker training world we often refer to this event as a Helen Keller moment. That’s the excitement you see in some animals when they suddenly understand what the click means. They can communicate! We call the sudden surge in activity, excitement. And we refer to these emotions as private events and we make a distinction between emotions and emotional behavior. One is a private event which we can’t see and the other is an observable public event.

Just when you think you’ve got this sorted, Joe throws a monkey wrench into our understanding by arguing that there is no difference between public and private events. In this episode he’ll give us another intriguing way of thinking about what we think is our reality.

This is Part 1 of a three part conversation about public and private events with Dr Joe Layng. We’ve just finished up a four part series on Feldenkrais work. I think it is perfect that we’re following this series with Joe’s discussion of public and private events.

In episode 259 Anita shared an ATM lesson with all of us. What you experienced from this lesson is what you experienced, but I have no way of knowing if that is anything even remotely related to what I experienced.

This is relevant and important especially when it comes to riding lessons where we are trying to translate into words a kinesthetic experience. Joe’s discussion of public and private events begins there and then carries us into a discussion of what is consciousness. He then asks: are animals aware?

Dr Layng has been our guest before. We’ve talked about contingency adduction, non linear analysis, the effect of schedules on social behavior, and degrees of freedom among many other topics. Most recently we did a series with Joe on Schedules of Reinforcement. Those are episodes 239 through 242. I suggest that you listen to episode 239 as well as this current series. That episode was a teaser for the conversation we are having on public and private events.

In this episode Joe talks about Helen Keller. Most of us know who she was through the movie “The Miracle Worker”. Helen Keller was born in 1880. When she was just 19 months old, an illness left her blind and deaf. Until she was seven years old she lived in a world without language. If you’ve watched “The Miracle Worker” you know the scene where her teacher Anne Sullivan spelled out water on Helen’s hand while holding her hand under a hand pump. The connection was made. These odd hand movements meant water. She could communicate!

In the clicker training world we often refer to this event as a Helen Keller moment. That’s the excitement you see in some animals when they suddenly understand what the click means. They can communicate! We call the sudden surge in activity, excitement. And we refer to these emotions as private events and we make a distinction between emotions and emotional behavior. One is a private event which we can’t see and the other is an observable public event.

Just when you think you’ve got this sorted, Joe throws a monkey wrench into our understanding by arguing that there is no difference between public and private events. In this episode he he begins a conversation that offers us an intriguing way of thinking about what we think is our reality.

This is Part 4 of a 4 part series on the Feldenkrais method.

In Part 1 I shared some personal history in which I looked back to two innovators in the horse world, Sally Swift and Linda Tellington-Jones.

In Part 2 Anita Schnee, a Feldenkrais Practitioner who is familiar with my work, introduced us to the Feldenkrais Work.

In Part 3 she shared an Awareness Through Movement lesson. And now in Part 4 Dominique and I share our impressions of that lesson and the questions that emerged from it.

Dominique is new to the Feldenkrais work so she asked questions I am sure many of you must have. So before Anita and I could get too carried away into the poetry of this work, Dominique kept us grounded in some practical questions that I think contribute very much to a basic understanding of the method.

This is part three of a four part series on the Feldenkrais Method. In part 1 I took us on a look back at the pioneering work of two very innovative individuals - Sally Swift the developer of Centered Riding and LTJ the creator of TTEAM training. Sally’s work introduced the horse world to the Alexander technique and helped to modernize the way riding is taught. And Linda introduced the horse world to Feldenkrais™ work.

In Part 2 Anita Schnee joined us to introduce more fully the Feldenkrais™ work. In a way we have danced around saying what the Feldenkrais™ work is. In Behavior Analysis we talk about a study of one. That’s true for the Feldenkrais™ work as well. What you take from the lesson we’re sharing in this episode will be unique to you.

So this week Anita is sharing an Awareness Through Movement Feldenkrais™ lesson which she designed for this podcast episode. It is yours to enjoy.

This is the second of a four part series on the Feldenkrais™ Work. This week we’re joined by Anita Schnee. Anita Schnee is a Feldenkrais™ Practitioner who is very familiar with my work. The Feldenkrais™ Work can be difficult to define because it is experienced differently by each person who uses it. I relate to the Feldenkrais™ work through my work with horses. Anita has a very different relationship with the work. In this episode we talk about some of the many ways in which an Awareness Through Movement Lesson can be experienced. Next week Anita will share an ATM lesson she designed for this podcast.

If you have ever taken a riding lesson, you’ve probably experienced how confusing the instructions can be. You’re being told to: “fill your back, push with your seat - no not like that, bear down, lift up, lean forward, lean back!” You can be forgiven if you feel like shouting back: “Make up your mind! I can’t do both at the same time!”

Riding instruction is a challenge because we are attempting to translate into words physical actions. And my starting point, what works well for me probably isn’t your starting point. Generalities are useful, but at the end of the day, instruction needs to be a study of one. It works best when it is tailored to each individual.

My clinics almost always include opportunities to explore handling and riding details without the horses being present. You slide down lead ropes that are being held by “human horses”. Another rider gives you direct feedback which means your horse is spared some of your learning curve. Various body awareness lessons let handlers make discoveries about how best to organize their own balance. Through this process we can create verbal translations for desired physical changes. Now when the instructor tells you to “fill your back”, you aren’t left thinking: “fill it with what!?” Instead you know how to translate this phrase into a meaningful physical response.

I originally saw this style of teaching being used in the 1980s by two innovators who helped bring riding instruction and horse training into the modern world. I’m talking about Sally Swift, the developer of Centered Riding and Linda Tellington-Jones, the founder of TTEAM (the Tellington-Jones Equine Awareness Method).

In this week’s episode we’re going to use a look back at their work to introduce a new series on the Feldenkrais™ work. Next week we’ll be joined by Anita Schnee. Anita is a Feldenkrais™ Practitioner who is very familiar with my work. She’ll be sharing a Feldenkrais™ Awareness Through Movement lesson with us so you will have an opportunity to experience the Feldenkrais™ work directly. This look back at the work of two great innovators gives us a starting point for the conversation that we’ll begin in next week’s episode.

This is part 2 of a conversation in which Dominique and I were talking about various topics that emerged during a recent on-line coaching session. Last week we talked about what it means to disengage the hips and how to think about this from the perspective of a positive reinforcement trainer.

From there Dominique changed gears to talk about an enchanting image that we both liked, that of a tiny elf sitting directly behind your horse’s ears while you ride. The elf is there to help you identify when your horse is in a good, clickable balance.

Another new image Dominique liked was that of a screaming alarm clock. This relates to starter-button version constant-on cues and the contact trap.

We also talked about the value of breaks. Teaching a horse to back provided us with a useful way of visualizing the concepts we discuss. We finish with loopy training as it relates to our recent podcasts on schedules of reinforcement.

In this episode we discuss what it means to disengage a horse’s hip. That phrase doesn’t sound as though it is something a positive reinforcement trainer would want to do to a horse. And that’s true. We don’t want to do it to a horse. That would put us into force-based training, but it is something you need to teach a horse so you can ask for the “dance step” when it is needed. You need it for such everyday tasks as taking a horse through a gate and then turning with your horse so you can close the gate. You need it at other times for safety when your horse is startled or gets excited, and you need to direct him out of your space. And you need it to teach the balance needed for advanced performance.

So you need to be able to ask a horse to yield his hips. The question is not are you going to ask him for this maneuver, but how are you going to teach it? This is what we explore in this episode. We define what is meant by disengaging the hips. We look at how it is typically described and taught in the horse world, and then we look at this behavior from our perspective of positive reinforcement teachers.