Dog trainer secrets exposed : YOU can clicker train a human.
Yes, yes, I know. It's sneaky.
Hi Gang.
First a disclaimer. Yes, you can clicker train a human … BUT
I absolutely do not want anyone trying to make massive changes to a person by clicker training them, or indeed any other kind of training.
This post is massively tongue-in-cheek and more about getting your washing up done for you, or your coffee made … and not about controlling anybody else in any serious way, shape or form.
If your intention is thus, or you condone such things, you can piss right off out of my readership.
Now that is over with.
I was asked if we can train humans like dogs.
It’s a bit of a strange question, but something that left me giggling and so I thought I would share it with you.
The answer is of course, “yes.” We can train all living beings with rewards, from the fish in the sea, to dogs and other land animals, to humans. Even my own kids can be trained with a sneaky little know how.
Note - while you CAN technically use a clicker, a better reward marker for a human might simply be pleasant conversation if you don’t want them to know what you are doing.
Though of course, it may be much faster to simply ask a human if they wouldn’t mind doing/not doing something. But training harmless things like doing some housework for you, or bathing more often, or making the coffee can be a fun and satisfying activity for you.
Even more fun is to let them think they thought of it … Or to not even notice they are doing it at all.
All animals enjoy rewards and reinforcement.
The basis of reward-based training is easy. Our survival throughout millennia has been based on leaning towards things that make us feel nice, and away from things that don’t. There are a few universal ways that all sentient beings can be taught to do things, or to learn to like things. There is lots more to it than in the scope of this post and if you are interested in it, I’d be happy to write about it all in
if you ask nicely!Positive Reinforcement
If something makes us feel good, we are likely to repeat the action that led to it. This is called “Positive reinforcement.”
Rewards make us feel good, so we are more likely to repeat the actions leading up to rewards, to get access to them. The action is “Positively Reinforced.” So when someone presents us with a reward, for doing something they like, we are more likely to repeat that action.
Obvious rewards are things like pocket money after doing chores. Wages after working all week. A bar of chocolate after sticking to a diet all week. That kind of thing. Or for a dog, a treat after a decent down-stay.
Conditioning
If we pair something neutral with something nice, this is called “conditioning.” Our brains become conditioned to want the neutral thing to happen, because then the nice thing will happen. (Of course if we pair the neutral thing with food, we become conditioned to feel hungry when the neutral thing happens, and so on.)
So if every time you see a pair of headphones I give you a £5 note, pretty quickly you are going to LOVE seeing pairs of headphones.
Of course, all of these things have darker counterparts that involve punishment and the use of aversives, and as a Fun Not Fear® Method user, I do not entertain those unnecessary options. I believe in teaching what we do want and rewarding it, not punishing what we don’t until the subject gets it right.
But these rewards are often pre-arranged. The person performing that task already has an arrangement as to what their reward will be, and when they will be receiving it. They can pick and choose whether the reward is worth the effort of the task. Which is all well and good, but what if they say no? You may be stuck taking your own bins out, on everyone else’s behalf, forever more.
Doing a spot of sneaky reward-based training of humans requires a bit of stealth. You want the person to organically start performing the task without being asked, because it feels good to them to do it. AND they have no idea why they want to do it.
No more nagging! How does THAT sound?
Begin by working out what they enjoy, so you can use it as rewards. There is no good in rewarding with coffee if they do not like coffee, as then you will punish the behaviour instead.
For the purpose of this article, I’m going with tea and toast, but you can use whatever works for your troops.
Lets train the human.
Expecting a whole chore like the washing up done or the bathroom cleaned in the beginning is a bit much. Have some patience. First we need to practice with something easy.
Start by catching your human in the act of doing something you find helpful.
Something miniscule, like flicking on a light switch in the evening, or shutting a window. As they do it say “Thank you! I was just about to do that, shall I put the kettle on?” or something equally cheerful. They may be surprised at your pleasure but they will be immediately be happy with the reward (you are making them a cuppa.)
Of course, they do not know it is a reward. But the action of closing the window or flicking the switch led to a positive outcome.
Leave the light off or the window open again the next day. Sooner or later it will get dark or cold enough that they should go and flick the switch or close the window. Say something like “Hi, is that the time already?” (as if you didn’t know… ) and offer them a sweet from the packet on your table.
Habits can take a few days or more to form, so have patience. Repeat for a few more days, secretly following the action with something normal-but-nice, but not making it at all obvious. Eventually you will notice they come straight in and perform the action without thinking. Keep rewarding them until the habit is ingrained.
But what about training more complicated stuff?
Ok, so now we have proven our human is trainable. What can we do with them next?
How about a little shaping? (Shaping is where we break a behaviour down into baby steps and then reward at the completion of each step, increasing criteria as we go along until they are doing the whole behaviour.)
Wait until they walk through the kitchen first thing in the morning, when you have all just woke up, and as they are going past it anyway (so it’s nice and easy) ask them to “flick the kettle on” and say that you will make them a cuppa.
The reward for flicking on the kettle is the cuppa.
Do this for a few mornings in a row. They will start flicking on the kettle as they go past it.
Once they are proficient at flicking on the kettle, try leaving the kettle empty. Hopefully they will then fill the kettle before flicking it on.
Do this for a few more mornings.
Now they are filling the kettle and switching it on for their cuppa (made by you.)
Now, lets have the cups ready before they come past. Have the tea/coffee/sugar etc already in the cups. Let them fill and flick the kettle on like normal. Start making some toast (so you have an excuse for them to do it, and to build in your next level of rewards)and wait and watch to see if they pour the water. If they don’t, give them a little nudge and ask them to do it before you finish off pouring the milk etc.
Now they are getting toast as their reward for their tea and coffee making efforts.
Repeat for a few more days.
Now “forget” to add the milk. Hopefully, as they have gotten this far they will simply add the milk themselves while you are buttering the toast, if you leave it long enough.
When they do it all by themselves the first time, be sure you are ready with some hot, yummy toast - with the introduction of Jam for a special treat. (This is called “jackpotting” - they are getting something AWESOME for their effort.)
Repeat allowing them to make the cuppas for a few mornings, rewarding them with jammy toast, until the jam runs out. Now you can drop down to buttered toast. One day you might not have toast at all, but instead have cereal left on the side for them.
Always reward AFTER the drinks are made, and use something they like - but by keeping it fresh and changing the rewards up a bit, you are creating a differential reinforcement system, that will stop them getting bored of their reward and have them making your breakfast cuppa much longer.
Am I a bad human? I don’t know. I don’t care too much. But little things like this do amuse me, so long as they are strictly being done for harmless purposes.
It also just occurred to me, how wonderful it is when people do the simple things in life for us, making us a cuppa, or helping around the house, without being asked. That is true love, there hidden in the mundanities of life, instead of big, shallow and flouncy gestures that require Facebook posts and massive adulation in recompense.
Do you train your humans?
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Catch you next week!
Warm ‘N’ Fuzzies,
Freya xx