Duration, Distance, Distractions

The 3 D's of shaping reliable behaviours.

When we shape new behaviours, we will steadily increase our criteria. In other words, we ask for more before we feed.

But it's not always quite that simple.

When we train horses there are 3 factors of a behaviour before it's "finalized".

Distance, Duration, Distractions. These are all factors that make it more difficult for the horse to complete their behaviour.

Distance is the distance from you to your horse. So for example: a hoof to mat target. The farther you are away from your horse when you ask them to stand on the mat, the more difficult it will be for the horse to do so.

We work to increase the distance over time but we start out with just a small distance, usually right beside the horse.

Duration is the amount of time the horse can do the behaviour before they get get a reinforcer. for example, when we work on hoof trimming, the longer you ask for the horse to hold their foot up, the more difficult it is for them to do so.

We also start out small, but increase the amount of time we ask the horse to have their foot up.

Distractions are the stimuli in the environment that may draw your horses' attention. This is especially important to our horses as they are prey animals. Even small things that we do not perceive as 'distracting enough' can change the way your horse responds!

For example, if you're riding and asking your horse to walk on 10 steps in the arena, the more distraction there is around, the more difficult it is going to be for the horse.

We start out in a familiar environment that doesn't have a lot of distractions but will increase the amount of scary stimuli the horse encounters or begin to move into more and more unfamiliar areas.

This bring me to my next point. We can only really work on one of these three things at a time. And you may even have to slightly lower your criteria for one of those when you work on another.

If we're trying to work on sending our horse to a mat when we're farther away (Distance), don't also ask for them to stay on it longer before reinforcing them (Duration)

Or

If we can ask for a minute of walking in the arena we may can only ask for 10steps when we're out on the trail for the first time. When our distractions increase then our criteria for duration (or distance) lowers.

So remember that criteria is fluid, if you notice your horse is struggling, try to lower your criteria for at least one of the three 3 D's!