She will be training 32 horses to touch a target, manipulating the type of reinforcer (high or low value) and the delay between click and reward (1 second or 8 seconds). Robin Foster, research professor at the University of Puget Sound, looking at geldings’ behavioural responses (including penile tumescence) during PR training. Horses that never dropped had trainers with more PR training experience who were also more likely to use lower-value treats, suggesting that there may be some association with penile tumescence, trainer and horse experience, and treat values ( presented at the Progressive Equine Training and Behavioural Forum in Orlando, Florida in 2017).īennett is now working on her Masters Thesis at the University of Edinburgh with Dr. more delicious) reinforcers, and were horses with less PR experience. Horses that always or sometimes dropped were more likely to be trained with higher value (i.e. In the only study to date on this topic, equine scientists Robin Foster and Sue Bennett surveyed 103 respondents (representing 120 geldings and stallions) and found that dropping was surprisingly common during PR training, with 80% of horses always or sometimes dropping. This allows the trainer to more accurately mark the precise behaviour they want the horse to repeat, even when there is some delay between the desired behaviour and administering the reward. By making repeated associations between a click followed by a reward, the horse soon learns that the click, means good treats will follow. Horses trained using positive reinforcement learn more quickly, retain the learned tasks longer, experience less stress, and react to humans more positively.Ĭlicker training is so named because it uses a small hand-held device that makes a distinctive click sound, although any consistent distinctive sound (bell, whistle, particular word, etc.) will work. If your horse is performing a behaviour that you want, or the first approximations of something you want, reward it, and you are going to see the horse trial this behaviour again. Positive reinforcement simply means that behaviours that are immediately rewarded are more likely to occur in the future. Recently, social media has seen numerous conversations about the association between PR training and penile tumescence. Positive Reinforcement (PR) training, or clicker training, is gaining ascendancy in the equine world as a training alternative from traditional methods of negative reinforcement and positive punishment (see below). Penile Tumescence and Positive Reinforcement Training McDonnell concludes that SEAM appears to be a normal and frequent behaviour in stallions and in geldings, reflects contentment rather than boredom or frustration, and should not be discouraged ( 2005). One feral stallion masturbated four times per hour while teasing mares, bred every two hours, and masturbated as soon as one minute after ejaculation during breeding. Sue McDonnell ( 2005) reported that stallions living in natural circumstances engage in SEAM with similar frequencies to that of stabled horses. Interestingly, the old boys showed just as much penile peppiness as their younger counterparts with no disinclination of SEAM as a factor of age.Ĭountering the belief that the high rate of SEAM observed in stabled stallions is due to inactivity and isolation from normal social and sexual interaction, equine behaviourist Dr. (perhaps when the stallions got home from work, grabbed a beer and parked themselves in front of the TV). In a study of both younger and older stabled stallions, Tischner ( 1982) observed erection 7.4 times in 24 hours, a full erection 3.8 times and masturbation 4.1 times, for a total of 38 minutes every 24 hours, mostly in the morning, with a low point in the evening between 5:00 p.m. Research suggests that stallions spend quite a bit of their down-time erect. It occurs, not as a result of exposure to mares, but when the horse is alone or sometimes with other male horses. ‘Dropping’, or the clinical terms penile tumescence or spontaneous erection and masturbation (SEAM) describes the behaviour seen in both stallions and geldings where the penis drops, becomes erect to its full length, may involve rhythmic bouncing, pressing, or sliding of the erect penis against the abdomen, occasionally ends in pre-sperm fluid dripping from the urethra, and occasionally full ejaculation. Increasingly, Positive Reinforcement trainers are noticing that some geldings and stallions seem to find Positive Reinforcement training, well … stimulating! Is SEAM what it seems? Is it intense relaxation? Sexual arousal? Frustration? Hyperarousal in anticipation of delicious treats? A combination of all of these things?
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