Chat
07-25-2016, 08:42 PM
Nancy, Hihobaron
when you use the whip SOLELY as a communication tool, you can NEVER give a painful stimulus with it. A smack will cause pain and a brief sting is also a painful stimulus - just try it on yourself. After the first time the pain was inflicted, the whip will carry forever the threat that the painful stimulus can be repeated.
Rubbing a horse (or goat) with the whip stick and then later using the whip to smack it is just betraying the trust. Look closely to the eyes and mimic of a horse that makes this experience for the first time and you will see it. It will maybe just a tightening around the eyes or the nose and the horse might get a "sullen" expression.
I realise that it's uncomfortable to hear that.
One can train with negative reinforcement, it is how we all have been taught and trained as children (and maybe therefore we don't view it as cruel) but one should also recognise which systems in the brain he/she triggers with that kind of training.
Negative reinforcement produces animals that do as they are told even to the point of self-destruction but it will kill in almost every case the creativity and problem-solving abilities of the animal.
Positive reinforcement teaches animals that it's worth to search for a solution to the problem and that communication is going both ways. The positively trained animal will have an opinion about what it's been asked and that opinion can be "no, thank you!" Because of this possibility one on the "mantras" of positive reinforcement ist "always set the animal up for success" = beeing able to say yes (without the threat of "Do it or else" that a whip or a sharp halter/bit carries) and earn the treat.
when you use the whip SOLELY as a communication tool, you can NEVER give a painful stimulus with it. A smack will cause pain and a brief sting is also a painful stimulus - just try it on yourself. After the first time the pain was inflicted, the whip will carry forever the threat that the painful stimulus can be repeated.
Rubbing a horse (or goat) with the whip stick and then later using the whip to smack it is just betraying the trust. Look closely to the eyes and mimic of a horse that makes this experience for the first time and you will see it. It will maybe just a tightening around the eyes or the nose and the horse might get a "sullen" expression.
I realise that it's uncomfortable to hear that.
One can train with negative reinforcement, it is how we all have been taught and trained as children (and maybe therefore we don't view it as cruel) but one should also recognise which systems in the brain he/she triggers with that kind of training.
Negative reinforcement produces animals that do as they are told even to the point of self-destruction but it will kill in almost every case the creativity and problem-solving abilities of the animal.
Positive reinforcement teaches animals that it's worth to search for a solution to the problem and that communication is going both ways. The positively trained animal will have an opinion about what it's been asked and that opinion can be "no, thank you!" Because of this possibility one on the "mantras" of positive reinforcement ist "always set the animal up for success" = beeing able to say yes (without the threat of "Do it or else" that a whip or a sharp halter/bit carries) and earn the treat.
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Sabine from Germany
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Sabine from Germany