Ignacio Estrada once said, “if children can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”
I have always loved that quote, and really, it is relatable whether teaching a dog, a cat, a bird or a human being. Each of us are a diverse combination of genetics, past experience, and physical makeup. We bring all of that to the table when we learning, adding to that all the other complexities of the classroom such as distractions, reinforcers, timing, length of training, mental fatigue and cues.
Yep, there is a lot to think about when it comes to being an effective teacher and helping our students to succeed. When students don’t succeed, when they check out of wanting to be in the classroom or when they shut down, instead of blaming them, we need to be doing all that we can to figure out how we can better set them and the environment up so that they want to be engaged…and ultimately get what we want them to know.
In the course of training, while I have different lesson plans for teaching different behaviors (which I am often adding to, to better adapt to different animals), I also am constantly taking in feedback from the animal I am training. If the session is not going well, that is important information to brainstorm about how the lesson may be better taught.
Mabel is one such case in point. Relatively newly adopted, we were just starting to teach a few simple behaviors to build her and her owner’s confidence and skills in teaching and learning from one another.
One of those lessons was a hand target (teaching Mabel to touch her nose to a fist). Mabel was turning away when her human mom first presented her fist while facing forward and leaning over. It wasn’t that Mabel was stubborn. Instead there could have been a number or reasons. One reason could have been that Mabel was sensitive to her mom’s body pressure so we tried having my client turn sideways. And Mabel approached her fist more readily so we knew we were on to something. Then, I had my client use a wooden cooking spoon instead of her fist (holding the spoon in her hand and extending it). Now Mabel was quickly touching her nose to the spoon. When we also switched from having my client hand deliver the treat to tossing the treat after a nose touch, we saw an immediate change. Mabel was now quickly getting the treat and coming back to target the spoon again. We were onto something!
So, next, my client moved the spoon down closer to her fist so that Mabel’s nose would be touching closer to the fist and we were still having great success. Mabel was nose touching my client’s fist within a matter of minutes.
This is just one example of how we can help ourselves and our pets by watching their feedback and making adjustments as needed.
And students who are taught in ways that keep them wanting to be involved and focused, are also learning that the teacher is a pretty awesome person to hang out with.
