Pressure is the force that drives all behavioural and evolutionary change on earth. From bad weather that motivates animals to seek shelter or forces them to adapt morphologically, or die off as a species, to the fluttering of male butterflies, sparring for a mate. Plants apply pressures to animals that eat them forcing them to change their behaviour or evolve longer beaks, or smaller feet. Pressure and release is also the method we use to teach any animal, any thing. From the lightest whispers of communication, to the expectant pause in clicker training, animals feel pressure from our gaze and change their behaviour to encourage us to release our gaze, or if they're tame, they change their behaviour so we get all happy with them.
About ten years ago, I had an epiphany at which point I fully understood the implications of the myriad ways pressure and release can be applied to everything in the entire universe. It was like a huge, glorious, red sun coming out from behind a dark, muddled, misty, year long cloud. It was completely life changing. Suddenly I could solve most mis-communications between animals and people. I could see how evolution worked, I understood business, marketing, psychology, why grass grew where it did, why trees were the shape they were, how mountains were formed, how small individual pressures lead to huge, insurmountable global problems, why behaviour can become inappropriate in a society given enough sustained pressure, why gut bacteria thrive on one environment and not in another.
To that point ten years ago, I had heard pressure and release used as a term in animal training, but didn't really understand it, had no idea the depth to which animals are sensitive to it, or how it encompasses every facet of an animal's life, domesticated or no, or the incredible nuances and depth involves when applying it in human-animal training. It elegantly and completely explains how animals learn, how they adapt to their environment, how they communicate with each other and different species, the predator prey dyad, how human life changed as it did as we evolved. It can be applied so acutely accurately within training as to release correctly applied pressure at the precise moment an animal's individual foot lifts off the floor to encourage a higher step on the next attempt.
To be completely honest, I have no idea how I achieved anything before I understood this concept. Perhaps I didn't! Or if I did it was only thanks to accidentally getting it right and the sheer bloody generosity of the animals and people I was working with.
Another term used to describe this principle is timing. If someone is said to have excellent timing around animals, it's the point at which they apply, maintain and then release the pressure they have applied at an accurate level for that animal in that moment. It's a simple premise, but it's such an enormous subject and so nuanced and changeable given individual and circumstance that it can take a lifetime to master.
Once you have played with the above concept in your head and understood it as a premise, there are a few other vital ingredients necessary to understand and apply in order to have the most success:
Motivation and the current mental and physical state of the animal you're working with. Karen Rohlf asks if it's "Fair, reasonable or possible?" for this specific individual animal to perform that maneuver at that point of that day.
An example:
If we are hoping to teach a puppy to sit on cue - at which point can we most likely receive the behaviour we are looking to reward?
If the puppy is very young and just being weaned, and is in all other ways relaxed, feels safe and secure, knows the person asking them so sit, isn't in need of anything physiologically that may prevent them from sitting (no pain or needing a poo for example), then the point at which you are most likely to receive a freely offered sit that you can then reward is as you walk into their room. Some will sit and look at you because you're tall and they are small. Their neck tires easily and sitting rests those muscles and makes the angle more easy to achieve. If you quietly tickle the chest of those who are sitting, they will offer the sit next time to ask for the same, friendly tickle because that is the behaviour they were displaying when they received something nice.
So let's unpick what happened.
The puppy was unafraid (safety was not an issue).
They were old enough to sit, and walk around, but not so old they have lost interest in you (about four weeks is ideal).
You walked into the room and they were otherwise a bit bored and wanted to interact with you.
You have previously handled them so they're not afraid of you moving.
They are watching you to see what you're doing, perhaps wondering how to get you to interact with them and what that might look like.
As they look up at you, they're neck begins to tire, and comfort becomes an issue. Discomfort of the neck is a pressure that is happening to them.
They sit, the discomfort of a tired neck is released.
Sit is rewarded in the young puppy naturally without you doing, saying, treating, anything.
When would it have been almost impossible to achieve that simple move in exactly the same set up?
If you're carrying food and the pups know the sound of the food bowl and or smell the food and are hungry. You would have no hope in hell of asking a single one of them to sit at that point. They'll be motoring around sniffing like mad, looking for the food. Once they understood that 'sit' might work to get you to do things, they will offer 'sit' when you come in with food to see if it'll get you to put it down quicker.
If you put it down when they're 'barking' or 'whining' they'll offer that more freely for anything else they might want on throughout their lives. Not something I want to encourage!
Another scenario in which expecting a sit would be unreasonable would be if they weren't motivated by interaction, were afraid and wanted to escape.
If the pups were not yet tame, or hadn't met people yet, or had had unpleasant encounters previously, hiding may have made the person go away. So if the pup wants the person to 'go away' and hiding achieves that, it will more likely be offered next time to try and achieve the same result.
Motivation is a huge subject and arguably one of the hardest things to understand until you know an individual well. Some are more likely to be true of a particular species (dogs like salami, horses not so much!), some are true of all species (every animal on earth needs to feel safe and unafraid. If there is a sniff of fear, that will be the predominant motivator - beware the animal that fears you, especially if he or she cannot leave!).
A desire to get to the bottom of pressure and release can make the subtle difference between elegant, quiet training, and chaotic, 'formal', frustrating training that has specific sessions that are unfun for everyone.
As a general rule ask yourself the following:
What does this animal currently want?
What do I want from this animal?
Is it fair, reasonable and possible for me to ask the animal this at this point of this day and for the two above questions to align and for me to offer what the animal wants in exchange for what I want?
A word on food treats:
Food treats do sometimes constitute a reward, but tend to lose their value particularly if there is anything more interesting or pressing to attend to. They can also distract an animal from his or her surroundings (which I never want - I need my animals to function in the environment they live in in a present manner, and not be surprised when the food is gone), and can enhance excitement in a way that distracts from the behaviour you're asking for.
Of particular note pertaining to food rewards is described in Next of Kin by Roger Fouts - he tells of chimps that are given painting equipment and who enjoy endlessly painting for hours, for the love of it, until they are given food rewards to produce paintings. Once food is added, they rush off any old crap to get the job done and receive the reward as quickly as possible. The art of painting lost its value as an act in itself and became a means to an end. Is this why 'selling out' as an artist is so poorly thought of in human society?
What do you think Damien Hurst? Have you ever mass produced any shit art for the sake of the cash? And what value does it have? A number? Or a concept that will speak volumes to generations to come?
I digress :) Perhaps the pressure of life forced Mr Hurst to produce art for money to maintain a lifestyle he had become accustomed to, pressure that was released easily by producing a lot of things people wanted to pay him for. No bad thing and fair enough.
Before I go - how does glacial pressure form the earth?
Weather applies pressure to exposed porous rock and slowly washes it away, along with any idiots that are camping on top of it.....
Further reading:
Next of Kin. My conversations with chimpanzees.
Roger Fouts and Stephen Tukel Mills.
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