I was recently digging through some older training footage and came across a really fun PORTL (Portable Operant Research and Teaching Lab) session I did a while back with the wonderful Lisa Tuthill.
In this session, we explored a fun way to train duration.
Often, when we want to teach an animal (or a human!) to hold a behavior longer, we use the traditional method: we gradually stretch out the time between the behavior starting and the click [and/or other reinforcement]. But in this session, we tried a different strategy.
Watch the session here:
If you’re curious about how PORTL works and why it’s such a powerful tool for animal trainers to sharpen their skills, I highly recommend checking out this previous episode of the Animal Training Academy podcast with Mary Hunger. It’s a great deep dive into the tool
🎧 Listen here: PORTL with Mary Hunter on the ATA Podcast
I’m curious to know – have any of you explored teaching duration as a chain?
Whether you’ve tried it in a PORTL session of your own or with your non-human learners, I would love to hear your thoughts. If you have videos of your process, please share them! Let’s keep those ripples moving.
Happy Training,
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy
Comments on Teaching duration using Chaining from PORTL
An example would be using a release cue as the second behavior. The animal learns the stationary behavior, then the release cue is added, then the release cue is delayed to get more of the stationary behavior and finally the release cue is faded so the marker is the end of the the duration. In many cases though, the release cue (such as after laying on a mat) can be maintained.
Awesome example – thanks for sharing Donna! 🙏