Predictor Cues

I'm at the kitchen counter preparing dinner and my husband walks through the room. He wraps his arms around me and I nearly jump out of my skin because I wasn't expecting it. The surprise made even a sweet gesture not very enjoyable. 

Now imagine I'm preoccupied with eating my meal and someone suddenly pokes me with a needle - my annual flu shot. Yikes! That would be very upsetting. 

What if I knew that injection was coming? What if I could consent to it? Wouldn't that make the unpleasantness of a painful poke a little bit better?

That's the idea with "predictor cues," a concept I learned from cat trainer Tabitha Kucera. One method she uses to give cats voluntary injections is Pet-Pinch-Poke. She says "pet," telling the cat that she is about to touch them. Then she says "pinch" before tenting the skin and "poke" before inserting the needle. The cat knows what is coming with each step, taking the surprise out of the interaction. 

I have applied this concept with my rabbit's nail trims and even with my 10-month old daughter's runny nose. When I see a snot drip, I say "nose" before wiping it. My mom saw this in action and said, "wow, most kids hate having their nose wiped. She was fine with it!" Is my daughter just particularly laid-back? Or does the predictor cue help her anticipate and accept nose wipes?

A few weeks ago, I was in the middle of a training session with Otto the Great Horned Owl, struggling with the same problem we've had for years. Every time I touched the leather equipment attached to his legs he would hiss and strike fiercely at my glove with his beak. Why was he so upset about this touch that happens nearly every training session? 

I suddenly had a thought: what if the surprise of the touch is worse than the touch itself? What if I added a predictor cue? 

I began to say "jess" before wiggling his equipment each time. It will likely take many repetitions for him to understand what I'm doing, but I can tentatively say that he seems to be striking at the glove less than he used to. Animal training is all about communication and I am excited to use predictor cues to make our training "conversations" even more clear!