I'm interested to see how this goes, because I feel like she's the perfect horse to do this work with. Very intelligent, eager to please, but sometimes gets a bit anxious about doing the right thing. I really feel that the positive reinforcement and mental engagement will work well with her.
I started with targeting, as is pretty typical for doing this with horses. Worked for maybe 20 minutes total, split up into 3 or 4 sessions. For lack of a more convenient object I used an orange traffic cone, but I've got plans for a less unwieldy target next time.
By the end of the whole session she knew exactly what she was doing and would stretch high or low to touch the cone for her reward. I left her hungry for more! Next time we'll spend more time targeting and start increasing the time she must touch it before getting a click/treat.
No pictures with the cone, unfortunately, but I'll get some tomorrow.
I'm going to take this as far as she tells me she wants to go. She really enjoyed it today (she got loads of treats for touching a big orange cone, who wouldn't enjoy it?!) and I think clicker work will provide a fun break from schooling under saddle.
Brief outline of the main areas I want to address with the clicker as we go along.
The first one is to help her develop a solid understanding of what it is that we're doing by picking easy and relaxed behaviors to reinforce.
Understanding/Relaxation
- Targeting
- Relaxing while hooves are handled (she's still a little tense about the hind legs)
- Head Down
- Carrot stretches
Ground Work
- Leading on the off side (she leads, but not confidently)
- Turn on the forehand (already does pretty well)
- Turn on the haunches (knows, but not well)
- Sidepass
- Backing (she is slow and slightly resistant to backing up)
Spooky Things
- Tarps
- Plastic bags, plus cans inside later
- Balloons
- Costume (I have my Batman horse/rider costume still!)
- Ropes/restraint (staying calm about ropes around legs, etc)
These are more like ideas I've set down for myself -- just areas of interest to explore with her. To me, clicker training is just another tool to have in the toolbox, and I want to try it on Pandora.
I'm taking Pandora to a Pony Club dressage lesson on Sunday, which should be fun. It's at the same place as the very first schooling show we went to, so I'm not worried about spookiness at all. She's much more fit these days, thanks partly to frequent free-longing in the arena (not much turnout lately, sigh) so we should be able to get a lot out of the lesson.
5 comments:
Can you recommend a source for more info on clicker training?
Absolutely!
Here is the website of probably the most popular authority on clicker training: http://www.theclickercenter.com/2004/store/books01a.php
It's a bit difficult to navigate so I'll give you a couple important links from the site.
This is the book that you'd probably want, which basically covers CT for horses: http://theclickercenter.com/2004/store/books01.php
Also, here's a less expensive, less in-depth book that's more of an introduction to CT and horses: http://theclickercenter.com/2004/store/books02.php
But, if you're willing to test the waters yourself with a little experimentation (and if you can find something to mimic the clicker sound without buying one, such as a popping bottle cap or a clicking pen) you don't really need the books. Here's the link to her online training guide: http://theclickercenter.com/2004/guide/index.php
Which briefly covers some of the basics.
You can probably also find some of her books at a local library, as well.
I'm always happy to talk more about it, so if I haven't overwhelmed you with all this, let me know and we can talk some more :)
Here's a little more:
http://www.clickertraining.com/taxonomy/term/3
That's from Karen Pryor, a foremost author on general clicker training (the lady who I mentioned in the last post I believe is focused specifically on horses, though I could be mistaken). Several nice articles there.
And, finally, here's another site with plenty of interesting articles to read: http://www.clickryder.8m.com/
I actually have a clicker, which we bought for our dog, who is terrified of the sound. Stoopie Doberman. As long as it doesn't involve too much walking and chewing gum at the same time, I'm game. My fear is that I'll get it wrong and confuse my horse, which I never want to do.
I've thought about clicker training Casey as a way to teach him to ground tie. For the life of me, I can't figure out how else to teach him to stay put unless I train him as I would train a dog to "stay".
Karen Pryor is the mother of clicker training. She's the fore-most authority on it and she is the one who made it popular.
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