Відео

Hi Callie, great question! Basically if I'm pre-loading my hand with food, I do it while he's eating or not watching me, so if I think he can see what I'm doing, I'll leave my hand in the pouch, so as not to distract him from what he's supposed to be doing and not have him watching my hand movements all the time and I only remove my hand with the food when I'm ready to feed him, which can then become the click, you'll notice his head moves towards the bucket expecting the food, when he sees my hand go in to the food pouch, because he knows the food is coming. They will always find a marker, even if we're not using a clicker and sometimes that can work well for us and sometimes it can work against us, it depends. He does know the click as well and he does know a verbal marker "good" as well. It shows we can have multiple markers as they are very smart!

There must always be an end of session routine when we are clicker training. You don't see it in this video, as it's not what I'm trying to illustrate in the video, I do that off camera, but you can hear me say "all done" and she nickers because finishing a session should never be disappointing for the horse. I hope that helps. I have posts about end of session rituals on my fb page. :-)

Hi Pat, I didn't train that behaviour, that was something they offer to me, it's a type of anticipatory behaviour, it indicates they're willing to proceed, they ask ME a question, "can we do that again". I don't train it. If you're really observant, you'll see them offer these behaviours when you're clicker training. :-)

thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed this. Note this is the final behaviour on cue, not how I actually trained him to voluntarily lift his hooves in the first place. 🙂

She gets a handful of food in the bucket you see her walk to in the arena at the end of the video, for the chain of behaviours of coming when I call, being haltered, leaving the paddock, walking across the grass. We then go on to do lots of clicker training with food, so there is a lot of enjoyment and value in going to the arena.

if you can get hay to train with, that would be good. I don't use Negative Reinforcement at all, so I don't use distance as a reinforcer, there's no need and it creates an unhappy emotional association.

He's pretty darned adorable!!

They were back to back sessions. I would train her and then her paddock buddy and then her and then him and then her, etc.

@@whisperinghorsetraining Thank you very much!!!! I am a learner, constantly learning. I am putting into practice clicker training. Where I live, I struggle to find suitable food rewards, also the traditional culture is a huge barrier as horses may receive some very different treatment and training.... so basically I do very simple things and I am working hard on myself to become a better listener each day. Here it s hard to find that horses have their basic needs covered let alone ethical training.... Anyway, better to stop my chatting and say that I am very grateful for your generosity.

@@ceciliaocampo19 that sounds like you are doing an amazing job, every little bit of training helps. Can you use scissors and cut up their hay and use that? or grass?

Thanks Chloe 🙂

He's a good boy, he's getting there!

That's a really great question! The click is paired/associated with food ie. click = food. What happens is that when we click and feed them, they start to listen for the click and eventually they realise the click marks a certain behaviour and then they get food. The click tells them "YES! THAT'S the behaviour I want more of". How we deliver the food determines what they do when they hear the click. In this case I generally give the food when she's standing still. I could just as easily click and then walk with her to deliver the food to prevent her stopping too suddenly or click and walk to a place slightly ahead of her, so she needs to continue to walk to me to get the food and not stop suddenly. The click is also called a bridging stimulus, in that it bridges the time between the goal behaviour and receiving the food, it's also a terminal bridge, in that it means that the goal behaviour has been achieved and they can stop and receive their reinforcement.

@@whisperinghorsetraining Thank you ever so much for taking the time to explain this to me.!

@@whisperinghorsetraining so it s very important how we deliver the food .. what we do in that process..

@@ceciliaocampo19 yes it definitely is, how, when and where we give them the food gives them more information and we can use that to shape behaviour as well, learning continues to happen after the click. Feeding for Position is what we call feeding somewhere to give the horse more information about where to be when they hear the click.

Thank you and welcome! 🙂

This is a great question, thanks for asking. I think that it's fun for her and me, it's something different, we get to practice our shaping skills with R+ and it helps build her proprioception. Does it increase her "confidence"? I don't know, you'd have to define what "confidence" means to you. I'd say she's already an optimistic and willing learner, if I was to use some labels to describe her behaviour. Perhaps it does build her "confidence" as well on novel objects?

Thank you! I think a lot depends on your individual horse, their level of training and also their base level of comfort in that environment, then add on top of that, what they are looking at, what level of alarm is it triggering? Simply mild, ie. "what is that? oh it's just that thing" or is it stronger "what is that? I don't know what that is, I need to look more, longer, closer, smell, listen as well", or is it "omg that gave me such a fright, I'm not sure I can concentrate, I really need to check this thing out, it's really worrying me" level of alarm. I think that being able to look is what can then reassure them it is nothing to be alarmed about. I don't tend to aim for "relaxation" in training because it is about thinking, doing things, problem solving, even exercise, so there is a level of alertness for them to pick up cues or offer behaviour, etc.

Thank you, she's a smart girl! ☺

thank you! ☺

When starting out, the horse doesn't understand what the click means yet, so all we are doing is pairing the click with food. Where we give the food, usually gives the horse more information than the click at this stage. Therefore I simply feed them when they are standing reasonably straight and looking straight ahead, but it doesn't need to be perfect and we don't need to be too particular about where their head is, where they are looking, etc. The most important thing is that we don't make the horse wait or guess and that we are clicking and feeding at least every couple of seconds. Hope that helps :-)

I didn't train a recall, he simply comes due to all the positive emotional associations I've created with the halter and myself, via the force free training.

Sorry, I didn't see your question until now. He moves towards the halter because I've created a positive emotional association with the halter via pairing it repeatedly with food and via shaping with R+ which means I have shaped him to move towards the halter and eventually nose target the space in the middle where his nose goes. I don't call him, it's his choice.

It's just a fleece lined web halter, the fleece helps it hold it's shape. I bought them online

I don't train with treats, I train with whatever they are happy eating, whether that's hay, chopped hay (chaff), hay pellets, fibre pellets, whatever is available in your country that is low in sugar and starch and high in fibre and creates lots of chewing.

Basically yes, it's how we teach "manners" around food and also what the click means.

Thank you! although this is not a 'how to' as such, there may be many steps before you get to this stage and this is also a very experienced clicker trained donkey, who knows how to station on a mat, stand still while I 'do something' and also trusts me thanks to all the R+ training we have done in the past. So please keep that in mind when you try this at home :-)

He's doing so well!!

Thankyou so much!