| | Hello Brenda,
Congratulations for trying clicker training. You are going to love it! It just takes a bit
of getting used to.
First of all did you teach your horse to target as the first thing? The idea that you want
to get across to the horse is that she has to DO something to earn the click and hence the food reward. Then, you will teach her a default behavior that she will offer in your presence that is polite. I taught my stallion to put his nose in the dirt everytime I or anyone approached.
Its hard to be afraid of a stallion who puts his nose the the dirt. Another default behavior you
can use is called "the pose". In this the horse pulls herself back and tucks her nose away from your hand.
If your horse is nosing you for food, the best thing to do is to back away and wait for her to
offer you one step back. Click and reinforce this. She will soon learn that mouthing your
hand will not get rewarded. Its best to back away because this is a consequence to her action.
She will very quickly learn that any attempt to mouth you will remove all possiblity of getting
a click and a treat. She will being to learn self-control.
Right now, she is still a novice student. She hasn't learned all the rules of the game yet. Take your time, try not to react at the mouthiness. It's important to note that my Cadbury was mouthy at 1 year old and he'd never had a treat. He actually stopped being mouthy but a consistant use of the click and the treat.
Also, I'd like to invite you to the yahoo group that discusses Clicker Training in depth at
clicryder-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Warmly,
Dolores
www.zenhorsemanship.com
518 461 3470 |
