Clicker training

[Rob FLory]

Hi,
Anyone on here ever try any clicker training? We’ve got a horse that is a good worker but horrible to work on his feet. Thought we might try this. Negative reinforcement as we have applied it has only hardened his will.
Rob

[amanda07]

Ah, the woes of negative reinforcement! Not actually tried it myself though ‘my horse.com’ has an interesting article in their training section that sets out the fundimentals of clicker training.

[Lady in VA]

I do clicker training with my Perch. That’s how I trained her to do all kinds of things from standing still to loading in the trailer. Paid off a couple of years ago. She cast herself under a board fence, started flailing legs. I gave her the “Touch” command, meaning touch muzzle to my fist. (One of the first things you train is “touch”.) She calmed immediately and stretched out her nose to touch. My friend got her legs free with a lead shank while I kept her touching. The fence survived; no injuries to anyone. Whenever she shows anxiety, which isn’t often, I use that command to get her attention. In my opinion, this is an effective training technique. You can start with treats or just use little scratches as rewards. Penny-sized carrot slices work best for mine and once she learns the lesson, she only gets scratches for reward. I don’t use a clicker either, one less thing to carry around. I make a unique sound instead.

[manesntails]

@Lady in VA 5407 wrote:

I do clicker training with my Perch. That’s how I trained her to do all kinds of things from standing still to loading in the trailer. Paid off a couple of years ago. She cast herself under a board fence, started flailing legs. I gave her the “Touch” command, meaning touch muzzle to my fist. (One of the first things you train is “touch”.) She calmed immediately and stretched out her nose to touch. My friend got her legs free with a lead shank while I kept her touching. The fence survived; no injuries to anyone. Whenever she shows anxiety, which isn’t often, I use that command to get her attention. In my opinion, this is an effective training technique. You can start with treats or just use little scratches as rewards. Penny-sized carrot slices work best for mine and once she learns the lesson, she only gets scratches for reward. I don’t use a clicker either, one less thing to carry around. I make a unique sound instead.

I think I might have a go at clicker training. I’ve never tried it but my Uncle snaps his fingers to train a horse to pick up his feet. I basically learned it from him and use it only if I have on that isn’t good at giving me a hoof.

Question, could you substitute snapping your fingers?

[Bess]

have used clicker training without the clicker. Dime sized pieces of carrots work very well. You need a LOT of them to start. Think a 3 lb bag of carrots chopped up. And you need them in a pouch safely bow tied (make certain you can get it untied fast in an emergency!) around your waist so your hands are free. To get a horse to pick up it’s feet, start with a front hoof and have the horse on a lead line only – not X ties. Touch to the point of lightly poking the horse’s shoulder with a finger. When the horse turns its head to you, give it a carrot piece. Now you have its attention. Wait until the carrot is chewed up and the horse is watching you. Touch the shoulder again in the same spot and bend down quickly and run your hand lightly down the horse’s leg to the hoof and reach to pick up the front hoof. Horse will be relaxed and following you looking for a carrot piece. Hoof should pick up. If no, pause. step back, breathe, reward horse if there was any give at all and start over. As soon as there is any “give” with the horse shifting weight over or bending the knee, reward with one piece of carrot. Keep the horse calm and relaxed. Don’t fight with the horse and never correct it severely etc. unless it is trying to kill you and take all the carrots! If the horse is a biter have someone else hold the lead rope. Don’t turn your back on the horse. You should be standing alongside the horse facing forward just like the horse is, but able to bend down and pick up the foot. Most horses learn quickly to be “push button” – you push that shoulder point and they pick their hoof right up, expecting a reward of a bit of carrot. Do it only for 3 minutes or so at a time and once you have success on one side, go to the other front leg. Move to hind legs only when you have cooperation in the front. Worked great for my uncooperative horses. You can say, “Good girl/boy!” when horse does the right thing. And if they do the wrong thing, you are spozed to make a brief ugly sounds like a buzzer – ie “you are out of time”. Works same as clicker and keeps both hands free. Good luck!

[Lady in VA]

I make my own clicking noise, a little different than my “walk on” sound. Horse knows the difference. Depending on what you are training, it’s nice to have both hands free. Since the click needs to sound quickly after the horse starts to do what you want, it’s faster to just make a noise than fumble with the clicker tool or snapping fingers. I know a woman that quietly says “good” as her “clicker noise” & gives a little scratch at the withers as the reward instead of food.

RE: picking up feet. I had trouble finding a farrier that would do drafts. So I promised a new guy that I would train her to lift and not lean if he’d give her a chance. And he loves her to death now! (Charges me the same as the light horses because she’s easier to trim than the little Arabs!) My Perch now picks up her feet by just pointing to her feet. All due to clicker training. Like the other poster said, the idea is to reward the slightest movement that you want and build on it. To bridle my horse, I raise my hand to ear level and she drops her head, holds it there until the bridle is on. To back up when she’s on a lead and I’m sort of in front of her, I wiggle my index finger at her and wa la… she backs. There’s probably several ways of training all this but the clicker training made it so easy.

We are currently working on “rescue”. My health isn’t so great on some days. So just in case, I’m training her to come to me in the field. Might be a day that I come out of the saddle or whatever and need her to come back to me. I get on my knees, raise my arm and wave my fingers, calling “Come”. She approaches me, drops her head, I grab her halter and she pulls me up. She gets a “jack pot” reward for that completion, like 5-6 carrot pieces. She’s come as far as 75 yds so far about 75% of the time. (Doesn’t always work when there is good grass around & some herd effect-she’s pastured with 17 others. Yet we’re working on it.) Not bad, eh?

The best CT book I read is written by Alexandra Kurland, the step by step edition.

[Rob FLory]

Hi,
Thanks for the interesting stories, Lady in VA et al.
I am going to post a followup on what I am doing under a new thread with the title, “Fear Memories in Horses”.
Rob

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