I have signed up for Clicker Expo in Chicago, gotten my plane tickets and hotel reservations and am really looking forward to it. For anyone who doesn't know, Clicker Expo is held yearly in two locations, one in the west and one...well I hardly call Chicago "east" but maybe some do. I would have liked to be at the Expo in sunny southern California last weekend when the temperatures here went south of 20 below zero. I'm sure my husband was glad not to have all the chores to himself in that weather however. The one in Chicago is March 18-20.
Clicker Expo is a 3 day conference featuring all the greatest names in Positive Behavioral training covering many different species: Karen Pryor, Ken Ramirez, Kay Laurence, Jesus Rosales-Ruiz and of course Alexandra Kurland are among the presenters. Topics include Concept Training, Behavior Chains, Smart Reinforcement and Simplifying Training Tools. This will be my first Clicker Expo and my mind is just swimming with the possibilities. How I will choose among presentations I have no idea...especially since I will only be there 2 of the 3 days.
In preparation for the Expo, I have been reading and participating in online discussions. And today, in celebration of a blindingly beautiful day where the thermometer is actually showing a temperature over 30 for the first time in weeks, I decided to go out and test the basics. I wanted to test the foundation lessons on the youngsters, as well as really scrutinize my own training skills to make sure I was as clean and correct as I could be. One tends to get sloppy when working alone all the time so I needed to be a trainer's trainer sitting on my own shoulder.
I wanted to observe my own cues (are they clear and consistent?); my responses (is my click precise to the behavior I'm after?); my food delivery (feeding well away from my own body and requesting at least a rock back if not full step back from the horse); and my focus (keeping the lesson moving and not getting distracted).
As for the horses, were they responding promptly with no hesitation (showing clear understanding and willingness to work); were they correct in their response (again showing understanding as well as precision of my goal); and did they stay focused on me without losing attention to other activity around them?
First up was Ande who is coming five. First foundation lesson: head down. Cue...well the first several times there was no cue because head down (HD) is a default behavior for him. In other words, I show up, he drops his head. Bonus points on that one all around. I did about 8 trials, increasing the time and he did pop his head up once or twice, most likely because it's been a while since we've played this. So then I cued, and he dropped his head like a rock and left it there with his nose in the snow, breathing quietly. Focusing on asking for a step back with treating was definitely a change for me, but certainly no problem for Ande. All my guys are so polite that I do get sloppy with that- a needed reminder.
Second foundation lesson: backing. Again he gave me prompt responses, backing just as many steps as I asked for with no hesitation. My first cues were with a touch on his shoulder but he quickly advanced to backing with just my change in body position. I come at you, you back out of my way. No problems there.
Number three: Grownups are Talking...you stand next to me and don't bug me for attention or food or wander away (all this was done at liberty- no halter or rope). This one was interesting. Ande has always been good at this but he upped the ante on me this time. I had forgotten that I had begun to teach him "the pose" (I do hate that term but have yet to come up with a better one). But as soon as I stood next to his shoulder and faced forward, presto: he rocked back on his butt, lifted his withers and tucked his chin in. Hm! We seem to have muddied that cue a bit. The distinguishing difference in the cues is my hand position. Hands clasped at my waist is for Grownups; hands held like reins is for the pose. I couldn't complain that he was offering me his newest and fanciest trick but I did see that I needed to clarify things a bit in coming sessions.
Number four: targeting. Easy as falling off a log.
Five and Six: Happy Faces and Stand on a Mat. I had neglected to bring a mat out and mat work is hard when their feet fill up with snow so we didn't do that one. Happy Faces is a big black mark on my training history. I have no cue for it but work it into all of Ande's exercises since he is the one who showed me so well that it is critical and a foundation exercise for a very good reason. It's certainly something good to work on this time of year so that is going on my list to work on with all.
As to his general focus? I don't think I lost it once- not even an ear flickered away from me the whole time. He was thrilled to be playing these easy games. I threw him a flake of hay and moved on to Percy.
Percy, Percy, Percy. Smart, quick, enthusiastic and all I can do to keep up with. There has been some discussion recently about remembering to take a breath between steps and I think I need to really stamp that on my brain when I work with him. Approaching him is like walking into a whole classroom of preschoolers all shouting "lookit me!". First his head drops to the ground- ok, got that one. Duration? No problem, he'll leave it down there but ooh, he has trouble holding it still. He moves it around down there, and if I ask him to wait too long, his lips are untying my boot laces. Head down is so boring, he says, we really ought to liven it up a bit, don't you think?
The worst part about Percy is he makes me laugh. I really need to focus better myself. There is no fear about losing his focus! His attention is 150% on me. If I don't ask for anything, he starts trying them all. He can walk sideways and backwards; he can keep his head so far away from me that he ends up with his butt next to me. So we cover head down, no mugging, targeting and backing and I can't come up with new things fast enough. Definitely need to work on ME with that one.
Rumer- I think I'll save my Rumer story for another day. I started something new with her and it's a completely new and fun topic.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Dental Video
I finally got some video of what Percy has achieved toward comfort with having his mouth and teeth played with. My videos are never high quality but hopefully you can see the important stuff. A couple things to note: important to wait for chewing to be done before you ask him to open his mouth again; try not to tickle the corners of his mouth or he likes to lip at me; and stuffing a glove under an arm makes maneuvering more difficult (but putting them aside means he retrieves them for me!)
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Dentist's Visit
In my previous post (wow, a long time ago!), I mentioned the list of veterinary procedures that Peggy Hogan posted on her "Clicker Training Horses" Facebook page (list provided by a vet in that group). Taking up the challenge, I decided to focus on teeth for a project with Percy. He had not been impressed when I asked my vet to check his teeth last Spring. I quickly asked the vet to abandon ship rather than get in a battle with my little red pirate. I wanted to work with him first so that things would go smoothly.
When I was younger, I had been shown how to grab a horse's tongue and then flip my fist vertically to wedge the mouth open to view inside. But I'd also heard of the damage that can be done (to the hyoid apparatus, TMJ, etc) by handling the tongue in this way. I was hoping to teach Percy to open his mouth willingly and be comfortable with hands in his mouth so this would not be necessary. I began by just inserting a finger in the side of his mouth the way, pre-clicker, I would open a horse's mouth for the bit. As soon as his gums parted slightly, I clicked and well, in no time he was happily opening his mouth wider and wider with just my finger touching the corner of his lips. One day he was jealous of me working with Ande and he actually came his stall door and yawned at me about 5 times! And yes, I rewarded it!
I was invited to observe a dentist at a friend's house. I took the opportunity to see how he handled the horses as well as how he did his job. I was very glad to have this opportunity as watching him gave me more things to work on. First, he simply stood in the stall letting the horse get used to him. The horses I observed hid in the back of their stalls. I knew Percy would undress him if he stood still that long (Percy loves zipper pulls, hood strings, hats, etc). Then the dentist slid his forefingers in the horse's mouth along the side "to give them an idea of what was coming" as well as do a preliminary exam. So there was my first new task: familiarize Percy with that feeling.
The dentist had his tools in the standard stainless steel bucket full of water that he stood in the corner of his stall...there was task number 2. Familiarize Percy with the sound and appearance of a clangy shiny bucket. Was this "necessary"? Would he totally freak out if I didn't? Of course not, but any new little things like this which were all added up could set a horse to being wary and I didn't want him wary. I wanted him as ho-hum as possible before the really freaky stuff started happening! So I took several of my kitchen serving spoons, metal and wood, and put them in a very small stainless bucket I had for dog water. I carried them out to the barn and let Percy play chef with all the spoons and make noise. He was thrilled to be clicked for all this fun play. Then I used the handle of a wooden spoon to poke in his mouth. This was all done with the clicker of course: open your mouth for the spoon, CT. Open wider, CT. All four feet still and head still while I slide the spoon in your mouth, CT. If he moved or put his head up, I just stood and did nothing until he approached me and wanted the spoon again, CT.
While working on my friend's horses, the dentist used a speculum. (to see a photo of one, http://www.amazon.com/Horse-speculum-dental-device-stainless/dp/B000M9QH9M ). I studied it carefully and asked if he always used it. He did and said the horses didn't usually mind it. I was very skeptical if a horse who thought he had "choices" would agree to that. Luckily, the dentist liked my idea of coming to just meet Percy and seeing what he could see without putting any pressure on him so I didn't worry too much about the speculum. He said he rarely got that far in a first visit with a young horse.
Last but not least was the way the dentist held the horse. While working on the mouth, he took a death grip on the halter with his left hand. I was sure this was to steady himself for arduous work as much as to prevent the horse from leaving but my little pirate does not like to be restricted. The beauty of Clicker Training has been that I never had to restrict him. I have always been able to present things in such a way that he wanted to participate. I had a discussion with Peggy about a horse of hers who feels the same way. Are there times we need to tell these horses "just deal with it"? Traditional trainers do this all the time and their answer would be "of course!". But when you see how much more you get when you don't deal with horses this way, you start to question. Percy has been taught to respond to the lightest touch by yielding...how was I going to teach him to brace in this situation? I have learned how sensitive horses can be, they feel the slightest touch on the end of a lead so that I never lead a horse by the halter...it's too much! It would be like grabbing a friend's necklace to get them to go with you!
Luckily, in our (Facebook) discussions, Peggy used the term "halter grab" and I remembered watching a DVD of a dog trainer who taught a "collar grab". She taught this as a safety measure: dogs frequently duck away when someone tries to grab their collar and if a car, dangerous dog, etc is approaching, you do not want your dog ducking away. This trainer did not use a clicker- just food, but I knew a clicker always works better.
I had done all the previous mouth work with no halter and Percy loose in his stall or paddock. I always begin things this way so that I am sure the horse has the choice of not participating. If he doesn't participate, I need to adjust my training so that he wants to.
So now I could add criteria by beginning with the halter. I put it on him and decided that my cue to "brace" would eventually be the fact that I was standing in front of him and the way I took his halter. I reached up with my left hand and just put a finger on the left side of his halter (his right side). He stood still, so CT. I repeated that a couple times so he understood that just standing was what I was asking of him...no response. Then I began taking the halter with several fingers and progressed to where I could reach up and grab his halter in a fierce grip and he just stood quietly. Phew. Had I done that without the gradual training, I know he would have stood up (which is what he did when the vet tried). OK, now I needed to add pressure. I grabbed the halter with a fist on each side and began tugging lightly left and right- I thought he'd resist that less than if I tugged down. He definitely yielded to me still (which I wanted) but he didn't look concerned that I was being so heavy handed. I did this all over several days and eventually could pull down, up, left right on his halter and he was happy to be manhandled around, yet still remained light to my rope cues when I was leading him otherwise.
After observing the dentist at the other farm, I had made an appointment for him to come meet Percy, as well as work on Mariah who was showing a little awkwardness in chewing. My last task was one I did not manage to get done before the appointment. I wanted to have some other people come and play in his mouth, especially a good friend who is a small animal vet and carries the requisite smells on her person! Because it was the holidays, however, I did not want to pull people away from their lives so this hasn't been done.
Of course the day he was scheduled to come was the day of the "blizzard" so we rescheduled for later in the week. My plan was to have the dentist observe what I had done, hoping he'd see how I handled Percy as well as have Percy "warm up" to the situation. Then I thought we'd give him a break, go do Mariah, and then come back to Percy. As it turned out, Percy was so comfortable with the situation that wasn't necessary. The dentist stood outside and watched as Percy opened his mouth, let me rub his teeth and I showed and explained about the halter grab. Then he went in with him. Percy sniffed him lightly and then came to me at the door. Here I got stuck. I didn't know what to do with myself! If I was in reach, Percy wanted to be with me. I went to the other side of the aisle and watched from a distance as Percy investigated the dentist's hat and pockets. He was perfectly happy to let him slip his fingers in the sides of his mouth and feel around and look. Oh- that was one other thing I'd seen him do with the other horses that we practiced...shining a flashlight in his mouth. I thought the bright light in his eyes might be startling so we practiced that. He was fine.
The dentist said he was really very good for his age. He certainly hadn't been as good for him as he was for me so I regretted not having other people work with him. But he didn't pull away when the dentist had his halter. I know that boy well enough to know he could have stood up or done any number of things to get away if he'd really wanted to. The first time the farrier came when he was only weeks old, I made the mistake of having my husband help hold him. My husband is accustomed to wrestling beef cattle but both Percy and my husband were on the floor in no time. He is now much bigger and stronger, which is why I do not engage in battle with him!
I went back in the stall to review his lessons and once again, he was perfect for me, so I asked the dentist which float he used first. He pointed it out and we just played touch the target a couple times until of course, Percy offered to grab it with his teeth and pretty soon I had it in his mouth. The dentist was thrilled and so I handed it to him and he actually was able to do a little floating, enough to make him happy. Then I grabbed the speculum and played touch the target with that as well. We went until he was happily biting onto the edge, which is where it sits in his mouth. We didn't do any more with that but I was really happy to stop there.
I did try to get some pictures but didn't want the flash going off and it was too dark without it. Percy has very cute teeth. The dentist wants to come back in April and pull his caps off. Neither of the other babies has needed this and I asked if there was something "wrong" that this would need to be done. He said no, he has a nice mouth, but it's just a good idea. I'd love to know from any of you reading this whether you feel that this type of dentistry is necessary, excessive, etc. I'm all in favor of doing what's necessary but don't like interfering if Mother Nature can do without.
When I was younger, I had been shown how to grab a horse's tongue and then flip my fist vertically to wedge the mouth open to view inside. But I'd also heard of the damage that can be done (to the hyoid apparatus, TMJ, etc) by handling the tongue in this way. I was hoping to teach Percy to open his mouth willingly and be comfortable with hands in his mouth so this would not be necessary. I began by just inserting a finger in the side of his mouth the way, pre-clicker, I would open a horse's mouth for the bit. As soon as his gums parted slightly, I clicked and well, in no time he was happily opening his mouth wider and wider with just my finger touching the corner of his lips. One day he was jealous of me working with Ande and he actually came his stall door and yawned at me about 5 times! And yes, I rewarded it!
I was invited to observe a dentist at a friend's house. I took the opportunity to see how he handled the horses as well as how he did his job. I was very glad to have this opportunity as watching him gave me more things to work on. First, he simply stood in the stall letting the horse get used to him. The horses I observed hid in the back of their stalls. I knew Percy would undress him if he stood still that long (Percy loves zipper pulls, hood strings, hats, etc). Then the dentist slid his forefingers in the horse's mouth along the side "to give them an idea of what was coming" as well as do a preliminary exam. So there was my first new task: familiarize Percy with that feeling.
The dentist had his tools in the standard stainless steel bucket full of water that he stood in the corner of his stall...there was task number 2. Familiarize Percy with the sound and appearance of a clangy shiny bucket. Was this "necessary"? Would he totally freak out if I didn't? Of course not, but any new little things like this which were all added up could set a horse to being wary and I didn't want him wary. I wanted him as ho-hum as possible before the really freaky stuff started happening! So I took several of my kitchen serving spoons, metal and wood, and put them in a very small stainless bucket I had for dog water. I carried them out to the barn and let Percy play chef with all the spoons and make noise. He was thrilled to be clicked for all this fun play. Then I used the handle of a wooden spoon to poke in his mouth. This was all done with the clicker of course: open your mouth for the spoon, CT. Open wider, CT. All four feet still and head still while I slide the spoon in your mouth, CT. If he moved or put his head up, I just stood and did nothing until he approached me and wanted the spoon again, CT.
While working on my friend's horses, the dentist used a speculum. (to see a photo of one, http://www.amazon.com/Horse-speculum-dental-device-stainless/dp/B000M9QH9M ). I studied it carefully and asked if he always used it. He did and said the horses didn't usually mind it. I was very skeptical if a horse who thought he had "choices" would agree to that. Luckily, the dentist liked my idea of coming to just meet Percy and seeing what he could see without putting any pressure on him so I didn't worry too much about the speculum. He said he rarely got that far in a first visit with a young horse.
Last but not least was the way the dentist held the horse. While working on the mouth, he took a death grip on the halter with his left hand. I was sure this was to steady himself for arduous work as much as to prevent the horse from leaving but my little pirate does not like to be restricted. The beauty of Clicker Training has been that I never had to restrict him. I have always been able to present things in such a way that he wanted to participate. I had a discussion with Peggy about a horse of hers who feels the same way. Are there times we need to tell these horses "just deal with it"? Traditional trainers do this all the time and their answer would be "of course!". But when you see how much more you get when you don't deal with horses this way, you start to question. Percy has been taught to respond to the lightest touch by yielding...how was I going to teach him to brace in this situation? I have learned how sensitive horses can be, they feel the slightest touch on the end of a lead so that I never lead a horse by the halter...it's too much! It would be like grabbing a friend's necklace to get them to go with you!
Luckily, in our (Facebook) discussions, Peggy used the term "halter grab" and I remembered watching a DVD of a dog trainer who taught a "collar grab". She taught this as a safety measure: dogs frequently duck away when someone tries to grab their collar and if a car, dangerous dog, etc is approaching, you do not want your dog ducking away. This trainer did not use a clicker- just food, but I knew a clicker always works better.
I had done all the previous mouth work with no halter and Percy loose in his stall or paddock. I always begin things this way so that I am sure the horse has the choice of not participating. If he doesn't participate, I need to adjust my training so that he wants to.
So now I could add criteria by beginning with the halter. I put it on him and decided that my cue to "brace" would eventually be the fact that I was standing in front of him and the way I took his halter. I reached up with my left hand and just put a finger on the left side of his halter (his right side). He stood still, so CT. I repeated that a couple times so he understood that just standing was what I was asking of him...no response. Then I began taking the halter with several fingers and progressed to where I could reach up and grab his halter in a fierce grip and he just stood quietly. Phew. Had I done that without the gradual training, I know he would have stood up (which is what he did when the vet tried). OK, now I needed to add pressure. I grabbed the halter with a fist on each side and began tugging lightly left and right- I thought he'd resist that less than if I tugged down. He definitely yielded to me still (which I wanted) but he didn't look concerned that I was being so heavy handed. I did this all over several days and eventually could pull down, up, left right on his halter and he was happy to be manhandled around, yet still remained light to my rope cues when I was leading him otherwise.
After observing the dentist at the other farm, I had made an appointment for him to come meet Percy, as well as work on Mariah who was showing a little awkwardness in chewing. My last task was one I did not manage to get done before the appointment. I wanted to have some other people come and play in his mouth, especially a good friend who is a small animal vet and carries the requisite smells on her person! Because it was the holidays, however, I did not want to pull people away from their lives so this hasn't been done.
Of course the day he was scheduled to come was the day of the "blizzard" so we rescheduled for later in the week. My plan was to have the dentist observe what I had done, hoping he'd see how I handled Percy as well as have Percy "warm up" to the situation. Then I thought we'd give him a break, go do Mariah, and then come back to Percy. As it turned out, Percy was so comfortable with the situation that wasn't necessary. The dentist stood outside and watched as Percy opened his mouth, let me rub his teeth and I showed and explained about the halter grab. Then he went in with him. Percy sniffed him lightly and then came to me at the door. Here I got stuck. I didn't know what to do with myself! If I was in reach, Percy wanted to be with me. I went to the other side of the aisle and watched from a distance as Percy investigated the dentist's hat and pockets. He was perfectly happy to let him slip his fingers in the sides of his mouth and feel around and look. Oh- that was one other thing I'd seen him do with the other horses that we practiced...shining a flashlight in his mouth. I thought the bright light in his eyes might be startling so we practiced that. He was fine.
The dentist said he was really very good for his age. He certainly hadn't been as good for him as he was for me so I regretted not having other people work with him. But he didn't pull away when the dentist had his halter. I know that boy well enough to know he could have stood up or done any number of things to get away if he'd really wanted to. The first time the farrier came when he was only weeks old, I made the mistake of having my husband help hold him. My husband is accustomed to wrestling beef cattle but both Percy and my husband were on the floor in no time. He is now much bigger and stronger, which is why I do not engage in battle with him!
I went back in the stall to review his lessons and once again, he was perfect for me, so I asked the dentist which float he used first. He pointed it out and we just played touch the target a couple times until of course, Percy offered to grab it with his teeth and pretty soon I had it in his mouth. The dentist was thrilled and so I handed it to him and he actually was able to do a little floating, enough to make him happy. Then I grabbed the speculum and played touch the target with that as well. We went until he was happily biting onto the edge, which is where it sits in his mouth. We didn't do any more with that but I was really happy to stop there.
I did try to get some pictures but didn't want the flash going off and it was too dark without it. Percy has very cute teeth. The dentist wants to come back in April and pull his caps off. Neither of the other babies has needed this and I asked if there was something "wrong" that this would need to be done. He said no, he has a nice mouth, but it's just a good idea. I'd love to know from any of you reading this whether you feel that this type of dentistry is necessary, excessive, etc. I'm all in favor of doing what's necessary but don't like interfering if Mother Nature can do without.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
More Medical Procedures
Peggy Hogan, in California, hosts a great group and site on Facebook called Clicker Training Horses. If you're on Facebook, I highly recommend you check it out. The subject of training for medical procedures came up recently, right as I was dealing with the same issue myself.
Percy, my TB x WB, age 2, came in with a fat hock. Fat hocks make me nervous. This was unusual in that it was high and inside. There was very little heat, and no pain or lameness. I didn't really think it was joint related but hocks aren't something I like to ignore. I was torn because I know how to throw the book at a hock on sport horses (icing, medicating, wrapping, sweating, x-rays, injections etc) and I know how to look the other way when a lesson pony has a puffy spot (they just get better). But Percy didn't fit either of those categories. I didn't need to worry about losing training days but I also didn't want to ignore anything which could cause problems for his career as a sport horse down the road.
Oh, and one other problem. We've been working on having him pick his feet up nicely with just a touch on the hind leg. Oops. Now I needed him to leave his foot DOWN so I could palpate. I decided to give the leg 24 hours to get better by itself. It didn't. I called the vet. He offered to come out immediately as it was the only time in the next 2 days he could get here. I decided it was a good idea. Time to panic train. I had 20 minutes to convince Percy that leaving the leg down was as reinforcing as picking it up. Thankfully, that was a breeze- a much smaller problem in reality than it was in my mind. I just clicked for leaving his foot on the ground when I touched his stifle (not anywhere near where I touch him for picking up his foot) and then worked my way down. I was also careful to maintain a very different body position- squatting and facing him, not bending over toward the rear. He got it in minutes. By the time the vet arrived, I could poke, rub, massage all over that rear leg from either side.
Feeling confident, I led the vet to him. Percy was in the round pen because it was bright natural light and we have had so much rain this fall, it was the driest place outside. The only problem with the round pen is that Percy feels Important when he's in there and likes to puff up a bit and show off. Funny boy. As the vet approached him and reached out to stroke his neck, Percy flattened his ears back. Wow. I realized that was the first time in his life I had seen him do that. He is SUCH a sweet and inquisitive soul, but I had never realized that he never put his ears back until I saw him do it and it was a shock. (Ande used to pin his ears at only days old when his mother tried to move when he was nursing!) I have to admit that I was struck incapable at this. I just did not know how to react.
I really like our vet- he's capable, common-sense, quiet and unafraid. But he's not a clicker trainer. I have never felt comfortable asking either my vet or farrier to adapt to my training techniques. I know I could make their work with my horses go better if I did and I should get over it but for some reason, I just feel that they are professionals and I shouldn't be telling them how to do their job. Perhaps if I felt that either one was too harsh, I would feel differently. But they both have wonderful, if traditional, approaches that do not intimidate the horses. And while I can get the horses to do things for me with CT, sometimes they need to learn that others need to work with them as well. I can do the prep work, but I can't BE somebody else.
So here was Percy, head up in the air, ears back and my vet simply continuing on slowly. OK, so he wasn't being reinforced for his behavior- the vet did not back off. But I also know how talented Percy is at standing up (he demonstrated that at his first hoof trimming as a baby and practices regularly in the field while playing with others) and I feared that was next. I needed to redirect this before we went there because that WOULD stop forward progress and be reinforcing. I tried putting a fist out to target, but his eye was on the vet. So I said "HEY!" to get his attention and instantly put my hand on his poll (I could barely reach it). Thankfully, we have practiced that a zillion times and he reacted instantly by dropping his head a couple inches. Click and treat and hand on the poll again. Rapidly. Normally a hand on his poll instantly puts his nose in the dirt, but even in this tense situation, I got an immediate reaction of some kind which I could reward and we were on the road. I continued to CT as the vet worked his way back toward his hind end and down the leg. He lifted his leg once, I put a tiny bit of pressure on the lead and was quiet. When his head came down a fraction, his leg did as well- CT and we were making progress again. He put his leg all the way down and left it on the ground. Phew.
The vet agreed it was probably not the joint (another big Phew!) but a sprain/strain in the lower gaskin area. We discussed hosing but Percy hates being hosed. We have worked on it I know his mother hates it as well, as do most TBs unless the air and water temperatures are just right. They just have very sensitive skin. In northern VT with no hot water in the barn, I had 2 days this summer when it was hot enough that he enjoyed being hosed with icy water. Now it's fall, cold and muddy. Luckily the vet understood that and thought bute and massaging would be good as long as we saw progress. He suggested an IV injection of banamine and dexamethazone to get the healing started. I let Percy loose for a moment in case he wanted to let off steam while the vet went to his truck for the meds. No, he wanted to follow us.
When we went back in, Percy's ears went back again. It made me so sad! It reminded me of a certain little girl who needed some nasty medicine when she was about 2 years old. Normally a very cooperative child, she did not want that medicine! She fought like a wildcat kitten and it took three adults to hold her down to squeeze it in her mouth. At the same time, she was using her best adult verbal skills to bargain with us to no avail. With Percy, there were only two adults and he weighed a lot more than that little peanut of a girl. My Clicker Training skills were all I had to explain the process. Thank goodness they worked! Head down= CT. Any level was accepted as long as it kept getting lower. My vet slipped the needle in in a split second and I just kept clicking away as long as the head came down when asked. The ears waffled between back and sideways but he stood like a rock for 2 syringes worth. My biggest concern at that point was Ande who was reaching through the round pen to chew on him! The vet kept saying, "he's really doing quite well, don't you think?" Amen!
Next project: twice daily bute paste. I hadn't done anything with a paste syringe since worming him a couple weeks ago. The first time with the bute, I tried putting a halter on him and CT'd him to stand while I approached his lips with the syringe. I got it in but it really didn't feel right. So the next time I went in his stall without a halter and just stood with the syringe. Being friendly and curious, he couldn't stand it and took a step toward me. CT. That continued to be my approach. I kept my standard to 10 clicks before increasing the criteria. He usually increased it on his own before I had to. I think the important part of letting him approach rather than me approach him, along with the 10 clicks at the same criteria level, was that it gave him a LOT of opportunities to sniff the bute paste. He got a little in his nose just from the end of the tube, he got to walk away and come back. He got to sniff and sniff and sniff without being at all threatened by it. He volunteered to take it in his mouth and then I walked a step forward between each click until he was pursuing me around the stall trying to grab the syringe. Mentally, that was a big step for him.
Then I stepped back by his shoulder so he had to turn to touch it and that's how I managed to get him to target it with the corner of his lips rather than his muzzle. I made sure to get a full 10 trials with it in his mouth before squirting the bute in on the 11th. Then I clicked and offered the hay stretcher pellets. He took them and dropped them. I continued to CT for any interest in the syringe. This is the hard part because he got "punished" by the nasty medicine and I wanted to override that with many more positive experiences but they can't taste anything good afterward. He has a lifetime of reinforcement for the click though and it seemed to work for me here because he kept touching it for the clicks, even though he dropped the treats each time. After a few times like that, he stopped taking the treats so each time I dropped the treats into his feed tub. Even though he wasn't eating them, I think the noise of them falling into his tub was reinforcing and they would be there for him. I also unwrapped a couple peppermints. I think the noise of those unwrapping is highly reinforcing and hoped that their strong smell would overpower the bad taste. I kept this up until he was taking the syringe in his mouth again and then just dropped a handful of hay stretcher pellets in his tub along with a couple more peppermints and left him. He had been trying to eat a couple and so I was pretty sure that left alone, he would commence to eating, which he did. AND he'd taken the syringe in his mouth many times without the punishing taste being repeated. So now I'm going to go back out and do it again.
There is a whole list of veterinary procedures on this discussion on Peggy's Facebook site that were put together by a vet who recently attended one of her clinics:
I think these are great winter projects!!!
Percy, my TB x WB, age 2, came in with a fat hock. Fat hocks make me nervous. This was unusual in that it was high and inside. There was very little heat, and no pain or lameness. I didn't really think it was joint related but hocks aren't something I like to ignore. I was torn because I know how to throw the book at a hock on sport horses (icing, medicating, wrapping, sweating, x-rays, injections etc) and I know how to look the other way when a lesson pony has a puffy spot (they just get better). But Percy didn't fit either of those categories. I didn't need to worry about losing training days but I also didn't want to ignore anything which could cause problems for his career as a sport horse down the road.
Oh, and one other problem. We've been working on having him pick his feet up nicely with just a touch on the hind leg. Oops. Now I needed him to leave his foot DOWN so I could palpate. I decided to give the leg 24 hours to get better by itself. It didn't. I called the vet. He offered to come out immediately as it was the only time in the next 2 days he could get here. I decided it was a good idea. Time to panic train. I had 20 minutes to convince Percy that leaving the leg down was as reinforcing as picking it up. Thankfully, that was a breeze- a much smaller problem in reality than it was in my mind. I just clicked for leaving his foot on the ground when I touched his stifle (not anywhere near where I touch him for picking up his foot) and then worked my way down. I was also careful to maintain a very different body position- squatting and facing him, not bending over toward the rear. He got it in minutes. By the time the vet arrived, I could poke, rub, massage all over that rear leg from either side.
Feeling confident, I led the vet to him. Percy was in the round pen because it was bright natural light and we have had so much rain this fall, it was the driest place outside. The only problem with the round pen is that Percy feels Important when he's in there and likes to puff up a bit and show off. Funny boy. As the vet approached him and reached out to stroke his neck, Percy flattened his ears back. Wow. I realized that was the first time in his life I had seen him do that. He is SUCH a sweet and inquisitive soul, but I had never realized that he never put his ears back until I saw him do it and it was a shock. (Ande used to pin his ears at only days old when his mother tried to move when he was nursing!) I have to admit that I was struck incapable at this. I just did not know how to react.
I really like our vet- he's capable, common-sense, quiet and unafraid. But he's not a clicker trainer. I have never felt comfortable asking either my vet or farrier to adapt to my training techniques. I know I could make their work with my horses go better if I did and I should get over it but for some reason, I just feel that they are professionals and I shouldn't be telling them how to do their job. Perhaps if I felt that either one was too harsh, I would feel differently. But they both have wonderful, if traditional, approaches that do not intimidate the horses. And while I can get the horses to do things for me with CT, sometimes they need to learn that others need to work with them as well. I can do the prep work, but I can't BE somebody else.
So here was Percy, head up in the air, ears back and my vet simply continuing on slowly. OK, so he wasn't being reinforced for his behavior- the vet did not back off. But I also know how talented Percy is at standing up (he demonstrated that at his first hoof trimming as a baby and practices regularly in the field while playing with others) and I feared that was next. I needed to redirect this before we went there because that WOULD stop forward progress and be reinforcing. I tried putting a fist out to target, but his eye was on the vet. So I said "HEY!" to get his attention and instantly put my hand on his poll (I could barely reach it). Thankfully, we have practiced that a zillion times and he reacted instantly by dropping his head a couple inches. Click and treat and hand on the poll again. Rapidly. Normally a hand on his poll instantly puts his nose in the dirt, but even in this tense situation, I got an immediate reaction of some kind which I could reward and we were on the road. I continued to CT as the vet worked his way back toward his hind end and down the leg. He lifted his leg once, I put a tiny bit of pressure on the lead and was quiet. When his head came down a fraction, his leg did as well- CT and we were making progress again. He put his leg all the way down and left it on the ground. Phew.
The vet agreed it was probably not the joint (another big Phew!) but a sprain/strain in the lower gaskin area. We discussed hosing but Percy hates being hosed. We have worked on it I know his mother hates it as well, as do most TBs unless the air and water temperatures are just right. They just have very sensitive skin. In northern VT with no hot water in the barn, I had 2 days this summer when it was hot enough that he enjoyed being hosed with icy water. Now it's fall, cold and muddy. Luckily the vet understood that and thought bute and massaging would be good as long as we saw progress. He suggested an IV injection of banamine and dexamethazone to get the healing started. I let Percy loose for a moment in case he wanted to let off steam while the vet went to his truck for the meds. No, he wanted to follow us.
When we went back in, Percy's ears went back again. It made me so sad! It reminded me of a certain little girl who needed some nasty medicine when she was about 2 years old. Normally a very cooperative child, she did not want that medicine! She fought like a wildcat kitten and it took three adults to hold her down to squeeze it in her mouth. At the same time, she was using her best adult verbal skills to bargain with us to no avail. With Percy, there were only two adults and he weighed a lot more than that little peanut of a girl. My Clicker Training skills were all I had to explain the process. Thank goodness they worked! Head down= CT. Any level was accepted as long as it kept getting lower. My vet slipped the needle in in a split second and I just kept clicking away as long as the head came down when asked. The ears waffled between back and sideways but he stood like a rock for 2 syringes worth. My biggest concern at that point was Ande who was reaching through the round pen to chew on him! The vet kept saying, "he's really doing quite well, don't you think?" Amen!
Next project: twice daily bute paste. I hadn't done anything with a paste syringe since worming him a couple weeks ago. The first time with the bute, I tried putting a halter on him and CT'd him to stand while I approached his lips with the syringe. I got it in but it really didn't feel right. So the next time I went in his stall without a halter and just stood with the syringe. Being friendly and curious, he couldn't stand it and took a step toward me. CT. That continued to be my approach. I kept my standard to 10 clicks before increasing the criteria. He usually increased it on his own before I had to. I think the important part of letting him approach rather than me approach him, along with the 10 clicks at the same criteria level, was that it gave him a LOT of opportunities to sniff the bute paste. He got a little in his nose just from the end of the tube, he got to walk away and come back. He got to sniff and sniff and sniff without being at all threatened by it. He volunteered to take it in his mouth and then I walked a step forward between each click until he was pursuing me around the stall trying to grab the syringe. Mentally, that was a big step for him.
Then I stepped back by his shoulder so he had to turn to touch it and that's how I managed to get him to target it with the corner of his lips rather than his muzzle. I made sure to get a full 10 trials with it in his mouth before squirting the bute in on the 11th. Then I clicked and offered the hay stretcher pellets. He took them and dropped them. I continued to CT for any interest in the syringe. This is the hard part because he got "punished" by the nasty medicine and I wanted to override that with many more positive experiences but they can't taste anything good afterward. He has a lifetime of reinforcement for the click though and it seemed to work for me here because he kept touching it for the clicks, even though he dropped the treats each time. After a few times like that, he stopped taking the treats so each time I dropped the treats into his feed tub. Even though he wasn't eating them, I think the noise of them falling into his tub was reinforcing and they would be there for him. I also unwrapped a couple peppermints. I think the noise of those unwrapping is highly reinforcing and hoped that their strong smell would overpower the bad taste. I kept this up until he was taking the syringe in his mouth again and then just dropped a handful of hay stretcher pellets in his tub along with a couple more peppermints and left him. He had been trying to eat a couple and so I was pretty sure that left alone, he would commence to eating, which he did. AND he'd taken the syringe in his mouth many times without the punishing taste being repeated. So now I'm going to go back out and do it again.
There is a whole list of veterinary procedures on this discussion on Peggy's Facebook site that were put together by a vet who recently attended one of her clinics:
I think these are great winter projects!!!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Similarities and Differences
Yesterday I had the opportunity to audit a day at a clinic with a nationally known trainer. I've decided not to name this person (I think) because my intention is not to criticize nor recommend, but simply discuss what I saw. I was there from 9: to 3: and heard afterward that they were just finishing up at 7:30 PM! I left at 3: both because I had to get home to my own chores but also because I reached a point of discomfort in watching this trainer work with one of the participants' horses. Until then, I had actually been reasonably impressed with what I saw and heard.
First off, I was bemused that this poor person had to take the time, on what was the third day of the clinic, to instruct on bridling and mounting! It did make me feel better about the number of times I have needed to do the same thing with students. With beginners, one expects to do this. But it's frustrating with people who have been riding for a while. Unfortunately not many instructors teach their beginners how manage these basics properly, and they proceed through life bumbling along just "getting it done" with no thought to what they are doing or how. They move on to instructors who assume they know these basics so they don't even look at the student until he or she is in the saddle. And so we have hordes of people who call themselves riders when they have to fight the bridle onto their horse and then play ring around the rosy on the mounting block until they finally launch themselves into the saddle, to quote this trainer "like a sack of turds". So, it was nice to see her pay attention to these things and address them, even though you could sense the sigh of frustration when she realized these were issues.
Secondly, there is this topic of trying to figure out what one's horse is feeling. This trainer specializes in this topic. Some people just don't care- the horse is no more than a machine which doesn't have feelings or if it does, it just needs to "get over it" so the rider can do what she wants. It was really nice to see this trainer's responses and hear the explanations as she interacted with the horses. For a while anyway. But I'll get to that. For most of the day, she kept me happy by truly giving the horses choices and accepting it when they chose not to do something. She seemed to get what she wanted from them by just asking again and backing off when they complied. My take is that the horses appreciated her efforts and were not worried about the outcome so they were willing to work for her.
OK, now that last sentence was completely non-scientific in behavioral terms. Words like appreciate, worried and willing are pretty loose and many of the smoke and mirrors trainers on the clinic and demo circuit abuse them. But I'm getting off topic here. Smoke and mirrors will have to be another day.
I also appreciated this woman's understanding of biomechanics. I was a little horrified at the lack of decent muscle development in the horses that were there. But she talked about lateral bend and longitudinal bend, had the horse she was riding stepping under with his hind end and rode easily off the inside rein. Her position was faultless and her seat dead quiet. She stressed the importance of ground work as basics.
What got me back in the car on the way home at 3: was when she started working on the shoulders. She began with the horse she'd been riding and when he didn't get the exercise right off, she got into his face too much for me. Previously she had been rewarding try, but here she seemed to want it all- bingo. When she didn't get it, she got louder. In the morning, she had used the example of how useless it was to scream at deaf people, and yet, that's what it seemed to me she was doing. And at that point, I thought she also stopped giving choices and reading the horse's responses. I saw fear and confusion in the horse (that's smoke and mirrors talk for a high-headed, wide eyed horse whose respiration had gone up rapidly).
She had been trying to demonstrate something to one of the clinic participants so he could do it with his horse. The interesting thing to me was that when she got in the horse's face (literally waving her hand and rope at the horse's head), she not only lost clarity for the horse, she lost clarity for the person observing! He could not see what she was doing and how to mimic it. It became very fuzzy for everyone. When she first began the exercise, I thought, "oh, this is just like Alex's Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder exercise. Instead it was hip scramble scramble. The clinician was unable, in my observation, to explain it to her horse or to the participant. So then she took the participant's horse. And that is when I had to leave. Because she didn't explain it to that horse any better and she started "talking" for the horse...saying this mare thought she was pretty. The mare had the same body language as the other horse- head up, eyes wide, nostrils showing increased rate of respiration. Maybe pretty to some, but I don't think that's what the mare was thinking herself. Instead, her body language said "I want to get out of here" and she avoided the trainer as best as possible.
So to my eyes, it was bad enough to have brought this fear out while at the same time not explaining it to the horse. But then I felt I was being lied to when she was speaking for the horse. So I came home to my own horses, not at all sorry to have observed, certainly giving me plenty to think about, but also hoping those horses figured it out without too much more fear and confusion being involved.
First off, I was bemused that this poor person had to take the time, on what was the third day of the clinic, to instruct on bridling and mounting! It did make me feel better about the number of times I have needed to do the same thing with students. With beginners, one expects to do this. But it's frustrating with people who have been riding for a while. Unfortunately not many instructors teach their beginners how manage these basics properly, and they proceed through life bumbling along just "getting it done" with no thought to what they are doing or how. They move on to instructors who assume they know these basics so they don't even look at the student until he or she is in the saddle. And so we have hordes of people who call themselves riders when they have to fight the bridle onto their horse and then play ring around the rosy on the mounting block until they finally launch themselves into the saddle, to quote this trainer "like a sack of turds". So, it was nice to see her pay attention to these things and address them, even though you could sense the sigh of frustration when she realized these were issues.
Secondly, there is this topic of trying to figure out what one's horse is feeling. This trainer specializes in this topic. Some people just don't care- the horse is no more than a machine which doesn't have feelings or if it does, it just needs to "get over it" so the rider can do what she wants. It was really nice to see this trainer's responses and hear the explanations as she interacted with the horses. For a while anyway. But I'll get to that. For most of the day, she kept me happy by truly giving the horses choices and accepting it when they chose not to do something. She seemed to get what she wanted from them by just asking again and backing off when they complied. My take is that the horses appreciated her efforts and were not worried about the outcome so they were willing to work for her.
OK, now that last sentence was completely non-scientific in behavioral terms. Words like appreciate, worried and willing are pretty loose and many of the smoke and mirrors trainers on the clinic and demo circuit abuse them. But I'm getting off topic here. Smoke and mirrors will have to be another day.
I also appreciated this woman's understanding of biomechanics. I was a little horrified at the lack of decent muscle development in the horses that were there. But she talked about lateral bend and longitudinal bend, had the horse she was riding stepping under with his hind end and rode easily off the inside rein. Her position was faultless and her seat dead quiet. She stressed the importance of ground work as basics.
What got me back in the car on the way home at 3: was when she started working on the shoulders. She began with the horse she'd been riding and when he didn't get the exercise right off, she got into his face too much for me. Previously she had been rewarding try, but here she seemed to want it all- bingo. When she didn't get it, she got louder. In the morning, she had used the example of how useless it was to scream at deaf people, and yet, that's what it seemed to me she was doing. And at that point, I thought she also stopped giving choices and reading the horse's responses. I saw fear and confusion in the horse (that's smoke and mirrors talk for a high-headed, wide eyed horse whose respiration had gone up rapidly).
She had been trying to demonstrate something to one of the clinic participants so he could do it with his horse. The interesting thing to me was that when she got in the horse's face (literally waving her hand and rope at the horse's head), she not only lost clarity for the horse, she lost clarity for the person observing! He could not see what she was doing and how to mimic it. It became very fuzzy for everyone. When she first began the exercise, I thought, "oh, this is just like Alex's Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder exercise. Instead it was hip scramble scramble. The clinician was unable, in my observation, to explain it to her horse or to the participant. So then she took the participant's horse. And that is when I had to leave. Because she didn't explain it to that horse any better and she started "talking" for the horse...saying this mare thought she was pretty. The mare had the same body language as the other horse- head up, eyes wide, nostrils showing increased rate of respiration. Maybe pretty to some, but I don't think that's what the mare was thinking herself. Instead, her body language said "I want to get out of here" and she avoided the trainer as best as possible.
So to my eyes, it was bad enough to have brought this fear out while at the same time not explaining it to the horse. But then I felt I was being lied to when she was speaking for the horse. So I came home to my own horses, not at all sorry to have observed, certainly giving me plenty to think about, but also hoping those horses figured it out without too much more fear and confusion being involved.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
First Frost- time to worm
We had our first frost last week, followed by many more of them! We are always lucky to hold out so long in this area but we are in a protected valley where the cold air slides off the garden most nights...the lower fields get frosted before the garden.
I'm not a big fan of regular worming for several reasons. First of all I don't like the fact that we are producing resistant species of parasites. Research has also shown that many horses are resistant to parasites themselves and do not need regular worming- local vets suggest doing fecals to determine the parasite load of individuals and worming accordingly. While I haven't done a fecal in years, the tendency toward rotund of my ponies does not indicate a parasite load! Last, but not least, because we rotationally graze (and that means only 2 or 3 days on a paddock and then on to the next- 30 days rest for each paddock before being grazed again), exposure to infestation is less than in other management scenarios.
That being said, I do like to worm in the fall and sometimes spring. We do see bot eggs on the horses and though I try to remove them, I don't know that I get them all. I like to clean everyone out before winter comes to be sure that all the feed that I'm paying for is being utilized by the intended recipient! This year we got a double dose of bots for some reason. Normally we see them in later August- this year I saw some in late July, then again in September. So when I ordered a blanket for Mariah and they had a sale on Ivermectin with a boticide, I added them to the order.
Day before yesterday, I stocked my pockets:
Right front- weight tape
Right back- paper and pen
Left back- one tube at a time of wormer paste
Left front- trash pocket!
It was great fun to see the different reactions. I remember when crinkly wrapper meant wormer and everybody suddenly refused to be caught! Not so with clicker ponies :) Crinkly wrappers mean goodies! Stowaway is the most suspicious but also the least reactive so I chose to do him first. He, Kizzy and Rumer were all in their run-in paddock together. I had waited until I was sure all hay was long gone as I know the magic of putting wormer in a mouth with any hay just means that the hay catches the paste and it gets spat out! Sure enough, Stowaway eyed me suspicously. He hasn't gotten many, if any, wrapped peppermints- mostly hay stretcher pellets, so the crinkly paper wasn't too convincing to him. But even though his head and eyes showed suspicion, he stood still for me to tape him and then easily administer the paste.
I could have worked with each horse with treats first, but again, I did not want to fill their mouths with goodies only to have them spit it out with wormer on it. I wanted those mouths empty and was relying on established trust...not "train today because I need results today".
When Rumer heard the crinkly wrapper, she came over to volunteer as the next patient. Always front and center, she happily stuffed her head into her halter, stood like a statue as I taped her and poked the tube in the corner of her mouth. I realized how nice it was to have all the youngsters familiar with the weight tape this year! No one new to introduce it to. It's always a windy day and nothing like a fluttering weight tape flapping about while I'm reaching underneath bellies to grab the other end. She was puzzled at the lack of fun involved with this process but didn't seem the least concerned about the wormer or offended that all she got was a an appreciative word and face rub for her patience.
Kizzy was standing off- fully aware of the process but always game for crinkly paper. She ignored my rude comments about her weight, obviously sure that it was her fuzzy coat and nothing to do with the fact that ribs are a theory-only with that pony. Times like this, I always look back at the pony she was when I got her- couldn't be caught, extremely head shy and worried about people. I adore her pudgy, furry self and am so glad of how she's turned around.
On to the other paddock: Percy, Ande and Mariah. I had put them in the round pen so I could drive through their paddock with the tractor to deliver hay to the barn. It was right next to the run-in so quite handy to my pile of wormer tubes.
But oh dear, when I went in the round pen. Two little boys had been hearing crinkly paper and seeing me others and and they could not WAIT to see what I had planned. I decided to use jealousy in my favor with Percy the youngest (and most likely to say it's his way or no way) so I started with Ande. Of course I had one hanging over each shoulder trying to stuff heads in one halter- rather a challenge but I did manage to block Percy long enough to let Ande put his halter on. That, however, did not deter Percy's curiosity. While I taped Ande, Percy pulled the pen out of my back pocket. I retrieved the pen from his teeth and quickly scribbled down Ande's weight while Percy pulled the fluttery weight tape out of my front pocket and Ande tried to push him away because this was HIS game. Good grief. I let Percy pretend to fly a kite with the weight tape while I administered Ande's wormer and told him what a good boy he was to hold stock still and not even move his head. Then I retrieved a very soggy weight tape from Percy's mouth. The empty crinkly wrappers were shoved deep into my trash pocket where he couldn't get at them. While Ande tried to figure out what that stuff was in his mouth, I put Percy's halter on, much to his delight. He gave his best "I'm being good, I'm a statue, see me not mug you?" pose, while his little lip pooched with the effort of self control. The little red statue stood while I taped him, stood while I wrote down his weight and then really thought he ought to help with the crinkly wrapper. When the wrapper went into the pocket and he saw the wormer syringe, the expression changed to Worried. Having had stitches in his lip as a weanling, he's had his share of unpleasant experiences...see http://bookendsfarm.blogspot.com/2009/03/owie.html
I was wearing my treat pouch so I decided that I'd risk food in the mouth to reinforce a good experience. First I let him target the syringe for CT. Then I held his halter gently to prevent him from targeting it with his muzzle and just touched it to the corner of his mouth for a CT. Then he understood it was a "will you let me do this to you" game. If he moved- no CT. If he stood and let me touch him with it- CT. Then I let it poke him > CT. Then I poked it between his lips > CT. By now he was into the game and not moving a muscle as I worked the syringe further and further into his mouth each time. The worry was gone. I tried to give him plenty of time to chew each hay stretcher pellet so that he didn't have a big mouthful of food. Finally I pushed the plunger down and that was that. I wore a little of it along with some well mashed pellets but most of it stayed in his mouth. Then I continued the game- but even though he let me put the syringe back to his lips and even in his mouth, he did not want the treats. That's the bummer about wormer. It's such a strong taste that everything you give them afterward just tastes like wormer. But, the point was, he was not upset by the process and there had been no battle, no restricting and the worry had gone DOWN in the process, not up.
Last but not least, Mariah. When I took Percy's halter off (by the way, I would have done them all without a halter if they'd been in their stalls but in a group in paddocks, it was easier to organize with halters on), I turned to Mariah and laughed out loud. Her owner says she makes me whimsical and indeed she does. She was standing there, for all the world looking like a matron waiting in line for her flu shot. She was as close to the boys as she could get- firmly in line so no one who came along could get in front of her but not rudely pushing either. The expression was one of bored impatience. She knew she had to do this bloody procedure but she wished the technician would hurry up as she still had the grocery shopping to do. Ears to the side, back leg resting so that in my mind I could see her enormous pocketbook slung over her shoulder as she waited. Relieved that it was finally her turn, she stepped forward to her halter and stood like a stone as I crossed my fingers that my weight tape was long enough to go around her huge frame (barely!). She waited while I wrote it all down, didn't fuss as I wormed her (had that head gone up in the air, I would have had no recourse whatsoever), and then turned to go when I was done. What a hoot.
Anthropomorphize? Me? Never.
I'm not a big fan of regular worming for several reasons. First of all I don't like the fact that we are producing resistant species of parasites. Research has also shown that many horses are resistant to parasites themselves and do not need regular worming- local vets suggest doing fecals to determine the parasite load of individuals and worming accordingly. While I haven't done a fecal in years, the tendency toward rotund of my ponies does not indicate a parasite load! Last, but not least, because we rotationally graze (and that means only 2 or 3 days on a paddock and then on to the next- 30 days rest for each paddock before being grazed again), exposure to infestation is less than in other management scenarios.
That being said, I do like to worm in the fall and sometimes spring. We do see bot eggs on the horses and though I try to remove them, I don't know that I get them all. I like to clean everyone out before winter comes to be sure that all the feed that I'm paying for is being utilized by the intended recipient! This year we got a double dose of bots for some reason. Normally we see them in later August- this year I saw some in late July, then again in September. So when I ordered a blanket for Mariah and they had a sale on Ivermectin with a boticide, I added them to the order.
Day before yesterday, I stocked my pockets:
Right front- weight tape
Right back- paper and pen
Left back- one tube at a time of wormer paste
Left front- trash pocket!
It was great fun to see the different reactions. I remember when crinkly wrapper meant wormer and everybody suddenly refused to be caught! Not so with clicker ponies :) Crinkly wrappers mean goodies! Stowaway is the most suspicious but also the least reactive so I chose to do him first. He, Kizzy and Rumer were all in their run-in paddock together. I had waited until I was sure all hay was long gone as I know the magic of putting wormer in a mouth with any hay just means that the hay catches the paste and it gets spat out! Sure enough, Stowaway eyed me suspicously. He hasn't gotten many, if any, wrapped peppermints- mostly hay stretcher pellets, so the crinkly paper wasn't too convincing to him. But even though his head and eyes showed suspicion, he stood still for me to tape him and then easily administer the paste.
I could have worked with each horse with treats first, but again, I did not want to fill their mouths with goodies only to have them spit it out with wormer on it. I wanted those mouths empty and was relying on established trust...not "train today because I need results today".
When Rumer heard the crinkly wrapper, she came over to volunteer as the next patient. Always front and center, she happily stuffed her head into her halter, stood like a statue as I taped her and poked the tube in the corner of her mouth. I realized how nice it was to have all the youngsters familiar with the weight tape this year! No one new to introduce it to. It's always a windy day and nothing like a fluttering weight tape flapping about while I'm reaching underneath bellies to grab the other end. She was puzzled at the lack of fun involved with this process but didn't seem the least concerned about the wormer or offended that all she got was a an appreciative word and face rub for her patience.
Kizzy was standing off- fully aware of the process but always game for crinkly paper. She ignored my rude comments about her weight, obviously sure that it was her fuzzy coat and nothing to do with the fact that ribs are a theory-only with that pony. Times like this, I always look back at the pony she was when I got her- couldn't be caught, extremely head shy and worried about people. I adore her pudgy, furry self and am so glad of how she's turned around.
On to the other paddock: Percy, Ande and Mariah. I had put them in the round pen so I could drive through their paddock with the tractor to deliver hay to the barn. It was right next to the run-in so quite handy to my pile of wormer tubes.
But oh dear, when I went in the round pen. Two little boys had been hearing crinkly paper and seeing me others and and they could not WAIT to see what I had planned. I decided to use jealousy in my favor with Percy the youngest (and most likely to say it's his way or no way) so I started with Ande. Of course I had one hanging over each shoulder trying to stuff heads in one halter- rather a challenge but I did manage to block Percy long enough to let Ande put his halter on. That, however, did not deter Percy's curiosity. While I taped Ande, Percy pulled the pen out of my back pocket. I retrieved the pen from his teeth and quickly scribbled down Ande's weight while Percy pulled the fluttery weight tape out of my front pocket and Ande tried to push him away because this was HIS game. Good grief. I let Percy pretend to fly a kite with the weight tape while I administered Ande's wormer and told him what a good boy he was to hold stock still and not even move his head. Then I retrieved a very soggy weight tape from Percy's mouth. The empty crinkly wrappers were shoved deep into my trash pocket where he couldn't get at them. While Ande tried to figure out what that stuff was in his mouth, I put Percy's halter on, much to his delight. He gave his best "I'm being good, I'm a statue, see me not mug you?" pose, while his little lip pooched with the effort of self control. The little red statue stood while I taped him, stood while I wrote down his weight and then really thought he ought to help with the crinkly wrapper. When the wrapper went into the pocket and he saw the wormer syringe, the expression changed to Worried. Having had stitches in his lip as a weanling, he's had his share of unpleasant experiences...see http://bookendsfarm.blogspot.com/2009/03/owie.html
I was wearing my treat pouch so I decided that I'd risk food in the mouth to reinforce a good experience. First I let him target the syringe for CT. Then I held his halter gently to prevent him from targeting it with his muzzle and just touched it to the corner of his mouth for a CT. Then he understood it was a "will you let me do this to you" game. If he moved- no CT. If he stood and let me touch him with it- CT. Then I let it poke him > CT. Then I poked it between his lips > CT. By now he was into the game and not moving a muscle as I worked the syringe further and further into his mouth each time. The worry was gone. I tried to give him plenty of time to chew each hay stretcher pellet so that he didn't have a big mouthful of food. Finally I pushed the plunger down and that was that. I wore a little of it along with some well mashed pellets but most of it stayed in his mouth. Then I continued the game- but even though he let me put the syringe back to his lips and even in his mouth, he did not want the treats. That's the bummer about wormer. It's such a strong taste that everything you give them afterward just tastes like wormer. But, the point was, he was not upset by the process and there had been no battle, no restricting and the worry had gone DOWN in the process, not up.
Last but not least, Mariah. When I took Percy's halter off (by the way, I would have done them all without a halter if they'd been in their stalls but in a group in paddocks, it was easier to organize with halters on), I turned to Mariah and laughed out loud. Her owner says she makes me whimsical and indeed she does. She was standing there, for all the world looking like a matron waiting in line for her flu shot. She was as close to the boys as she could get- firmly in line so no one who came along could get in front of her but not rudely pushing either. The expression was one of bored impatience. She knew she had to do this bloody procedure but she wished the technician would hurry up as she still had the grocery shopping to do. Ears to the side, back leg resting so that in my mind I could see her enormous pocketbook slung over her shoulder as she waited. Relieved that it was finally her turn, she stepped forward to her halter and stood like a stone as I crossed my fingers that my weight tape was long enough to go around her huge frame (barely!). She waited while I wrote it all down, didn't fuss as I wormed her (had that head gone up in the air, I would have had no recourse whatsoever), and then turned to go when I was done. What a hoot.
Anthropomorphize? Me? Never.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Voice Commands
Before I get on Percy, I want to have some pretty solid voice commands on him. I've learned a lot in recent years about putting behaviors on cue so I'm going about this very carefully.
The first thing I've seen is how many people think their horses (or dogs) know voice commands but in reality the animal is responding to body cues that the person doesn't even realize she is giving. The story of Clever Hans illustrates how well horses observe our body language (if you don't know the story, you can google it easily). Like a lot of people, I talk to my horses but now see that most of what they hear is, "blah, blah, blah, blah". They might be able to pick up something from my tone of voice. When longeing horses, I was taught to use a crisp, upward swinging tone to encourage a horse in an upward transition and a low, slow voice for downward transitions. If you think about this, then the horse really doesn't know the word. Others who do this: do you say "trot" the same way whether you are asking for it from walk or from canter? More importantly, I think if anyone videoed me longeing a horse it would be obvious that I am also using body language to affect the horse's response. Some Natural Horsemanship methods employ this but they use very obvious movements- not for the sake of the horse (again- see Clever Hans!) but for the sake of us humans who need to be obvious or we'll screw it up!
If I am going to transfer my voice commands from the ground to under saddle- which is my purpose in teaching this before getting on- I won't be able to use my visual body cues because Percy won't be able to see me. So I need to teach this carefully and test it thoroughly to be sure he is responding to my voice and not something else.
In hand, Percy walks off promptly when I walk off. So he is responding to the visual cue of my movement. Some horses wait until they feel a pull on the lead to walk off. Some horses have to guess which their person wants from day to day. In beginning to teach him voice cues, I follow the rule of
This is similar to our newest Jack Russell Terrier, Eloise. She came through a rescue and previously lived in an apartment, always on a leash when she went outside. As a result, she learned to LOVE her leash because she LOVED to go outside. So when the leash consistently and repeatedly was followed by going outside, the leash became a cue for going out! I find this very funny because I've never had a dog who liked a leash before! My older Jack Russell, Beetle, Hates his leash. To him, it means being constrained because he grew up off leash and when he sees his leash, he gets very depressed. The presentation of the leash became a very different cue for these two dogs. Also important to note is that even though Eloise is now off leash almost all the time, she still LOVES to see her leash and gets very excited. She doesn't like to be on the leash (she pulls and pulls) but seeing me pick it up still elicits real excitement from her. Her early and consistent lessons have stayed with her.
So, back to Percy. I want him to respond with enthusiasm when I ask him to walk on. Preferably not as much as Eloise with the leash (!), but I want him to walk off willingly and happily, not sluggish and unsure. What made Eloise so enthusiastic? Positive reinforcement! Going outside was hugely rewarding for her. Luckily, Percy is a temperament that likes to move so walking off is rewarding, but I can add more power to that with the click and treat.
I have not been clicking and treating to this point because walking off with me was taught when he was just a weanling- I haven't had to reinforce that for quite some time. And when I added the verbal cue, initially he was still responding to my body, not the voice. But when I see him begin to move, even a tightening of his muscles and or a lean of his weight forward, in response to my voice- before I move my own body, then I click and treat. I am reinforcing the fact that he responded to my voice.
At this point, (which is where we are spending time right now), I am being as observant as I can. I always preface walking off with the verbal cue. If he moves before I do, I click and treat. If he doesn't respond, I simply walk off with him. I also have to watch to be sure that he doesn't walk off without any cue. Practicing this, horses sometimes just learn walk-stop-walk-stop. They aren't responding, they have just learned the drill. So I stand for different amounts of time before cueing him. If he moves with no cue, I quietly slide my hand down the rope and ask him to stop and back up...no unrequested forward! He is learning that if he responds to the verbal cue he gets a CT and is becoming more and more responsive to it.
When I do get on him, it will be a different situation so I will be very rewarding when he responds. But taught this way, I am confident that he really does understand that "walk on" means walk (and I will teach, whoa and trot and canter the same way). Then I can transfer "walk on" to a leg aid, in the very same way. At that point the verbal cue will be the "old" cue and the leg aid will be the "new" cue. So I'll apply a little leg and immediately follow it with the verbal cue. As soon as he responds to the leg aid before the voice command, he'll get a CT and we'll be on our way.
The first thing I've seen is how many people think their horses (or dogs) know voice commands but in reality the animal is responding to body cues that the person doesn't even realize she is giving. The story of Clever Hans illustrates how well horses observe our body language (if you don't know the story, you can google it easily). Like a lot of people, I talk to my horses but now see that most of what they hear is, "blah, blah, blah, blah". They might be able to pick up something from my tone of voice. When longeing horses, I was taught to use a crisp, upward swinging tone to encourage a horse in an upward transition and a low, slow voice for downward transitions. If you think about this, then the horse really doesn't know the word. Others who do this: do you say "trot" the same way whether you are asking for it from walk or from canter? More importantly, I think if anyone videoed me longeing a horse it would be obvious that I am also using body language to affect the horse's response. Some Natural Horsemanship methods employ this but they use very obvious movements- not for the sake of the horse (again- see Clever Hans!) but for the sake of us humans who need to be obvious or we'll screw it up!
If I am going to transfer my voice commands from the ground to under saddle- which is my purpose in teaching this before getting on- I won't be able to use my visual body cues because Percy won't be able to see me. So I need to teach this carefully and test it thoroughly to be sure he is responding to my voice and not something else.
In hand, Percy walks off promptly when I walk off. So he is responding to the visual cue of my movement. Some horses wait until they feel a pull on the lead to walk off. Some horses have to guess which their person wants from day to day. In beginning to teach him voice cues, I follow the rule of
new cue -> old cue -> behaviorDone repeatedly and consistently, Percy anticipates that when I say "walk on", I will then walk. I start to see his body begin to prepare for the walk as I say "walk on". I am very careful as I do this not to combine the new and old commands. I don't want to say "walk on" AS I begin to walk, because then the words become "blah, blah, blah" as he is really responding to my body (a horse's easier and therefore preferable way to read people). I want to be very still with my body, maintaining a forward position just as I if would if I were expecting him to stand still next to me. But when I saw his body prepare for walk from my words, even though my body hadn't changed, I knew he was anticipating that walk would come next.
in this case: voice command immediately followed by walking off
This is similar to our newest Jack Russell Terrier, Eloise. She came through a rescue and previously lived in an apartment, always on a leash when she went outside. As a result, she learned to LOVE her leash because she LOVED to go outside. So when the leash consistently and repeatedly was followed by going outside, the leash became a cue for going out! I find this very funny because I've never had a dog who liked a leash before! My older Jack Russell, Beetle, Hates his leash. To him, it means being constrained because he grew up off leash and when he sees his leash, he gets very depressed. The presentation of the leash became a very different cue for these two dogs. Also important to note is that even though Eloise is now off leash almost all the time, she still LOVES to see her leash and gets very excited. She doesn't like to be on the leash (she pulls and pulls) but seeing me pick it up still elicits real excitement from her. Her early and consistent lessons have stayed with her.
So, back to Percy. I want him to respond with enthusiasm when I ask him to walk on. Preferably not as much as Eloise with the leash (!), but I want him to walk off willingly and happily, not sluggish and unsure. What made Eloise so enthusiastic? Positive reinforcement! Going outside was hugely rewarding for her. Luckily, Percy is a temperament that likes to move so walking off is rewarding, but I can add more power to that with the click and treat.
I have not been clicking and treating to this point because walking off with me was taught when he was just a weanling- I haven't had to reinforce that for quite some time. And when I added the verbal cue, initially he was still responding to my body, not the voice. But when I see him begin to move, even a tightening of his muscles and or a lean of his weight forward, in response to my voice- before I move my own body, then I click and treat. I am reinforcing the fact that he responded to my voice.
At this point, (which is where we are spending time right now), I am being as observant as I can. I always preface walking off with the verbal cue. If he moves before I do, I click and treat. If he doesn't respond, I simply walk off with him. I also have to watch to be sure that he doesn't walk off without any cue. Practicing this, horses sometimes just learn walk-stop-walk-stop. They aren't responding, they have just learned the drill. So I stand for different amounts of time before cueing him. If he moves with no cue, I quietly slide my hand down the rope and ask him to stop and back up...no unrequested forward! He is learning that if he responds to the verbal cue he gets a CT and is becoming more and more responsive to it.
When I do get on him, it will be a different situation so I will be very rewarding when he responds. But taught this way, I am confident that he really does understand that "walk on" means walk (and I will teach, whoa and trot and canter the same way). Then I can transfer "walk on" to a leg aid, in the very same way. At that point the verbal cue will be the "old" cue and the leg aid will be the "new" cue. So I'll apply a little leg and immediately follow it with the verbal cue. As soon as he responds to the leg aid before the voice command, he'll get a CT and we'll be on our way.
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