Wow- I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted. One kind reader even emailed me to check in! Summer is so busy. I've been posting little things to my Facebook page so if anyone is on Facebook, you can find me at my Bookends Farm page.The most exciting recent news is that Percy has been sat upon. It was highly UNeventful. Just as training should be! Last fall I had leaned on him and patted him all over from atop a mounting block with lots of clicks and treats for keeping all four feet still as I did so. We practiced Alexandra Kurland's mounting block lessons- having him line himself up at the mounting block. I also put an old saddle on him so he could feel that a little bit. With saddle on, I let him loose in the round pen to see if he wanted to try to buck it off but all he did was go to grazing. This Spring we revisited all these same lessons with no further problems. He was so comfortable with the saddle that I entrusted my dear old Stubben Siegfried to him. He looked very handsome in it! We walked about the paddock with it and I let the stirrups dangle and bump him in the sides. He remained totally focused on me and halted with my voice commands.When I backed both Ande and Rumer, I did it bareback. I felt I could more easily "emergency dismount" if necessary. But I found that MY balance is so much better in a saddle that they were more comfortable and balanced with a saddle. Plus, Percy is not skinny but he does have withers that the ponies don't! Thirdly- he's bigger! I could sit down onto the ponies but even using the muck bucket, I had to go up to get on Percy. So I opted to try this one in a saddle.
I wrote into a list serve asking if anyone else has trouble with these horses trying to get on the mounting block with the rider and yes, I found I am not alone. They have learned about standing on a mat and plastic, etc. Once they find you are clicking them for coming closer to the block, they jump to the conclusion that you'd like them up there with you and they are more than happy to oblige. This has resulted in me going ass-over-teakettle backwards off the block on more than one occasion. I was relieved to know others have had the problem and have dealt with it in good humor...one woman even posted pics of her horse with front feet on the top step of the block and back feet on the bottom step! I admired her training innovation but didn't want to go that route. Instead I did a lot of review of having him step away from a touch on the shoulder. He is very good at that and so going back and forth from approaching the block to stepping away enabled me to prevent him from stepping too far into me. Without the saddle I would simply touch both hands to his back when he was in the right spot and then click and treat. With the saddle I would grab pommel and cantle and just wiggle the saddle a bit as Alex does, then click and treat.
As much as Percy likes to be correct, when he figures out what I want, he thinks that bigger, faster and more must be better. It didn't take long for him to start hustling to the overturned muck bucket. I learned from another poster to alternate the calm, quiet behaviors with the new ones to counteract such over-enthusiasm. We would approach the block and if he got quick, I'd calmly stop him and we'd work on head down before proceeding. I have to be careful not to use head down as a punishment or a test, but rather with the true intent of helping him relax. Sometimes we'd have to do it between steps in lining up as well but it did result in a much quieter mounting block process.
My final decision was to back him in a halter and lead, rather than a bridle, and to do it with no one holding him. He can be enough of a live wire that I did not want to rely on "equipment" or someone else to control him. I wanted him calm, quiet and happy enough with the proceedings that he would offer to stand. I needed to be SO confident in him that I did not feel I needed anything more. So for a couple days, we lined up to the block in halter, rope and saddle and I'd just play with weight in the stirrup and leaning over. He was so nonchalant about it that it was really tempting to climb aboard! I always wear a safety vest in addition to helmet when I ride the youngsters so I also made sure he saw me in that getup and heard the velcro of the vest.
Finally the big day arrived when my husband volunteered to be close enough to take a couple pictures and Percy was just as happy as could be with the whole thing. I was bursting with happiness.
That was three weeks ago and I haven't done it again since. My goal was not to get on and "break him" in short time. It was to show him- look, this is something else weird we can do, then go back to the old games and some day soon I'll get on again and maybe take a few steps. In the meantime we are working on Pony Pilates to strengthen his back so he is better able to carry me when we do more riding.
Under the heading of Taking Advantage of Problems, I am using yet another rainy week to work on behavior of horses while being turned out. With record snowfall that melted at the same time as record Spring rainfall, we have very wet paddocks. Last week was beautiful and I was finally able to turn out on grass- but now it's too wet again.
Last week I had developed an exercise I was using with everyone. Each individual had to earn the right to eat grass. So rather than work on "walking politely" to the grass paddocks by using a tidbit from my pocket, I had each one walk x number of steps (each horse or pony had his or her own "average or better" number of steps), then clicked and treated from my pocket. Then, they had to stand for an "average or better" count, at which time I used the verbal cue "graze" and they could drop their heads and feast for 10 or 15 bites. Then I said "head up", and we walked on again.
I was really pleased with how this worked. I was using a former distraction- ankle deep, Spring-rich grass, as a reinforcer. I also used treats from my pocket...this was to prevent them from diving for grass. They had to wait to hear the cue "graze" which taught self-control. What I found was that I was working with two distinct distractions- when we got to the paddock, the horses got to graze as well as buck and play. Simply being handed hay stretcher pellets on the way out did help over the years, but the anxiety level could still be pretty high even though they managed to keep a lid on it. By using grass as a reinforcer on the way out, they didn't have to wait until they got to the paddock to get the grass. This took a lot of the energy out of the situation. I also cued "graze" when we got into the paddock and before I removed the halter. This confused a couple of them, but it removed the connection of "through gate = explosion". When I did remove halters, there was no explosion! They just kept grazing. I sometimes heard a little explosion behind me as I walked back to the barn, but that was glee for being out, rather than glee at getting away from me finally. When weather warmed up this Spring, I began leaving them out in their "dirt paddocks" at night, rather than putting them in stalls, so it wasn't as if they'd been locked up all night and needed to move.
On Saturday we had a little glitch in the system. I had been turning Percy, the youngest, out first. He was doing very well. Saturday morning I needed to leave early to teach at a Pony Club clinic so my husband offered to help. I told him he could start turning the lesson ponies out while I fed Percy his breakfast and did water buckets. Oops. When I took Percy out and he discovered that others were already out there eating without him, he got rather more excited than usual. I should also explain that because we do rotational grazing, it is sometimes a bit of a hike to get to the paddock of choice. In addition, there is a very steep hill (really a very long bank) we have to walk down to get to many of the paddocks. This can be challenging when you are leading a boisterous youngster and you're both slipping and sliding on the dewy grass. Percy got so excited at the top of the hill that his energy burst out and he stood up, once, twice, thrice, four times. He wasn't really trying to get away from me because one time he got a leg over the rope and it came out of my hand but he just walked a couple steps and started grazing, perfectly happy to let me catch him. We proceeded to the paddock as in days before with me mentally kicking myself all the way there and back for not seeing this coming.
The next day, I resumed my previous arrangement, but Percy thought standing up was fun the day before so he did it again. Not good. I jerked hard on the rope, said "NO" and he dropped his head. We proceeded as before. The following day it was too wet to turn out but I decided to "practice" anyway, later in the day. Again, we got to the top of the hill and he stood up. Again I jerked on the rope, said "NO", but this time I walked him right back into his stall. There was no hay or grain in there and I just left him for several minutes while I walked out of sight. My guess was that I'd built a behavior chain. Rearing was OK in his mind because even though he got jerked and yelled at, he still got to go out. The punishment was not strong enough to stop the behavior. I was not willing to go to harsher punishment. The reinforcement of standing up was stronger than the reinforcement of waiting politely. It was time to break things down further so I had no more rehearsals of this very inappropriate behavior. When I took him back out, we just hand grazed for a minute or two and then returned to his dirt paddock- no turnout after rearing.
Since I can't turn them out on grass, this week is turnout practice...without ever leading to actual turnout. There are two criteria I'm after: walking quietly next to me with slack in the rope and standing quietly when I do, also with slack in the rope ("quietly" also includes no head tossing) There are two distractions: grass and anticipated freedom.
Phase 1- get my criteria without either of the distractions. Practice leading around the dirt paddock building duration. Our "average" for him has been 15 steps and a count of 5 wait. I need to build more reinforcement history of this behavior and increase my duration by a lot before I ask for much less when I introduce distractions.Phase 2- introduce lower level distractions. Put hay out in the paddock and ask him to walk to it while meeting criteria. Ask him to walk past the hay while meeting the criteria. (this has proven pretty easy). Today I will move on to less enticing grass and not in the direction of turnout. I will test the value of my training by seeing if he can meet his average while walking through already grazed grass right in the vicinity of the barn. If not, I will find his average under those distractions and build up duration from there.
Phase 3- Practice walking toward the paddock but not getting turned out. I can hand graze him on the way out and teach him that maybe that's all that happens. He doesn't get to anticipate being turned out any more. I will do this at times of day other than early morning at first (which is usual turnout time).Phase 4- Practice walking out to hand graze in the paddock. No freedom, just grazing in the paddock with me occasionally asking him to pick his head up and walk or just stand.
Phase 5- Hopefully we'll dry out some day and can turn out and with luck, by then I'll have the little beast under control again!
The beast- watching young cattle buck and run on the hill. (in desperate need of a spring trimming of mane, whiskers and cat hairs!)
I've been raving about this online dog training course I took to everyone who will listen. The name of the course was The 5 Minute Formula to a Brilliant Recall, or Recallers 2.0 for short and it was presented by Susan Garrett of Say Yes Training. The Recaller part of the name is because that is what they course proposed to do- build a Brilliant Recall into your dog in 5 minutes a day. The 2.0 part is because it is the second time she offered it and I imagine it will be offered again in the future. If anyone is interested and has a dog, I highly recommend it.
The course was 5 weeks long and I found the setup to be very worthwhile. It consisted of
- A new game presented each day. Each had a fun name and fun was a major ingredient in the entire course. With names like "Cookie in the Corner" and "Smoke Ya", how can you not have fun? Susan is a fun person and her attitude is contagious: she wants training to be fun for handler and dog. The games introduced new skills and built upon previous ones. Most days, there was a 2-5 minute video posted to illustrate the game and sometimes links to her site for supporting articles etc.
- The course had a strong social networking piece to it. Each game was posted on a different page and each of us could comment or ask questions on the games. There was a section for asking the staff questions, for bragging among ourselves, etc. Many of the questions were answered by other participants; some were taking this course for the second time and helped out tremendously.
- In addition, there were webinars and coaching calls. These were amazing and lasted between 1 and 2 hours each. There were three coaching calls plus a taped one from the previous course as well as two webinars. In the webinars, we were give a "lecture" to watch 24 hours ahead of time and then she took live questions. For the coaching calls, we were encouraged to post questions to the website and then she answered them live during the "call" (online).
- Depending on the level one signed up for, there is access to the course for different lengths of time- until either June, August or a full year. In addition, the different levels offer some of the materials in an e-book form as well as DVD and podcast.
Personally, my tank was full after 3 weeks. I haven't even looked at most of the last 2 weeks yet, after following diligently for the first three. Partly this was because Spring finally came to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and the outdoors has demanded my attention (horses, garden etc). But also because I realized I really needed to cement some of the earlier games before trying to progress any further. At the beginning of the games, she gives the prerequisites and I got into territory where I could not honestly say we had mastered some of the prerequisites. So I am very thankful for having this course available into the summer, as well as the materials I will be able to keep in written, audio and video format.
How does this course relate to horses? In so many ways that my mind was absolutely exploding with possibilities on a daily basis. Initially, I looked at whether each game could be transferred to horses. Then I began to see bigger connections. Her mantras, her goals, and her methods are applicable on so many levels that I don't know where to begin. I have shared several of my thoughts on my Facebook page but I'll include the following:
- Average or Better- the concept that we need to know our horses' behaviors well enough that we only reinforce behavior that is at least as good as they are capable of on average. I tell myself "average or better" all the time now because I found I frequently rewarded mediocre behavior because "he's so cute" or "he tried" or "I need to maintain that". I look at things completely differently now and see a difference already.
- Don't allow rehearsals of bad behavior- this is one of those things that of course I knew, but somehow, that statement has jumped out at me and I'm seeing ways to apply it constantly. I think it's because I followed "reward the good, but ignore the bad" for so long. But ignoring the bad doesn't always work if it's self-reinforcing or if you haven't given them something else to do instead. So now I look at unwanted behaviors with a sharper eye and find ways to eliminate rehearsals of it, even if it means that it takes more time. Better to take the time now, than deal with this forever.
- Record keeping- we've heard it before, but this course supplied us with a downloadable journal and I have adapted it for my horses. It includes details I didn't think of before and on Susan's suggestion, I committed to using the journal for the course and am trying to build it as a habit. Wow is it helpful to write things down after they happen and use that to develop a plan for the next session. Otherwise, I'm doing same old same old each day.
- Find the Joy- this can be said best by reading Susan's blog post. I'll put a link at the end. Another complete game-changer for me.
My only warning about this course is the 5 minute bit. I think the intention is that one can train a dog for 5 minutes a day and get great results. But this course takes a LOT more than that. Not necessarily in training time (although she does state that 3 5-minute sessions a day are better than one), but in reading, watching the videos, combing the site for questions and answers to questions, watching the webinars and coaching calls, etc. I was very glad that I chose to do this in "down time" whereas some people were doing it while leading full lives!Here is the link to Susan's blog which made me look at my training in a whole different way (of course it helps to watch some of her videos to see how utterly thrilled her dogs are to work for her every second of their lives).
Criteria is...
I have been having great fun transferring one of the dog games onto my horses.
The game is actually part of a whole group called Crate Games. Susan Garrett sells a DVD by this name which I bought last summer after getting Eloise. She'd spent a lot of time in a crate before I got her and while I don't keep dogs in crates, she was not reliably housebroken so I had to put her in one if I left her in the house for any reason. I wanted to change her feelings about the crate and I thought this looked like a fun way to do so.
The Crate Games are in the Critical Core exercises of the e-course and therefore the lessons from it reverberate on into many other behaviors. One of the criteria in this game is that the dogs pop into a sit whenever you touch the latch on the crate. I had this in my mind when I went out to the horses one day and as I watched Percy give me his now-standard three steps back as I approached the fence, it occurred to me how useful it would be to teach all the horses to back three steps whenever I touched the latch of a door or a gate handle. Rather than asking them to back, touching the handle itself would become a farm-wide cue for backing. No more heads popping out of doors as soon as they opened, no more crowding at the gate, no more rushing to get out...the benefits were endless. The beauty of course, is not only the vastly safer behavior, but the mindset which would result! Instead of "I wanna", I'd have a conscious polite waiting to be released from three steps back (as this is also part of the behavior- it's not a three steps back and then ricochet forward again). I LOVE it!
I began with Percy as my test case since he was already familiar with his three steps back. He is offering backing regularly now and so when I slid the latch on his door and hesitated, he backed right up. That was easy. Now I must say, there is some punishing that goes on here and I'm curious to see the results. If the dog tries to leave the crate before being verbally released , the instructions are to shut the door, blocking him in, wait a bit and try again. (there is more detail to all this with plenty of reinforcing going on for staying in). It's very effective but I don't kid myself that this is all positive. Unfortunately it was aversive to Eloise because the noise of the latch scared her but that's a different story and she's much better now. But how aversive to a horse? From three steps back, if Percy tried to come forward as I opened his door, I had time and room to slide it shut again before he got to it. This wasn't terribly different from when I approached him at the fence and he stepped forward before I ducked under. If he did, I would back up. So in both cases, I was removing myself (and my attention), to stop the behavior of him coming forward...negative punishment. I could have done it all with the clicker and +R...simply building duration and adding the "distraction" of my entering the stall. But it's really no different than the "you can't make me eat that" game where the food is removed if the horse reaches for it. So I accept that it's not all +R, and am watching each individual to see if I see any unwanted consequences. By the way, I don't verbally release the horses from their position, I approach and ask them to put their halters on where they are or else cue them for something different if I'm not taking them out.
Mariah was the next one I tried it on. It was like falling off a log. She's had so much training that she's a quick study in any situation. She already knows her grain won't land in her tub unless she turns away so it was a very short step to get her to offer to back away from the door when I had hay, and on we went to backing away from the door in all situations. She does not need the reminder of me hesitating at the door like Percy sometimes does.
Next were Rumer and Ande. They are trickier because they share a paddock and this is where the jockeying for position happens as they push each other to be first to me. I had some help from someone else one day and we both worked on "you can't make me eat that" while they were several feet from each other so they could each be reinforced individually but while having the distraction of the other nearby. I am continuing to work with them singularly before expecting much cooperation while together.
The lesson ponies don't crowd the gate, but tend to go up to the top of their paddock and wait where I feed them so I simply ask them for a step back before putting their hay down to introduce the idea, if not the cue.
Conceptually, I have also begun to see if Percy can figure out how to back out of my space regardless of how I approach him. He will easily back if I approach him head on, but I'm also playing with approaching him at an angle to see if he understands that I have a line that I am walking, and if he intersects that line, he needs to back away. So far, so good!
I might do a complete review of this dog training e-course when I'm done but just for clarity's sake now, I should point out that there isn't a lot of explanation in the course. There aren't reading assignments or discussion of operant training. It's stated as a self-directed course; the format being these daily games. Each day, another game is described on the site and we do it with our dogs. She does explain what to look for, troubleshooting tips, her recommended number of sessions and environment etc as well as the ultimate uses of each. I think that may be what I'm enjoying most. The instruction isn't highly analytical...I'm exploring the various games and mentally comparing them to work with horses and seeing what gets results; what is easy, what is difficult, etc.
So today I'm thinking about "transferring value". Susan talks about "high value rewards" and "low value rewards". You can probably figure out the difference and this goes back to ranking your animal's rewards and using them appropriately depending on the difficulty of what you are asking for. What's interesting is Susan's focus on our ability to change what an animal finds valuable...transferring the value of one thing to another. This is something we do with horses all the time, but again, just working through this with dogs, a new "trainer" and the corresponding different vocabulary helps me to look at everything from a different angle and explore its uses.
Working with our horses with positive reinforcement changes our value to the horse. We love to see our horses come running when we show up and that is because we have become high value to them. Even horses who don't like to work will come running if the bugs are bad or the weather is miserable in order to be put in a more comfortable environment. But when the grass is green and the day pleasant, our horses who come running to see us are showing us there is more value to us than just as caretakers.
Something which Susan advises that we put a lot of value in for our dogs is tugging. A lot of dog trainers use tugging as a reinforcer. Some dogs inherently love to tug and some don't. She has several ways of teaching a dog to enjoy and value tugging so that it can be used as a reinforcer. The best correlation I have for horses is the mat. Many horses are skeptical of putting their feet on any sort of mat at first, but every one I know of learns to love it...to the point of going straight to it if given a choice. Once they love it, we can use the mat as a reinforcer, and Alex does this frequently in her work- the horse does some nice work and she says, "OK, you've done such a nice job you can go stand on the mat". We have, of course, built that value into the mat work by giving it a great reinforcement history- we have reinforced the horse many times for going to and standing on the mat.
A further correlation is that both tugging and mat work have associated emotions. Tugging winds a dog up and gets him ready to go be active in whatever sport we may be engaging in. Further, a dog who has done a great job racing through an agility obstacle can race right to the handler and be rewarded by grabbing the tug and engaging in a fierce game of it (certainly a predatory reaction). Conversely, we often use the mat as a soothing tool (or at least I do, maybe it's because I so frequently use it for young horses just starting under saddle!) When they get to the mat, they can stand and be quiet and relax for a bit.
Another example is grooming and this activity can mean very different things to different horses. Some horses love it and some horses hate it. Foals start life with some very itchy spots and one of the easiest ways to get a foal to stand still for you and learn to enjoy human company is by scratching those itchy spots. There are other spots which aren't itchy though and the foal will not appreciate your contact there. Adult horses have different skin types and hair quality which will affect their tolerance or enjoyment of being groomed (which we can respond to with different types of grooming tools) but a lot of it I think can be attributed to training- whether the horse over his lifetime attained any value for being groomed. Frequently this is one of the first things people do with a horse and as a result, a horse's reaction to it can be pretty ingrained. It can be very difficult to change the value of grooming for some horses.
Most of what we call default behaviors are behaviors that we have transferred a high value to. Behaviors such as mat work and head down can become self reinforcing if a horse finds value in their calming qualities. A horse who is consistently given his earned treats in the Grownups position will quickly find that to be a high value position. So now I am thinking of what other activities I can transfer value to...
Here is a photo of Mariah, taken just a few mornings ago after a fresh snowfall. She still looked like the snow queen. Mariah LOVES to be groomed...her owner tells me sometimes her hand would get tired of scratching her and she'd go to the pitchfork! She's also one of those horses who loves to have you poke your fingers right down into her ears to scratch. Her head goes to the ground, her eyes close and she just leans into it. When I use the shedding blade on Mariah these days, I leave a fresh blanket of white on the muddy ground.
Before even beginning the daily lessons in Susan Garrett's dog training course, we were supposed to work on what she calls her "Critical Core" games. From a training system standpoint, these bear a striking similarity to Alexandra Kurland's Foundation Lessons. I don't mean that they are the same exercises for both horses and dogs, but they serve the same purpose.- they are designed to keep both animal and handler safe
- they begin to build a positive relationship with the animal
- as their names imply, they are the foundation and core of all the other work to follow.
I have ridden with many different instructors over the years and observed even more. The good ones have a system. Some pieces may have been created by this individual but many are exercises which they picked up from coaches they rode under, although they may have tweaked them to their own unique format. The point is, they don't just start training willy-nilly without a planned progression for which each ingredient has been carefully assessed, measured and put into place.
For Susan, the safety leans toward keeping the dog safe while for Alex, it leans more toward keeping the human safe, although I'm sure they would both agree with me that they go hand in hand. It's just that with dogs, some of the most frequent dangers are when they get away from us- so two of Susan's Core games focus on getting the dog to come back to us and then being able to get a hold of them when they do. With horses, we're back to the size factor. Head down and backing out of our space keep the horse calm and prevent them from running over us.
Managing the food is another component for both of them. Each of these masters have a game to address teaching the animal self control around food and how to take food politely. Both horses and dogs have teeth! But self control carries through into so many other areas of our training and management that it isn't just about the food.
By beginning with these games, a relationship is budding. Animals love to think, to learn, to interact with others and certainly to be rewarded for doing all of these things (learning isn't fun when it includes punishment). They look forward to the lessons and will come running to their person for more. The importance of having this type of relationship cannot be underestimated whether the long term goals are to have a competition animal or a companion animal.
Many trainers use clicker training to teach tricks or improve the quality of certain skills, but the real genius in the formats of both these women (as well as other professionals) is how their introductions serve as substructures for everything they do after this. While I do not compete in agility, I have already heard many references to start lines, contact points, front crosses and other mysterious terms and how a particular game relates to these skills. Likewise, I continue to be amazed at how Alex's work builds a well-balanced and physically stronger horse which helps no matter the future career path of the animal. The physique of young horses who have been started under her program is amazing...and they've not had restrictive tack put on to accomplish it.
Both individuals stress the importance of revisiting these basics regularly. Many times we can (and should) build these basics into our daily routines. Certainly food manners are given ample practice opportunities. The problem is that I, for one, tend to get sloppy in my daily habits at times. I let less-than-ideal behavior slip by in an effort to get chores done and get on with life. Pretty soon, I see pushiness and impatience creep into the picture. A horse who grabs for the hay as I walk by, a dog who bursts out the door when it's open. I have no one to blame but myself. Fortunately, I have core foundation lessons to return to and if I'm smart, I'll not wait until things fall apart to do so.
Eloise showing self-control by staying in her crate with the door open and me lying on the floor with food! (sorry for the sideways...took it with the phone and too lazy to go through the hoops of importing it into a program to edit it!)
One of our first assignments in this online dog training course was to make a list of possible distractions for our dogs- things which might take their attention from us and what we are asking them to do at any given time. After making the list, we were to rate them from 1 to 10 with a 10 being very distracting and a 1 being just a little distracting. We could then begin to test our dog's responses to our requests in the presence of a "1" distraction. If successful, we could move on up the list of distractions. If not successful at any point, then we knew we needed to put more "value" as Susan calls it, in what we are doing. This can be done by increasing the reinforcement history of the game and/or by offering a higher rated reinforcer (which was another list to create).
It was fairly easy to come up with a list for Eloise. It included: poop (poop of any specie is a fascinating find outside); birds (for chasing); food on the floor; good smelling food anywhere around; other dogs- playing, barking, etc; arrivals by car or on foot; the compost pile; bones, bare ones lower on the list than meaty bones; mice, rats, squirrels, and other creatures or even the scent of them, and so on.
When I decided to create a similar list for horses, I ran smack into the predator vs. prey issue again. I was first thinking that it's easier to remove the food element from a dog training area than with horses...grass is everywhere! But after that, I was thinking about what interrupts a horse training session and I realized that while dog distractions are things that attract a dog, horse distractions tend to be things which worry a horse. In fact, the vast majority of horse distractions could be subtitled "Things Which Appear on the Horizon". At our farm that includes: cattle, sheep, dogs, cats, birds, farmers, tractors, neighbors, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, cars, snowmachines, deer, turkeys, laundry on the line, plastic on the round bales, etc. These things could also be distractions for a dog but rather than wanting to run toward these things, as a dog might, horses are going to want to run away from them, preferably back to their herd and/or barn.
So how does this affect our training? With dogs, we make the game more fun or the reinforcer more appealing. Eloise finds a dry bone of interest and if I call her and she comes, I can pull out a piece of meat or cheese so she finds it worth her while to have responded. (OK, it has to be said- dog treats are far nastier to carry around in one's pocket than horse treats) The dogs' decision is: which good thing do I go to? With horses on the other hand, they are looking for safety. Do they follow their instinct to, at the very least, watch that thing instead of paying attention to the handler's requests or do they feel safe enough to turn their attention from the scary object and focus instead on the exercise of the moment?
It seems to me that we have to have even more reinforcement history with our horses than with our dogs. When the dog gets his piece of beef, he knows he made a good choice. When the horse stays with us and gets his treat, we have to also make sure that he feels safe in the choice that he made, thereby building a reinforcement history worthy of his trust.
Below, Percy and Eloise share a little reinforcing quiet time- he with his hay, and she with a bone.
