New to Clicker Training

[Amanda1950]

Well, as Tramado (Tomato) is on box rest, I thought we would try some clicker training.  I bought a copy of 'Clicker Training Your Horse' and only just started reading.  I thought it would be easier for me to read and practice as we went along.

Saturday just played click and treat which my greedy pony loved, and Sunday introduced a target (I used an old football) and was amazed at how easy he figured out that he touched the ball to make the clicker noise to get his treat!  I moved the target around his and the stable, held at different heights and each time he went and touched the target - I was very pleased    Never thought he'd figure it out that easy.

All this with a cup full of pony nuts and I did not get mugged!!  He waited for the click to get the treat!

Tonight I have to read more of the book to see what happens next!
 

[TashaKat]

Welcome to the wonderful world of clicker    It really is amazing how quickly they pick it up and how easily they retain the learning too and, when you get more into it, how transferable it is to everything else 

Even though he's been good with not mugging it might still be worth doing the 'anti mugging' lesson next as they can get a bit excited sometimes    Saff still tries her luck on occasions but yesterday was snuffling in my treats bag (someone had 'helpfully' hung it on her fence!) so I said told her 'no' (from quite a distance) and she stopped straight away    I am so pleased to have been proved wrong about my initial impression of clicker 

[Jeanette]

Well done for having a go...and I definitely don't want to dampen your enthusiasm..but..

I'll second the no mugging lesson. Even though it looks like they have got the gist you'll find that you'll need to go back over this lesson many times...even with experienced clicker trained horses. It's a bit like practising the scales when you are learning a musical instrument..one of those really core pieces that has to be reinforced a lot..you'll notice this when you try to build some duration into some of the exercises..like standing still on a mat..or in hand walking in "the pose".

[Amanda1950]

Thanks both for the advice re anti-mugging  .  Sounds like a good lesson to teach but I can't find this in my book (unless I am being really thick) - any suggestions of books greatly appreciated.


Tramado is really enjoying this (and so am I) but I do want to get this right and do much more in future.  It's going to be really usefull when he finishes box rest in a week or so and we have the freedom of playing in a school.
 

[TashaKat]

I'm absolutely no expert but the way that I've done it is to get a bum bag of treats and rattle it to actually encourage her to have a snuffle.  This will, generally, get her to have a look and a wonder if she'll get lucky but she doesn't get anything at all when she's nosing at the bag.  When she looks away I click and treat.  I've also taught her to 'look away' which she's really good at although she did tend to zoom in on the treat at first which is something that I had to tackle.

[Amanda1950]

Ah, thanks TashaKat.

I may have already taught this inadvertively- we've only had one episode of him wanting the treats without actually earning them, and he know's the word 'back' means move backwards away from me, which he did and for which he got a click and reward.

I do like the sound of the look away though. I need more clicker training books!!

[catkin]

I think you'll find it throughout the book, along with food-delivery techniques which is really important so that the horse will wait patiently after the click for the treat they know is coming. The value of this lesson becomes really apparent when you start adding it to work on longreins or under saddle - there's an immediate stop at the click (quite spectacular from canter ) but they then wait at the end of the reins for the treat. If they try mugging Becky told me to go all 'prickly', they soon get the message. And don't allow anyone to handfeed them at other times.
You will go through a very 'enthusiastic' stage when you will get frantic tries at all sorts of behaviours, keep your cool and it will pass.
Also make a bit of a ritual of the end of the session so that the horse is under no doubt that the session is ended. Personally i think this is extremely important as neither I or my horses have the mental endurance to be working at the clicker level of intensity every second we're together, nor is it healthy to be doing so - we all need R&R and just chilling together.
I was a real sceptic about clicker - and was worried about the power of the reinforcement if my timing was off, but it's well worth perservering - it puts a whole new dimension into training. My horses are getting quite creative too, when I started on 'retrieve' with the young one whilst on boxrest she started to suggest her own ideas on the rules of the game!

[TashaKat]

And don't allow anyone to handfeed them at other times.

Totally agree!  One of the 'downsides' to clicker is that they'll perform their little 'tricks' to get people to feed them.  Having a horse curtsey to you is quite cute and often gets non-clicker people feeding them treats because they are so clever.  They ARE clever, they know that it can get them treats but it IS a form of mugging, just a cuter way of doing it! 

When I first started Saff on clicker she'd run through her whole repertoire in about 2 seconds flat to see which 'trick' got her the treat 

[Amanda1950]

And don't allow anyone to handfeed them at other times.

This is a major bug bear of mine and I made notices for both my horses stables to ask people to please not feed treats etc to them (some people thing I'm a real old bag - I probably am!)

I also was a sceptic to clicker training and it was only by posting on EE about Tramado's box rest and how to overcome the boredom for him that it was suggested to try clicker training. 

Having read through the replies and also flicking through my book (my bible at the moment).  I am hoping this can improve my in hand work and also one area where Tramado can be a capital letter P R A T - lungeing.  He can lunge beautifully, but he can switch from being perfect on the lunge to doing the wall of death in a nano second........  To be honest I don't lunge any more as I find it too nerve wracking.

[catkin]

Amanda, Once we'd laid down the ground rules, which I did in the school not the stable, I started off with in-hand work, then onto under saddle - it's fab for this. My reasons for doing it this way round was that it it was then fixed in horse and human heads as a training discipline and there was no misunderstanding about when the treats would appear (does that make sense?) If you've laid down the ground rules OK then you will find you can transfer it easily enough - just go back a few steps in the new environment first.

I have some expressions too carried over from pre-clicker training which now mean 'good try, you're on the right track'. It's fascinating what the horse understands - for example 'good girl' in-hand or on long reins is still a 'bridge' but was picked up by J as equivalent to a click under saddle! (I need to use 'clever girl' under saddle........golly it keeps you on the ball this training stuff )

I know what you mean about the pratty moments, my Sec D goes off into 'welshworld' every now and then.
Just like any training you have to break things down into little chunks ie, can you do a quarter circle withoutbeing pratty,  now can you do a half circle etc. Pace would be another lesson, the other way round another, quality of pace another etc etc.....  It has made a huge difference to me (I'm just a rank amateur) but never make the mistake of NOT putting your whole heart,soul and attention to it, the horses always know and won't concentrate/communicate either, personally I think that's when mugging and other problems can start.