Brilliant! So Who Uses Clickers Already!

[redbloom]

Hi guys who uses this technique and how has it helped you-  

[LoopyLou]

RedBloom,

I love my clicker  

I was taught to use it by Becky when she lived up here.

I taught my horse to...(these things are only simple):-

Stand next to anything to let me mount ( very important when you are 5'3 and your horse is 17.1)  :lol:

Load in the trailer singlehandled  

Stand for the trimmer  

Stop when I want her to ( very useful )

To be clipped  

Like I said nothing too fancy but things which make life alot easier, I will move onto more advanced things now we are riding again    

 

[chapsi]

I've been using mine for the last 6 weeks. So, we are newbies (mare and I). Nix is our Godmother! She got us started. :lol:

Mind you it's a bit expensive; my mare responds more enthusiastically if I'm giving her proper treats instead of carrots bits. :lol:

 

[redbloom]

Hi Looplou,

I ahve ordered the book and clickers, and get teh idea about the target game- I just want me "cold backed" due to bad mangement new horse, to learn theat mounting is fine and so is working on alonger reina nd in relaxed manner- how would I go about this!??? have ideas, but wnat to be as obvious as possible for him!

[LoopyLou]

RedBloom
This is how I did it with Becky

Day 1.
Introduced her to the clicker, using a target object we used a fly spray, when Holly touched it with her nose click and reward, kept doing it making her touch it twice and things.

You may not need to do the next step but I stood on the offside and asked Holly to move over touching her on the hip, when she did even the slightest movement click and reward, then stood on the nearside and reached over with a school whip touched her on the offside hip and said over click and reward when she moved.

A the mounting block walked her up to it made her stand still click and reward, repeated this a couple of times, if she didnt do it them no reward and we would walk round and start again.

Day 2.
Practised the above things and then at the mounting block, took up the reins made her stand still click and reward if she went to move away from me I would touch her with whip on the opposite side and say over click and reward.
Then put my foot in the stirrup holding the reins but did not mount click and reward, if he doesnt do it and starts to move away take him around again and start again.

Day 3.
Practised the above again before attempting to mount if she stood still and let me get on click and reward if not go around and start again.
Then I had to do it alone, I wear my clicker around my wrist on a band, led her to the block myself made her stand up, click and reward, then mount click and reward I know it's a bit of a stretch to reach to reward from your back but he will reach round for it once he understands.

After that each day when I went to the block I followed the routine, I only have to say over now and she will step sideways if she isnt near enough to the block, and she stands now without having to use anything.

Also I had problems having to get on of for whatever reason I needed to get back on , on a hack so I tried the same methods on different things around the yard, jump wings, gates, buckets so that it I was out I could get on off anything.

I hope this helps    

I have seen you new horse and he is stunning, I am sure that by using the clicker it will really switch him on again  

 

[nix]

I've been using mine for the last 6 weeks. So, we are newbies (mare and I). Nix is our Godmother! She got us started. :lol:

Mind you it's a bit expensive; my mare responds more enthusiastically if I'm giving her proper treats instead of carrots bits. :lol:

Maria, I hope that's Godmother as in "fairy" and not as in the female version of Mr Brando  :lol:  :lol: . Tell Rija I'll be bringing her faves over with me .

I love clicker training, it is what helped me turn the corner with Prieto. Obviously there was a lot else involved, but it has been a major factor in "work=fun" as opposed to his previous attitudes   .

[Roxy]

I've done a little bit, but minus the click as she already responded to "good girl" and a treat before I heard of clicker training.  Fatty can do 'kisses', 'manners' (look away from the treat and pretend you don't want it), back, 'touch it' for scary monsters and have used it to teach her to stand at a mounting block as she had some issues with mounting blocks when I got her.

She's far too clever as she's learnt 'touch it' really well.  She'll go up to scary things without being told, snort for dramatic effect and look at me like "where's my carrot then?".  I've even caught her playing it by herself and rewarding herself with a big mouthful of grass   :lol:

Just need to stop the begging now, if she really wants something she does kisses then manners repeatedly until I crack, I know I shouldn't give in but it's so cute!  :blush:

I've used it on another horse who wouldn't be caught using her headcollar as a target, within a few days she'd come running across the field to touch the headcollar and claim her reward  :lol:  

[redbloom]

Looplou brillaint stuff will try this- he also seemed to get ratehr stressed when the trainer would plonk the saddle on and then do up girth- he'd walk backwards and become very tense and hollow- so plan on putting saddle on back/ click/ treat (if he stands still! and again till he is relaxed

then do up girth click/ treat
undo girth click/ treat ( both if he remians still and doesn't backup)

what do you think does taht sound right?

[hinny_heart]

Well, I am practicing on my rabbit! Complete with target in the form of a tennis ball stuck onto an old fork. Very swish  

TBH I am like Roxy, I've been doing this sort of training for years with my equines and my dogs. What I need to do now is practice my timing, make the training more "structured" with the clicker and perhaps keep a diary once I start training Denny, instead of just going out for long relaxing hacks.

Mr Rabbit learnt almost immediately that touch tennis ball = slice of banana. It's really good, because it's an easy way of getting him out of some of the hidey-holes he likes to get in, if I need him to go into "his" room. I'm now delaying the banana until he gets further towards his room. Perhaps eventually I'll be able to throw a tennis ball into his room and have him bound after it?!  

[Numbat]

I have been using CT for a few years now, but I'm not very dedicated about it. Plus my horses are also ridden by people who don't CT, so it's not very consistent for them. Even so, I have been able to see very clear results. I have used it to teach:

-stopping nicely from a hard gallop when I sit back and say "O-kay". *Not* a behaviour we had down before.
-coming when called
-coming up to his stall door and doing a "pose" instead of snarking
-walking by himself over to the mounting block, and standing there four-square while I get on (this was his own idea: he was fed up with me leading him when he knew the way perfectly well!)
-taking the correct canter lead
-collection on a loose rein
-lateral work
-Duchess lifting and rounding a little instead of travelling along all hollow
-same mare changing from one who pretty much crashed through even the smallest jump with her head in the air to get it over with, to one who will go over jumps at liberty, of her own accord (still have to work on the stimulus control on that one, since she'll also do it with a rider on her back   :blink: :P )
-free-lungeing around me in a small circle in a large arena (that one came as a surprise, but I thought it was cool)
-just an everyday responsiveness. I expect really skilled riders get this from lots of horses anyway, but CT helps make up for my more mediocre riding skills.

One thing I have found, is that it has become increasingly difficult for me to take lessons with non-CT instructors. I used to go to a lesson, then work on whatever it was the next day with CT (and much faster results). Recently there's just been too much of a gap between when I think the horse should be told she's on the right track, and when the instructor does. Traditional instructors seem to really have a problem with stopping in the middle of things.

Sue

 

[horsefreak]

I have had my clicker for a long long time   got it from the local pet shop!

Is the Alexander Kurland (sp?) book good? It may give me some more ideas on what to do with Ebby - she's become an expert at getting the target in the stable and following it in the field.

I'm trying to think up ways of how I can incorporate the clicker when I'm trying to teach her to lunge - Becky help!!!

[nix]

Hi horsefreak

Are you incorporating a target in your clicker training? Have you thought about putting it on the end of a lunge-whip and and using it that way?

HTH

[horsefreak]

Hi Nix.

I'm currently using a carrot stick with a Pepsi bottle stuck on the end of it - so yes I could use that (I knew the carrot stick would come in handy for something!). In her field she has been following it for a couple of paces each time, click then treat. Do I just carry this on till she is going around in a circle? It just seems a bit   to me, like her following a carrot on the end of a stick (hah, how ironic) - or have I got the wrong end of the 'stick'.

Thanks    

[nix]

In her field she has been following it for a couple of paces each time, click then treat. Do I just carry this on till she is going around in a circle?

That's right and then you can reduce the number of times you click and treat, eg work toward rewarding for a quarter circle, half circle, full etc. I know what you mean though, I was doing some target training the other day and thought that "carrot stick" was more apt for the target and stick than the PP misnomer .

[thecatsmother]

Mr Rabbit learnt almost immediately that touch tennis ball = slice of banana. It's really good, because it's an easy way of getting him out of some of the hidey-holes he likes to get in, if I need him to go into "his" room. I'm now delaying the banana until he gets further towards his room. Perhaps eventually I'll be able to throw a tennis ball into his room and have him bound after it?!

I don't see why not HH  

I have taught Chocky to push a big exercise ball around the school, and more recently to trot after it and push it along when I kick it. Friends who recently came down to visit asked when I was going to sign him up for Exeter City football club  :lol:

I started CT with Chocky when he was out of work owing to injury last winter, as a way to build up a relationship with him and get his brain engaged, and me focussing on looking for and rewarding the postive in what he does.  After teaching him to touch the target (a plastic bottle on a length of dowel) I taught him to touch his nose to my outstretched hand when it was waved in a particular way and the voice cue "Chocky HERE" was given. This has proved invaluable, as "Chocky HERE" can be hollered across a field as my whole arm is waved. Mark also uses the same cue to similar effect. Chocky has, since this cue was taught, pretty much always come over to be caught when called (even though sometimes when he's absorbed in grazing we've had to walk some of the way towards him before breaking through his "graze-haze". But in the past few days he's taken to cantering all the way across a 4 acre field to us when called from the gate to come in   . The "Chocky HERE" cue is practiced a lot as it is so useful. It moves him forward a step to get him into better light for foot trimming, grooming, tacking up etc. He's even happy to leave his dinner even when he's only just been given it, and come to the stable door to touch his hand to my nose, when asked in this way.

I've also taught him to touch small orange cones with his nose when they are placed in the school, and also more recently to touch the specific cone I'm pointing at with the lunge whip and a "this one" voice cue.

She's far too clever as she's learnt 'touch it' really well. She'll go up to scary things without being told, snort for dramatic effect and look at me like "where's my carrot then?". I've even caught her playing it by herself and rewarding herself with a big mouthful of grass   

That is just too cute, Roxy   . I definitely agree it gets/keeps the cogs turning in their brain, and if she has learned to "praise" herself then she will be a happy, self-confident horse