What Next? Eh, Eh

[chapsi]

Great, a new thread.

Well, my mare was already clicker training introduced. She is responding well and revealing a very cunning side of her personality too. She has tried to pick her target twice to bring it to me, and she has on occasions 'pested' the clicker to see if it rang for her. Honestly, she nuzzles the clicker in my hand!

In short, she now goes to the target, even if I place it at a few yards distant from her.
Now, that's the crunch, where do I go from here? so that she goes to the target even further away (I guess it's logical, simply increasing the distance and drilling the procedure), but waiting for the command to go?
When I put the target on places, she keeps following me, which is frustrating (that's why occasionally I play football with it, to be faster than her).
Does this make sense?

Nix, anybody, suggestions??? :lol:  

[nix]

What you can try next is using clicker training, without the target, to ask Rija to stand still. Shawna's book describes this quite well and, again, break it down into small steps eg click and reward if Rija stands when you take one step away from her. Do this until you can walk around Rija without her trying to follow you and then build up to walking further distances away.

Once you've established this you should be able to ask Rija to stand, then walk away with the target and ask her to come to it. Don't forget to ignore any "soliciting" but to reward attempts for the behaviour you're trying to shape.

Hope this helps and see you on the 21st

Nix
x

[Numbat]

When I put the target on places, she keeps following me, which is frustrating (that's why occasionally I play football with it, to be faster than her).
 

You could also teach her to hold her nose on the target for longer and longer periods of time. First with you standing there, then after you have that on cue, with you walking away (you'd go back to only asking for a short period of time at first when you did this, since you're adding a new criterion).

Sue