The Clicker Center: Foundation Lessons:
The six foundation lessons of clicker training are: targeting, backing, head lowering, "the grown-up are talking, please don't interrupt" lesson, "happy faces" and stand on a mat. These posts share people's experiences teaching these exercises to their horses. For more information on these lessons please refer to "The Click That Teaches: A Step-By-Step Guide in Pictures" and the video"The Click That Teaches: Lesson 1: Getting Started with the Clicker". Both are available in the Clicker Training BookStore
Arlene Colon wrote:
January 28, 2006
Hello everyone,
I've been enjoying and learning so much from all of your posts ... And I have to admit feeling a little humbled by them at times, because everyone seems so advanced, with years of C/T experience. I was starting to feel a little shy about posting anything. I just wanted to "listen".
Charm and I are both so green. I only just started her this past April/May using Parelli NH games and then began C/T in July/Aug. To say that she has been an incredibly willing, sweet natured, and almost brilliant student partner still seems to me an understatement. But we haven't been together yet a full year and my dreams/goals of trail riding, and pony dressage, and freestyle dancing, and volunteer therapy riding for the handicapped work still seem things in the far future! I've only just started the "Why would you leave me" exercises on the ground. Your discussions have helped clarify so many things for me already.
Anyhow, talking about revisiting the foundation lessons and also identifying "triggers" are two things I can handle. Alex, I am so glad you suggested this approach because it's given me a chance to re-focus and advance at the same time. Lately it seemed I had been trying too many things and leaving too many loose ends flying. So Friday I devoted the day to "the focused review" project. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I could not believe the giant step forward that that "simple" review of the basics brought on.
My mind felt uncluttered and I felt really good because Charm had seen me coming to her paddock before I saw her and she had whinnied to me and trotted to the gate in a wonderfully welcoming greeting ( She gives kisses and then hugs her head around my back when I put my arms around her neck.) On the way back to the barn we practiced targeting on a piece of pool noodle stuck to the end of our carrot stick and on a styrofoam ball. We hadn't done "simple" targeting for many months and she seemed eager to play this "easy" game again. So we did neck stretches. It's a long walk from her paddock to the barn so we also practiced head lowering and walking with head lowered. I think the higher rate of C/R really got her focused on me. When we approached the barn door we began to practice stopping and backing in parallel. Because I was C/R her for relatively easy stuff, by the time we reached the barn door she was so focused on me it was like a dance. In fact the barn radio was playing a pop song with a nice beat and we stayed in that area going forward, back, and sideways (crossing over our legs in unison - two steps right then two steps left) to the beat of the song. In this "dance" I didn't turn towards her, instead I simply moved in unison with her with only very slight touches to her chest and the side of her leg. It was great! She got a jackpot treat and a hug for that string of movements. I think at this point she knows my hugs are a good thing and she associates them with good feelings.
Because she seemed so tuned in to me, by the time we got to her aisle and stopped in front of her stall I had dropped the lead line completely and just signaled her by hand to position her. That's how we continued on to the stand on your mat game (using the Parelli driving game with C/R). She doesn't really like standing on a mat so we got lots of practice and C/Rs driving backwards and beconing forwards to get short stays on the mat. What I didn't appreciate at first (was just taking for granted) was that we were doing all of this at liberty - we were both so focused on our game - back...no too much, come forward a little ... oops too much, go back. I never touched the dragging lead line. When I looked up I noticed that one of the barn workers had been watching her with new-found interest and admiration. She let me clean out her feet, one at a time while standing on the mat with head lowered (OK - she was actually snitching dregs of hay, BUT she did stand still!)
Later we went for a trail walk with a friend, but because she was so very mellow by this time I decided to try just letting her be at liberty. What a wonderful experience. She actually followed me at her own pace, stopping to snack on greenery and twigs as she felt inclined but never letting me get too far ahead of her! At one point close to the end of the trail (one we've taken numerous times before on line) I detoured off the beeaten track. She must have decided I didn't know the way and it was getting too close to dinner time, because only then did she decided it was time to be the leader and continued down the track she knew would lead her home. Oh well, it was a great feeling being the Itachan while it lasted. All in all it was a wonderful day. And all because we revisited the simple basics! Thanks Alex.
Love,
Arlene
"Happy Faces"
Dolores wrote:
1/29/06
Julie wrote:
"I think that there can be a fine line between concentration, "bossiness",
and perhaps some confusion or physical discomfort on the horse's part."
To this fine post I'd like to add that sometimes what we are working on is
just plainhard. So we can respond by keeping the balance that Alex talks about.
For example, if I am lifting weights, the work is just darned hard. I need to keep in balancethe idea of the strength that I want to gain with being careful not to over tax the body to a point where I create discomfort.
For the horse, we want them to feel like they can do anything. When I trained Lance for long distance competition, I wanted him to feel like no distance was too far because he would have that inner sense of knowing he was invincible. When I ride him, I always feel like we could ride on for days. His power, his pride and his love of doing is infectious.
Cadbury, on the other hand, is more like Jessica. He wants to "get" the right answer. He wants to get the right answer NOW. And wants to try even though its hard. We always tell him that its not as hard as he thinks it is. But, he has to find his own way to the "oh is that all you wanted". Alex has more than once told me to be careful not to make him feel wrong. For a horse trying as hard as he does, adjusting without making him feel wrong takes a lot of concentration, focus and a loose, open heart feel on my part.
When he is in the first phase of trying ever so hard is when his ears will go back in concentration. And then, as soon as he gets to the "ah ha" phase, they return to normal. It is a balancing act to allow a little frustration but not so much as to turn it into anger.
Listening to him carefully. Knowing what those ears are doing and telling us at any given moment will allow the balance to be obtained.
Have fun!
Dolores
www.zenhorsemanship.com
Hi all, Arlene here again,
Feb. 29, 2006
Alex had suggested we identify triggers that affect our horses' personalities and mental state for learning, so I've been giving it some thought. In general I've lucked out with Charm because her innately placid, easy going Haflinger temperament made it soooo easy for me in the very beginning. But I'm still learning about my girl's personality, and every season is bringing out something new... in the Spring it was that devil tempting grass ... also in the Spring/summer her heat cycles turned her into a little tease ... then later in the summer it was her adrenaline-charged reactions to the humongous kamakazi flying "things" that "chased" and scared the begeezus out of her (and me). She bolted with me on her a couple of times. IN the Fall her emerging "alpha mare" aspirations surprised me as my sweet girl turned into a prima-donna bully when her paddock herd was reduced to three. Now in the Winter there have been hunters in the woods behind the stables and this has been a MAJOR distraction.
Sometimes I've noticed that she acts up and tests the waters (in a very left-brained calculated sort of way) when visitors of the human persuasion are present to view "her progress". She knows VERY well when I'm distracted. Just recently I wanted to show a friend how beautifully she was trotting in hand on a loose lead and how she would turn along with me and stop when I did, and then back up in unison with my steps. Brag, brag, brag. I wanted to show off my talented child. I confidently started to trot ahead when Bang - I ran into a taut line. It was almost slapstick in its effect! Each time she just looked at me and said "Not today - don't wanna!" Not once did she trot with me that day. She also refused to look at me with her ears. Why?! Now I think it too close to dinner time.
Two days later she was really right-brained for most of the day. That was because there were hunters shooting in the woods and she couldn't relax... even bucked a few time during a circle game we were trying in the cross country/jump area that's set up at the edge of the woods behind the stables. Silly me - everyone else had had the sense to stay out of the woods that day. Much later on after she was back in her paddock for a while and had eaten, I went back again to say goodbye. When Charm saw me again she came trotting over. I squeezed into the paddock (it was already dusk) and she gave me kisses and hugs. I began to jog and she immediate picked up her own trot and stayed with me as I made large figure eights... AT LIBERTY !!! She just blew me away! ForeverPoor (her paddock companion) was in the paddock also and Charm ignored her during all of this. Then I fed treats to both horses without any diva-antics from Charm towards FP. I made sure to click her for her tolerance of FP who she usually chases away from food. I had been feeling like such a failure earlier in the day but ended up with an incredible gift leap forward. What a difference having had a chance to eat makes. BTW - as I left Charm went back to chasing FP - Oh well - lots of clicker opportunities still for the future.
So far I've learned that by far, the biggest impediment to learning for Charm, and the surest way to our mutual frustration, is to attempt to work through the distraction of hay trucks delivering the evening rations to the paddocks. No sliver of carrot or apple, or even her favorite strawberries can compete with the thought of huge mouthfuls of hay and her little portion of grain (she's too chubby to get more than a handful and she's always very greedy around feeding times.) Also, until only just recently, hay stacked up against the aisle walls anywhere near her stall had resulted in immediate amnesia of ground manners and training. Many a time she did a great imitation of a shark in a feeding frenzy after lunging for the nearest hay bale, shaking it wildly to dislodge the biggest mouthful she could manage. On one of those oh-so-unladylike incidents the side of her head smacked into mine as I tried to prevent the bales from cascading down and I got a huge black eye and a horn bud on the side of my forehead (that is still there three month later).
OK - those are some of the triggers I've identified so far - and we still have three more months to the end of our first year together. Oh Yes - we did go for a brief walk one very cold and icy day recently, and she very politely but definitely let me know that if I had no common sense to realize that it was too slippery to walk she would just have to show me by becoming a post!
Can't wait to learn more,
Arlene
Hi Guys,
Just wanted to share, a small success story that occured last weekend. I also am aware that I have the same trigger as Melissa A. in low self-confidence - knowing little about horses being a first time owner. As Alex so aptly put it - I also have some fear (fear of riding on the beach or in the forest - namely because on the six occassions I have ridden in that environment, Cookie Monster has spooked and I've inevitably had some very painful falls.
Our rides have always been in the company of another solid and well educated, calm horse, but it hasn't helped as now we both feed off each other in an ever perpetuating cycle (me with stomach churning, which makes him even more anxious within that environment).
As Alex suggested, I have been reviewing the foundation behaviour's of head down, targetting, backing etc over the last month or so. As I wanted to promote the use of clicker training horses within the Auckland clicker Group, NZ, through the forthcoming PETEXPO on Feb 18/19th, Viv and Impy have assisted myself and Cookie in working on some new stuff for the video footage.
I thought this would be a good start to introducing the value of targetting past scary objects and touching' the goblins' in a familiar environment - paddock. Out came the tarpaulin and plastic bags (see photo in photo section - plastic bag tree). Cookie demonstrated his lack of experience to a tee, complete with snorts, wide eyes and body stance but targetting overcame his fear and soon we were stepping over the plastic sheets and walking past the plastic bag tree. we even got him to transfer and target the plastic bags and you could see him visably relax when requesting him to demonstrate 'head down' behaviour.
This was all valuable ground work which culminated in a real achievement on Saturday when at a loose end I took Cookie to Muriwai beach, on the west coast of NZ, 11 kms from home.
I tacked him up as normal - but wasn't intending on riding him, just getting him used to the routine involved. I kept his headcollar on under his bridle and off we went for a nice early morning walk up the beach. Initially he reacted to pretty much everything - racehorses galloping past being exercised, 4x4 vehicles (the beach is classed as a road), motorbikes hooning past, surf castors, the waves (its a
great surfing hotspot)even seaweed, logs and sandunes!
My trusty clicker got us through it all by using my hand as the target, lots of head down cues and touching/investigating as much as possible.It must have looked very odd as two people stopped to ask if I was alright or needed a leg up!We were quite happy. Eventually after walking 3 kms up, and the racehorses stopped passing us, I thought he was calm enough to attempt getting on. I found a handy log. It did cross my mind that this could be a very bad idea indeed (as we have problems in company, let alone being on our own!)I c/t for positioning as well as standing still by the log for mounting.
Before i Knew it I was on and I asked him to go forward. We were off at a very fast walk, loose rein, I clicked for forward movement (he always stops normally for his treat) but continued walking not interested in the food reward so I decided that walking home for him was more reinforcing!
I was as tense as a board and had to consciously make my body relax and go wobbly and breath slowely in and out. As I did this, he also relaxed and I could enjoy the achievement of such a simple thing as riding down the beach, just Cookie and I, with the sun glowing down upon us and blue skies.
I wouldn't exactly have said it was an enjoyable ride as I was very conscious of everything around us. He stopped and looked at some tyre tracks but then walked on and happily walked past the surf caster that we had had an issue with on the way up the beach.
WOW and AWESOME!!!!!Is all I can say. I was still nervous and fearful especially as he kept breaking into trot - but responded when asked to just walk, but we made it. I have to say I did hop off half a km from home as a series of motorbikes were whizzing towards us and I wanted to keep it positive.I then realised when walking back off the beach and he had another uncertain moment going through the tracks
between two sandunes leading to the horse carpark, that he is really using the target behaviour as security to overcome his lack of confidence (as well as mine!) All of a sudden his muzzle was stuck to my hand like glue, as I rewarded the touch, he again relaxed.
I've been on a high ever since, it may be only a small success but the people who I graze with, certainly realise the achievement and small step in progress we made. So far to go but its all starting to come together and thanks to all those who helped and supported me in working with Cookie and yes your so very right Alex - fear indeed does tell you what you need to work on. Thanks for listening to this rambling post!
Helen and The Cookie Monster
New Zealand
Holly wrote:
January 29, 2006
The foundation behavior I've really been focusing on is a solid head
down from the ground and in saddle w/ several different ways to ask
for it. The reason I've decided to focus on this behavior is Runaway
gets so worked up when taken away from the barn with being lead or
riding. She also gets worked up and excited when she hears a horse
neighing, either one from the group she is around or a random horse
she hears out on the trail. Her third trigger is just seeing strange
horses out on the trail. If the horse she hears or sees is a foal the
reaction is quite worse. Needless to say we've backed way up and have
returned to the round pen until I have some basic behaviors down
solid enough that my horse can continue to think when these triggers
come up.
The improvement with her head down cue is amazing just in one week,
and I'm only able to go and see her 3-5 days a week. Since she is
very solid with the behavior in the round pen, arena and corral after
brushing up on it the first day we started working in other areas. We
have yet to move off the main area around the "barn". I realized how
big of an improvement she'd made when yesterday a foal got out of
it's pen and was running around neighing. The last time he got out
when I had Ruanway out my wrist was in a brace for the next two weeks
(she is a VERY devoted mama horse to EVERYONE'S foals). This time I
was able to cue her to put her head down several times and safely
lead her back to her corral. Huge step for us! Work on other
foundation behaviors that ended up evolving from picking just one
were ground tying and more advanced leading. I can tell focusing more
on the basics has immensely helped with her emotional control.
Holly & Runaway
In response to my post on foundation lessons and identifying your horse's triggers Peggy wrote:
Jan. 28, 2006
First attempt at our "homework"
McKee and his ears.
Foundational cures for horse behaviors…
McKee is almost 2 years old…he's an adorable bay "fuzzy-like-a-teddy-bear" miniature horse. He was most definitely man-handled as a baby. Not "beaten," just shoved around.
> >
I got him August and he has made incredible progress, except for the "awful faces" he makes from time to time.
> >
Triggers –
1. Touching his hind end (even though he now understands a yield and will do it).
2. Getting my face on the same level as his. (Early on he lunged to bite my face, and to my credit at least I knew he was green enough I'd better have my hand on this lead).
3. Oddly enough, when we first start to walk together, his ears are pinned. After about 15 steps he'll soften his ears and walk easily (I click now when he perks his ears). He starts out very softly, no tension on line, and he follows my body as I also say "Walk-on." The ears mystify me on this one…
> >
Plan –
1. Click when I get anywhere near his hind end, then increase area, then duration.
2. Ask him to stand on the mat, then continue to incrementally help his tolerance for my apparently "intolerable face." LOL
3. Go back and with the line, ask for the slightest yield of his head and click the slightest try. Extend that yield to the back up.
> >
> >
Peggy
More on triggers:
Donna wrote:
January 29, 2006
Holly wrote:
"The foundation behavior I've really been focusing on is a solid head
down from the ground and in saddle w/ several different ways to ask
for it. The reason I've decided to focus on this behavior is Runaway
gets so worked up when ..."
Holly, I'm glad someone else is working on a "foundation behavior" in
the singular, because I was already starting to feel left behind!
Since my last post on targeting, head lowering, and backing, I've only
added standing on the mat (just today for the first time). I'm
definitely still in the early stages of training these behaviors and
want to spend some time on each one of them.
Now, for my Firefly's triggers: Well, she is so green (totally my
fault for not training her, but I'm glad I waited to research more
about CT with horses and am doing more CT with her from the beginning
of her "formal education"), I was wondering how I was even going to
work with her at all. I thought she'd be too herd bound and upset to
be away from her pasturemates, not having been separated from them
much except when all the horses are in their stalls. But just the
general act of clicker training her is such a positive experience for
her (and for me), and she gets so focused, and much less reactive,
that I am now taking her out of the pasture to work -- first in the
round pen, and today into the stableyard -- while her pasturemates are
still turned out. In a week and a half, I'm doing something I thought
would be SO difficult. And, I could have taken her out sooner but I
didn't train horses at all several days last week 'cause I had dog
training commitments.
And today, we worked "stand on a mat" under very, very windy
conditions -- nothing spooked her, not the gates banging or the
swimming pool cover flapping or anything. Had she been distractible
or reactive, though, I would have tried targeting first and after a
few target touches, asking for the head lowering. I guess I feel the
targeting would be easier for a nervous animal, to give her a positive
task to accomplish, then ask for the head lowering -- if nervous, she
might not be ready to go off her guard enough to lower her head right
at first.
These examples that came so quickly to mind suggest to me that many
issues will be able to be addressed or at least ameliorated by
practicing the foundation behaviors and/or just the steady doses of
CT. I need to think about more possible issues, chunk them down, and
review which "foundation behaviors" might be a good place to start.
MY triggers -- definitely I know I got frustrated with my Chai for
being the very opposite of forward. Mostly he used to just stop and
not want to go, but if really posed, he has on occasion actually
started walking backwards. I've called him "resistant" so many times,
a very non-behavioral and non-productive approach. Definitely
emotional pressure does short-circuit my cool and rational
behaviorist/trainer self. That happens even more when dealing with
skeptical others -- mostly just DH, who is slowly coming around, but
who still resorts to a lot of yelling and hollering with the animals
when conflicts among them are occuring, no matter how often I try to
explain that that often just escalates a situation, rather than
helping. So, the "onlooker" factor is definitely there, though mostly
just with DH. Other spectators don't bother me quite as much, though
definitely some.
Also, I don't know if I'd call it lack of self-confidence or what,
although maybe that's there, too, but it does seem as though I can
think of how I would handle a training situation, then check with
sources such as books and other trainers, and find out my thinking was
right -- or at least in agreement with many others -- but still when
I'm actually in the training situation itself, I often doubt what I'm
doing, as though I should be doing something more. Or, with a dog
training client, I know what I'm doing will work, but I worry that he
will expect instant results or something, or for some reason won't buy
into the CT. Maybe that's another aspect of the "onlooker" factor.
Okay, I'm realizing as I write that I need to think this through
better before I go on anymore, because I certainly don't have this
amorphous trigger I'm trying to describe in tangible terms yet.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
Regards,
Donna
More on the value of reviewing basics:
Tanya wrote:
Jan 31, 2006
Hello All,
I decided to spend a day just playing with my horses (something I don't do very often, but always want to).
I mainly focused on backing, head lowering, and also did some other ground work and fun stuff to spice it up.
It was one of those days that felt kind of blah. When I start to question if I should be training horses at all. But when I questioned what gave me this feeling, the obvious answer was: my expectations. Since they are MY horses, who are supposed to have already learned all this stuff 3 years ago, I could not treat them in a detached way, like I do the horses that come in for training.
So I ask Ogeechee for lateral flexion, and he nickers, parks out and braces his neck, all the while looking very enthusiastic. When we finally achieve lateral flexion, I ask for hindquarter disengagement, and he straightens his neck and pushes his shoulder into me! And all of this with bright eyes, and a nicker. And I thought he could do lateral flexion and hindquarter disengagement in his sleep! Well, in fact, he could even do it ridden bridleless.
This is when I am triggered. I catch myself bumping him back with the halter and popping his hip with the end of the lead rope. He continues to be enthusiastic, stiff, and inflexible. I remember silently judging my boss a couple of days ago for doing what I am doing right now. I stop. I feed out more lead rope and step towards his hip and into his space. He flexes and steps under with the near hind leg. I bridge him. How mundane. Yet, if he was a horse in training, I would have been pleased with this, knowing that it is just a temporary regress on the learning curve.
I decide to go for a short ride, but Ogeechee is like molasses. I end up using my dressage whip, not beating him, just touching, - but it is still an aversive... It takes so little to sway this gentle and progressive me into an adversarial pattern of thinking. I ride him to some good grass and find reasons to bridge him and let him eat. He is pretty happy.
Got a chance to work on scary stuff: he has always been terrified of drains in the barn. I have never used CT to work on that before. It worked! I first bridged him for sniffing the drain and gave him a piece of banana. That really got his wheels turning. After much internal struggle, clearly visible on his face, he put a foot on the dreaded drain. Bananas, grapes, and carrots!
I am somewhat alarmed at how many holes I am discovering in his basic training. I think I will make a schedule of reviewing all the foundation behaviors and work on them systematically.
Practiced head lowering and backing with Jake. I did it at liberty, and then picked up the halter to do some trotting. When he saw that, he put his ears back and turned away. He walked a short distance, turned around, and very carefully parked out. When his pose was finished, he flipped his ears forward and looked at me. I just had to laugh. He might as well have said to me in plain English: "I don't want to trot, but here, I will park out for you". In a way it was sad too, because he has been having some strange problems with his hindquarters, and this is why he did not want to trot. So we did walking instead. I bridged him for having at least one ear forward, but he was not getting it yet. He is getting head lowering, however, and ready to work on duration. Then I spent some time just bridging him for standing there with his neck beautifully arched and ears forward. I have not started shaping the pose yet. When I do, I will probably spend hours just looking at him.
Later, I was teaching backing to the horse who lives in the same pasture with mine. Ogeechee came over and after realizing what was going on started backing himself. When I turned around he had backed up about 20 feet and kept at it. I could not help but bridge him!
What a productive day!
Tanya
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