Bookends Farm

How Much does "Why" Matter?

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Frequently the first thing which pops into mind (above, Eloise demonstrates "POP" this past weekend) when a problem arises with a horse is "why did he do that?" Or, "why won't she do this?" In the last couple years, I've come to tell myself that frequently it doesn't matter. It's hard to let go of, but the truth is, many of us get horses who have backgrounds we know nothing about. No amount of Freudian questioning is going to reveal the truth. We may know some or even a lot about the previous home...but before that? The horse may have had several owners and homes and certainly has had innumerable experiences with people, trailers, competitions, other horses, other animals, etc. Rarely do we know this horse's parentage beyond possibly a name on registration papers- nothing about the temperament of the mare who raised him to weaning.

So it's reassuring to think that, using proper training theory, we can usually overcome any previous experiences and train the horse to respond differently to a given situation. I love to ask other trainers their thoughts about this and this past weekend was a great opportunity. I attended my first KPA workshop, part of the six-month Karen Pryor Academy Training Partner certification. The other trainers were dog trainers so it was a different community from which to learn. The instructor, Carolyn Barney, of DOGS! Learning Center, reiterated a couple very valid points which I had previously decided were critical. First, before beginning to train anything, we have to make sure that there is no medical reason preventing the horse (dog, whatever) from performing a desired behavior.

A horse who refuses to stand still for mounting should have his back checked and his saddle fit assessed, as well as the mounting skills of the rider evaluated. If the answer to "why won't he stand still" is any of these making the horse uncomfortable, he is not to be blamed for moving and the behavior can be easily modified by making adjustments to make him comfortable. Horses can be taught to stand for awkward riders of course- therapeutic riding horses and lesson horses do it all the time. But if the rider can be corrected instead, it's a kinder route. There is also the issue of whether or not the horse is enjoying being ridden, but I consider that part of the training process, so it will right itself.

The other situation Carolyn mentioned was an emotional issue. If you ask yourself "why" and the answer is that the horse/dog is afraid, then that should be addressed before trying to train. Peggy Hogan, of The Best Whisper is a Click, reminded me of this when I was trying to teach Percy to tolerate being hosed. When fear is involved, you go to classical conditioning. Many of us use Clicker Training (a method of Operant Conditioning) specifically because it does not include fear and we know animals do not learn well in a fearful state. You can scare a horse into doing something such as getting into a trailer or crossing water, but he isn't learning, he's just doing. By using positive associations with the fearful situation, you can remove fear from the picture, and then use Operant Conditioning to teach. Standing and hand feeding Percy while the hose was running (not on him) allowed Percy to change his associations with the noise and sight so that I could begin to train him to tolerate being hosed.

Some people will tell you that a horse is just pretending to be afraid, but I don't think that's part of a horse's nature.

We discussed other over-the-top emotional states like anxiety and excitement. I would say anxiety is simply another form of fear and so should be addressed in the same way. I'll need to think and observe more about excitement because my experiences so far don't bear that out. A horse who is excited is probably showing distraction which in a horse can come right back to fear- watching that horizon for the lions coming over it in a new situation. Or he is anticipating something- speed for instance- and positive reinforcement can be used to teach the horse to stand and wait but still be ready to leap from the start box (just watch Susan Garrett's dogs on the start line of an agility competition).

One of the other students at the workshop brought up a very valid reason to share the "why" if you can come up with it- to reassure the owner that it's not necessarily something that he or she is doing which is causing the problem (sometimes of course it is!). Because this course is about becoming teachers as well as trainers, it was really helpful for me to hear this. I may not need to know why an animal is exhibiting a certain behavioral problem, but if I am going to help someone else with their animal, we need to find out if they need to modify their training to prevent this problem. If it isn't related to the owner's handling, then that owner can be reassured that we can correct the problem with training and not to worry about what may have happened in the animal's past to cause it.

Do I Have to?

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:37:00 +0000

Recently, the topic arose of whether or not a horse ever "has to" do what he is asked when we are Clicker Training. I think both sides of the debate have merit and it comes down to how you define "have to" as well as a lot of other things.

On the side of those who think that "have to" is not part of the Clicker Training process, I agree. One of my basic premises is that the horse has the choice of whether or not to respond to any of my cues (which differentiates a cue from a command in my opinion). If I give a cue and the horse does not respond, that is information, not defiance. It could very well be that I have not trained it well enough, or have not trained it well enough to generalize to all situations (the difference between a horse who goes wonderfully at home but things fall apart in a new situation). It could be that my cue was unclear in a given situation, or that I was not paying attention to see that the horse was distracted. If I am in the mindset that the horse "has to" respond, then I am closing the door to all that information and my training will suffer as a result- I have eliminated the possibility of feedback from my horse until, well, it's a dire situation and the horse feels he needs to react in a very strong show of emotion to be heard.

On the other side of the question is the people who say that there are times when a horse has to respond in certain situations. Who wants to ride a horse that decides not to stop when asked? Or even lead one for that matter? It's dangerous.

So I think it's important to define what we mean by "have to" and what training methods we're going to use to get there. For many trainers, "you have to" means there will be consequences if you don't. In fact, there are always consequences- we don't live or train in a vacuum. So what will those consequences be? Do we ask again? Ask in a different way? Make a training plan to address this? Those are all what I would call clicker compatible consequences to a horse ignoring a cue. Others may give up. This is what many beginners do because they have no tools with which to address a problem. Still others will escalate- kick harder, pull more, put on stronger equipment. And others will punish- a whack with a stick is just one item in a collection of punishing responses. Those are not clicker compatible consequences.

Another question to ask is what behaviors you think a horse "has to" respond to and why? Is it because you don't want to be embarrassed in front of other people or at a competition? Is it to keep you comfortable? As in, "I don't really feel comfortable with this horse trotting through here and I'd rather be walking". Or is it safety? "You HAVE TO stop right now or that truck is going to hit us both?" Certainly the last is a reason I would agree with is a situation that I would say the horse HAS TO stop. And feeling comfortable is very close to that same need. Feeling embarrassed? Well, as clicker trainers, we're pretty used to people looking at us like we've lost our marbles anyway so this is just more practice for letting that roll off our backs.

So how do we convey "have to" using Clicker Training? We train. We make "have to" equivalent to "I'd be happy to". We Think, Plan, Do, to quote Susan Garrett. Think about what we want (as opposed to what we don't want). For instance we want a horse to stop when we ask. We come up with a plan, using all the tools that Alexandra Kurland and other clicker trainers have generously shared. And then we train: foundation lessons, baby steps, regular progression, assessing progress, plan some more and train some more, reinforcing every step of the way so that the horse says "stop? I'd love to" and he stops.

I think "you have to" implies some sort of threat out of the fear that the horse might refuse. But if the horse learns to love to work with us, why would she refuse? Well, shit happens, as they say. Things don't always go according to plan. A situation may arise that we have not had time to train for. Or we may not have thought to train for. We may have been building up a great response from our horse to our stop cue and may have a horse who walks politely along with us, following our cues for stop and go without a problem. But then early one morning a wild animal goes through your pasture fence, tearing it down and scaring your horse silly so that she gets out. You may no longer be in your safe training area and may not have trained for the neighbor's property yet. Plus you have this horse who's acting half out of her mind thanks to the intruder. Now what?

I think the answer is different for all of us, depending on our own personal emotional state at that point. I know the more I have clicker trained, the more confident I am in those situations. A chain over the nose never made me feel as safe as having a horse who knows how to calm down on cue. Even though, in a hairy situation, she may not go into complete responsive relaxation, the training that has been laid down gives me the tools to ask her to relax....traditional training never gave me that. It gave me tools to be bigger and tougher and threaten good behavior, but a simple touch on the poll which simply means relax? Magic. If I get even an inkling that I have been heard in that request, I know I'm on my way. The trust that builds up over those training sessions- putting a horse in a mildly uneasy situation and helping her learn emotional control- will mean that she is more likely to look to me for assistance rather than feeling threatened by my "you have to".

Think of yourself in a tense situation- if there is someone there whom you trust, doesn't that in itself make you more comfortable? And if that person suggested a way for you get out of that tense situation, wouldn't you be likely to take that person's advice?

The Power of Targeting

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:59:00 +0000

The other day I was reminded of how powerful targeting can be. I don't think we understand this when we first learn about targeting.

I had taken Rumer out for a little walk and we were doing silly things. If she is going to be appropriate for kids, she needs to learn about silly. So we went for a walk, we stepped over logs in the woods, we got the mail from the mailbox and other things we've done before. Then when I was putting the mail in the garage, I decided she might as well learn to go odd places. I certainly took my pony odd places when I was a kid. So I invited her into the garage. The big door was closed and so I stepped into the person door. It was a bit dark in there but she bravely followed me, tiny step by tiny step. Our garage is a bit of a catch all so the recycling boxes were on one side of her, along with the hose coiled on the floor. The cot that I sleep on for foaling is stored in there, covered with plastic; various buckets, a wheelbarrow, bikes hanging from hooks in the ceiling- all were carefully and hesitantly checked out. So far I was doing no CT. I was just taking a step and letting her explore. Our winter tires were stacked in there, four to a pile each covered with a white plastic bag. I led her between the two stacks, just barely room for her to fit. I lifted up the big overhead door a couple times, but she was a bit reactive about that and I didn't want her backing into the hanging bikes such that they came crashing down on her head so we just played with the door going up and down a foot or two- then back out to the sunshine.

I asked if she wanted to jump up onto the porch. She looked like she would be fine with that but unfortunately we have no porch steps and it would have required jumping over her knee height. I didn't want her slipping on landing so instead she just investigated all the flower pots and things she could reach.

Then we came to the laundry line. Again, she followed me to it and sniffed the clean laundry hanging from it, but when I asked her to follow me under it, she said no thank you. First I asked just the way I had done all afternoon- I walked forward a step and waited to see if she would follow, no pressure. The line was high enough that she wouldn't guillotine herself on it but low enough that the socks were going to drape over her back as she walked under. But she was concerned enough that her head was up and the socks were at face height. I put the tiniest bit of pressure on the rope- no more than a suggestion. She still thought it was not safe. Considering how many things she had done already even when she was worried, I knew we had reached a new level of concern.

So I put out a fist. Oh- there's a target, she said, and took a little step forward to target my fist- CT. I stepped back a little and did it again. It was as if the laundry had magically disappeared. Two touches to my fist and she was under the laundry line without dislodging a sock.

My only reasoning is that all her life, targeting has been a fun and successful thing to do. It's never failed her. If it was as easy as targeting my fist, she lost all fear and was able to be successful.

Using What Comes Up (or The Difference Between Angus and Holsteins)

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:23:00 +0000

Apparently, from an equine perspective, there is a difference between black cows and black-and-white cows. We have Black Angus. The photo above shows some of our weanling calves, pastured about 75 feet from the horses. The horses see them daily and in the short lives of my youngsters, the cattle have been pastured on all sides. They hear them, see them, smell them and watch them daily. They watch them with interest, but not usually concern.

Today, however, they saw black-and-white cows. Holsteins, to be precise. The neighbor's heifers got out and although they stayed on their own property, they came in sight of my horses. I had just put Percy in the round pen for a little training session and had gone to get the mats out when I noticed the heifers...or rather I noticed Percy notice the heifers. I called the neighbor (good friends) and he said he'd go fetch them back to where they belonged. It was a bit of a hike from his house to the far field that adjoined us where the heifers had wandered. It would be a few minutes at least. Percy was doing his Standing Stallion Statue pose as he watched the heifers at the bottom of the hill. Every 10 seconds or so, he'd terrrottt around the round pen very importantly only to freeze and stare some more. All the other horses were rooted to the spot in their paddocks as they watched the strange black and white creatures.

A training opportunity had arisen. I was in complete management control- he was in a safe place and so was I. I could see how much I was worth to him compared to the side show of Holsteins. I wasn't interested in forcing him to pay attention to me. I wanted to know just how much of a "cookie" I was. How much value had I built up? I had a pouch full of treats since I was about to work with him anyway so I was ready. I stood on the opposite side of the round pen- he was facing away from me- and I called him. He turned immediately and trotted to me. Well, that was impressive and earned him a people-peppermint (his favorite).

I can't remember exactly what order I did things in, but my mind was whirring as I tried to figure the best approach. I know I asked him to put his head down and he promptly did- C/T. He trusted me enough to relax into that- good. I considered working on 300 peck pigeon since I wasn't sure I wanted to get any more complicated than head down considering the distraction. I thought it would be good to see how long he would keep his head down in that situation. But then I realized that would break one of the 4 D rules. I didn't want to increase the criteria in more than one of the 4 Ds- distraction, distance, duration or difficulty. We already had Distraction to the extreme, so I didn't want to up the duration as well. I was also changing the cue on him a bit so I was really pushing things. Normally I place my hand on his poll for a non-rope cue for head down but because he was on the other side of the panels and was at high alert, I couldn't really reach his poll and was doing a modified cue of just raising my hand. He seemed to get it, but I needed to be careful to keep things successful even if it was a bit of a test.

So we did a bit of easy targeting, then some head down for a count of 5. He'd give me some good responses and then trot back to check on the heifers. After a couple seconds, he'd come back to me. I did not call him back to me after the first time. I was hoping for, and in fact I got, him to choose to come back and play with me. I'm not sure I was overwhelmingly more interesting than the heifers, because he did feel the need to go check on them regularly, but he did return to me each time on his own. I checked to see if he'd offer head down if I didn't cue him after we'd done it a couple times. He's currently offering Pilates moves when given the choice and I didn't want to encourage him to puff himself up any more so I went back to asking for head down or targeting. His eyes softened considerably and I was able to get a head down for count of 10. That was enough so that I decided to take the mats and go into the round pen with him for our original lesson plan.

By this time, the heifers had disappeared over the rise in the distant field. They were not forgotten, but I did have Percy's full cooperation. I was very pleased to notice improvement in his work from the previous day (we're working on a pre-riding pattern of three mats) even with the higher level of excitement. All in all, I was very pleased.

Schooling ditches

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:57:00 +0000

I love fall- it's such a great time to ride with no bugs, cool temperatures, and beautiful scenery. It's not hard for students to convince me to take them on a hack so we can work on riding "in the open"...something many kids and adults sorely miss in these days of disappearing open land available to ride on.

This fall, I've gotten confident enough to ride Ande with students...I needed to be sure he was quiet enough that I didn't need to worry about him sparking an unusual moment in an otherwise quiet lesson horse and also that I could focus on a novice without needing to be on alert and horse training every second. Yesterday, at the end of a short ride with a student on Mariah, I decided to introduce the rider to ditches. We'd done uphill, downhill, steep ups through low woods (in other words on Mariah, she had to duck a lot more than I did!) and I was pretty confident Mariah would step quietly over the ditch so she could practice correct position without my needing to worry that she'd really need it.

When my daughter was younger, we'd practice ditches along the road- she could jump from the road over the ditch up onto the hayfield or lawn- uphill with less worry about bucking on landing. The town road crew had cleaned out the ditches with the grader after Hurricane Irene, so they were clear and obvious. Mariah was a champ and stepped carefully into and then over the ditch- the only challenge being keeping her head out of the deep grass on the other side. Ande, however, wasn't too keen on following her. As sure footed as he is, he is the one who still likes to leap over the little spring on the way to turnout in one of the fields when everyone else will simply splash through. I only had one peppermint in my pocket and I bit it into as many pieces as possible. Every tiny step toward the ditch (he had no problem going right to the edge, but then got worried), got a click and a tiny peppermint bit. The hardest thing of all was not going into complete "do it!" mode. Amazing how old habits kick in. Luckily, I knew the student's ride home was coming soon and so when the peppermints were gone, I shushed all the little trainer demons in my head who were telling me I couldn't let Ande "win" by not going over the ditch. I hopped off and led him over it. Sure enough, he leaped high and wide enough to make a Training horse proud. I let him graze and then led him back and forth a couple more times. Each time he avoided the possibility that any alligators in the ditch could reach him. Each time he got 10 mouthfuls of grass as reward and then we went back to the barn.

the ditch full of alligators

Today, I put a pouch full of treats on me and a halter and lead on Ande and we returned to the ditch. Standing him in the road, I asked him to step a tiny step toward the ditch. I knew he would gladly leap the ditch but I wanted him in it. Some schools of thought say never to teach a horse to step in a ditch because in competition, you want them going over it, not in it. I decided I'd risk it because I think it will be more important for Ande to be a quiet trail pony, rather than a high level event horse. And I figured, once again, he could be my guinea pig for Percy. If Ande proceeds to be unwilling or difficult to teach to jump ditches in the future, I'll do it differently with P.

I approached the ditch the way I approach a horse who is difficult to load into a trailer. It's not about the end result, it's about each tiny step of the way. I wanted him comfortable approaching the ditch and being in it, just like I want a horse comfortable approaching a trailer and comfortable being on the ramp. If you can get that, the rest is easy- and the training sticks. It's not just a one time deal. So I only asked for 2 inches forward at a time. And I made sure those were two inches straight ahead (using the Tai Chi wall if necessary), not toward me. I did not want him leaping onto me for safety (if you've seen the Thelwell sketch of the pony with his legs wrapped around his owner's neck when he sees a mouse, you know what I was picturing). When we had gone forward 6 inches down the little slope, I asked him to back up so we could do it again. Pretty soon, he was happily going forward and back, further and further down into the ditch until- ta da- he could reach the grass. So we stood and grazed there, another couple inches and he'd forgotten all about the alligators.

We went back and forth several times and he never again tried to leap. Next- I'll put the saddle back on and try again while mounted. I need to find a fairly level spot though because riding him with front feet in the ditch and head down in the bottom of it grazing will be a challenge!

Don't

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:31:00 +0000

As a clicker trainer and TAG teacher, I have tried to remove the word "don't" from my vocabulary. It hasn't been easy, but it has been very worthwhile. Positive reinforcement techniques are all about focusing on what we want as opposed to what we don't want. Initially, this can tie a person in knots. Working with a young student whose horse was trying to bite her as she tightened the girth, I asked her to tell me what she wanted the horse to do. She simply couldn't figure out anything beyond "not bite me!" (yes, consideration was given to all the things which could be causing this behavior before trying to re-train it).

Step 1 in Alexandra Kurland's Step by Step book is "decide what you want your horse to do". Susan Garrett, dog trainer, does all her training in "do-land". TAG teach instructs us to make tag points of what we want. The easiest way I have found to explain this to people is to quote the title of a book. I tell them to close their eyes and then I say "don't think of an elephant". Then I ask, what is the first thing that popped into your head? In all cases, it's an elephant. But I said DON'T think of an elephant! Why did they? Because that is the way our brain works. Our brain thinks in positive images. It doesn't have a picture for "no". It pulls up the things we think about. So if we go through the day thinking "no chocolate, no chocolate, no chocolate", our brains are hearing "chocolate, chocolate, chocolate".

Having raised a few young horses in recent years, there were plenty of things I didn't want them to do. I didn't want to be bitten, or kicked, or run over for example. I didn't want them to rear, or pull back on cross ties or bolt away from me. For all these situations, I had to do what clicker trainers call "train an incompatible behavior". That meant I had to come up with things to train them to DO, that made it impossible for them to do the things I didn't want. Don't bite became "mouth closed and head away from me". Don't kick became "four feet on the floor". Don't run me over became "walk a safe distance from me". Pretty soon, these things I taught became incompatible behaviors for other things I didn't want. "Four on the floor" also meant they couldn't rear and couldn't pull back on cross ties. Walking a safe distance from me meant they couldn't bolt off.

Now there was a lot of management that went into the process as well. You don't turn your backside to a young colt and just leave it hanging there begging to be bitten. I know that colts are all about biting. Not because they are bad, but because they are colts and that's what colts do! It wasn't personal- they bit everyone- their moms, their pasture buddies, the cat. It's part of their play which is part of their education. So while I was around them, I protected my backside (and arms and legs and face) by keeping a safe distance and training them to do something else with their heads which they got reinforced for. I had to make not-biting more reinforcing than biting.

I still remember exactly where we stood the first time Percy, as a weanling "struck" with a front foot and caught me in the back of the leg. At least that's how I saw it at the time. My mind was yelling "DANGER, RUDE, AGGRESSIVE" while this little clicker angel on my shoulder was saying "reward the positive". That little clicker angel and I had quite a discussion.

"But it was dangerous", I argued.

"Keep yourself in protective contact", the little angel said.

"I can't keep myself protected every second!"

"You know horses are dangerous big animals", the little angel said, "you have chosen to work with them and specifically with young ones".

"Why can't I punish this behavior?", I demanded.

"Punishment has unintended consequences", the clicker angel said.

"LIke what?!"

"You know perfectly well"

She was right, I did know. I didn't want this little horse to fear me, fear being with me or fear offering things because I might hurt him. I taught Percy to walk next to me, not behind me, where an enthusiastic paw wouldn't catch me in the back of the leg. I taught him how to turn and stay next to me when we went through gates so I could shut it behind us (the instance that had him behind me on that memorable day).

Now he's three and even though I never punished him for it, he doesn't strike. And many repetitions and a high rate of reinforcement for being next to me mean that when he gets startled and shoots forward, it's not been over the top of me. Am I absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, sure he'll never hurt me? Nope. He's a horse. A young horse right now. He weighs half a ton and he has hooves. Accidents happen. I must take responsibility for my own safety as much as I can and hope for the best.

Who's Your Trainer?

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:15:00 +0000

On a list serve I'm on, earlier this summer there was an active discussion about choosing a trainer. Some people get regular assistance from a trainer (this person can focus on training the horse and/or teaching riders) but even for people who do most of their own training, it can be very helpful to enlist the assistance of someone else occasionally. Trainers offer help with many issues- someone to lay out a thoughtful plan and help you pick realistic goals; maybe you've hit a bump in the road and need some fresh ideas or a different set of eyes; sometimes you just need any set of eyes to tell you how things are looking as opposed to feeling; sometimes you are ready for a different approach than the one you've used in the past or you have become uncomfortable with or even outgrown the trainer you've been using. The list goes on.

So how do you choose who to go to for help? Some of us have more choices than others but everyone should do careful research before entrusting themselves and/or their horses to another person. It's always good to start with asking around but don't limit yourself to only the well-known or big-name people. Someone posted a great quote on Facebook:

"It does not interest me who you studied with, what certificate you have, or what video clips you show, I want to know what my horse thinks of you after 15 minutes of working with you" - attributed to Ben Hart

While I actually am interested in who someone studies with and what certificates they might have (it gives some background and general impressions on approaches and certainly experience), I love the conclusion drawn. Or to quote Alexandra Kurland, "go to people for opinions and horses for answers".

So how do you know what horses think of a trainer? Peggy Ferdinand wrote a great post in this discussion and she has allowed me to re-post some of it here:

* Do horses she is working with look relaxed when she handles them? Or do they tense up and guard themselves? Do they seem to nuzzle her or otherwise feel comfortable "checking her out" when she's around? Do they stand relaxed when she is there? Do they seem to be trying to figure out what she wants, or just trying to "get through it"? If the horses she's working with are coming out of training sessions as relaxed or more relaxed than when they started, then that trainer is doing something right. And, if some horses seem to respond well to her, but others don't (or, she works well with some horses but not others)---which type is your horse more like?

* When the horses aren't doing what she wants them to do---how long does she keep trying the same thing, or trying the same thing with more emphasis/force? In other words, does she have a big enough "toolbox" to adjust her way of asking for/setting up a behavior if her first attempt or attempts aren't working? (I watched Mike Schaffer work with a big Shire mare in a clinic. She absolutely refused to give to the bit---a behavior that, with every other horse in the clinic, took him from about 5 to 15 seconds to achieve. It took fifteen minutes of him experimenting with this and that and the other thing, and finally he removed her cavesson, and presto---she gave at the poll and relaxed and he could go on with her. But my point is that he wasn't doing the same thing over and over and over. He HAD fifteen minutes' worth of other techniques he could use, without throwing up his hands and reverting to punishment.)

* Is the trainer's "discipline" for horses consistent and fair? Does she always want, and expect/train, to the same standards of behavior (rather than being more irritable at some times than at others)?

* Is she observant about what's happening to affect the horse's behavior? I watched a trainer react to a horse who was fidgeting in the crossties. She kept yelling at him, "STOP THAT!", and I actually rushed over to him just in time to avert blows from her to "punish his misbehavior". He was fidgeting, yes, but he was doing so because he'd been brought in hot and and sweat was rolling down his face, and it must have ITCHED like crazy. I took a rag and gave him a good scratch, took off the bridle, and then, he stood there very quietly. So---you want to be sure that the person you choose has better observational skills than that. They very often mean the difference between safety and grave danger, in working with horses (BTW I have no problem with a lot of the "good behavior definitions" that horse people have (I love Alex's way of describing them---for example, "Please be quiet; the grownups are talking" is just PERFECT). But a trainer must, I think, be able to assess WHY the horse is "misbehaving", and deal with it appropriately. Even better, they ought to be aware of the possibilities, and manage things so that the "misbehavior" doesn't occur because the stimulus (pain or discomfort or fear or whatever) has been headed off before the horse decides he has to handle it himself.)

The same goes for you, the rider or handler. Some people are very compassionate when working with horses, but have no patience with people! I understand this, because having a lot of compassion for a horse means we do not want to see their owners being rough or sloppy or careless because it hurts the horse. Nonetheless, the better we are at explaining things to people, the better off the horses will be. I've ridden under plenty of instructors who want to chew students up and spit them out. In that situation, I am tense and afraid of making a mistake- which makes it much more difficult to learn (the same is true for horses of course!) I prefer instructors who are quiet, methodical and patient.

So whether I'm the student or the trainer: quiet, clear and patient are what I'm after. Many thanks to Peggy Ferdinand for sharing those great thoughts.

Alexandra Kurland clinic blog post #3

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:01:00 +0000

The third and final day of the clinic was a rainy one. This didn't affect the learning possibilities in the least. Alex actually likes rainy days because it means we can spend more time on the people. Since it is the people who work with the horses, they need to learn it first. The facility which hosted the clinic does have an indoor arena so that was an option and one horse and handler pair did take advantage of that. The rest of us worked our horses in the stalls. Percy has never been in an indoor and this one was not attached to the barn but a short walk up the hill...further than I had taken him. He had settled in so beautifully by this point that I did not want to throw anything newly stressful into the situation. I wanted him to get on the trailer that afternoon thinking "well, that wasn't so bad- actually it was kind of fun!". This way, he does not need to fear or worry about where he is going the next time I ask him to get on the trailer.

Another area in which Alex has done amazing work is Microshaping...or Pony Pilates. She has a wonderful DVD on the topic which is such fun to watch and study- all her DVDs and books can be purchased at her Clicker Center website . Through microshaping, or shaping movements in tiny little increments, one can actually teach horses to activate individual muscle groups. I had given this a try with Percy earlier in the year, and once again, he caught on quickly and took it to such an extreme that I dropped it because I didn't know where to go next. I had focused on his pectoral muscles in his chest and in no time, he would stand and make those little pec muscles jump like a body builder trying to impress. When I tried to go on to other areas of his body, I had a hard time being in two places at once and also felt I needed some guidance as to where I should be focusing. Since we had decided to stay in the stall that rainy Sunday, I showed Alex what we had and asked for her help in where to go next.

I was very glad that I hadn't done more with him because she was concerned about his getting jammed in his spine, putting as much "oomph" into these little muscle contractions as he was. She asked him to target her hand with his chin, effectively bringing his chin back toward his chest. I say TOWARD, not TO. This was a full body movement for him, rocking onto his hind end a bit, lifting his back, and stretching at the poll. Alex made it look as easy as falling off a log. I could certainly step in and ask him to target my hand but two things happened: one, his movement was much less fluid and two, he didn't quite get the stretch through the poll we were looking for. I think I got better at it through the session, but it was a good final lesson for me because it summed up a few themes that had been brewing for me over the weekend.

First, I need to channel Alex when I work with all horses, but especially Percy I think. She has such a quiet, fluid way about her which in no way do the horses perceive as indicating a pushover. A significant realization in this came for me when I watched Emily, the woman who was using my Kizzy pony for the clinic. Unfortunately I didn't get to watch her much because I was usually preoccupied with Percy who was across the aisle and needing some attention. Emily is a relative newcomer to Clicker Training and her first lesson was working on organizing herself for the foundation lessons. She struggled a bit, as we all do- it looks so easy and then you get all tangled up in clickers and ropes and treat pouches etc! But the second day, she was transformed. It was amazing to watch her move. We had spent the morning working on the rope handling skills and there had been the usual connections to Tai Chi. It turns out, Emily has been studying Tai Chi and once she made the connection, her movements became smooth and graceful. Kizzy responded accordingly. I have done a little Tai Chi myself and the slow movements of this Chinese martial art intended for defense are really wonderful for working with horses. Moving in this way negates any need for swinging ropes or blatant body positions. The horses instinctively understand and respect it without becoming alarmed or fearful. So- more Tai Chi for me.

Secondly, microshaping. I told Alex afterward that just when I thought I understood baby steps, she unpeeled another layer for me. Her reply: "there are always more layers". I guess the way I have defined it for myself is that baby steps are about chunking the training down into smaller and smaller steps, whereas microshaping is about focusing on the tiniest of physical movements. One of the horses which Alex worked with in the stall that day was Georgia. Georgia (and her owner) had come with a pretty solid understanding of Clicker Training even though she'd never been to a clinic before. But Georgia overdid it when it came to the flexing and bending. She curled her head and neck way down and around so the first couple days had been spent working with her to straighten her out. On Sunday, Alex showed how tiny a flexion she was looking for, asking with the rope and halter. It was so tiny that sometimes we couldn't even see it, but she could feel it. Why? Because it was a correct movement which would lead to greater things. The gross movements skip all the little steps in between. Alex took us into the tack room and once again guided us through people exercises. I was fortunate to be one of her "horses". Standing behind me and placing her hands on the base of my head, she guided me through tiny movements to the right: a slight turn to the right, a slight tip of the ear and a slight drop of the chin. We repeated this several times while observers oohed and aahed over how much softer I was looking....!?!? I couldn't feel it happening but there it was. When she was done, I could turn to the right feeling soft and relaxed, but still felt stiff (though I wouldn't have described it that way before) to the left. Lesson learned- these exaggerated over bending and over flexing things we do with our horses are unnecessary and unhelpful. Or at least that's where my thinking is right now.

Lastly, there is no "right" position. When the subject of frame or positioning comes up, Alex says, "find an image that pleases your eye" and work toward that. In addition, horses come in all shapes and sizes so it makes sense that the balance point is going to be slightly different for each individual. So when working with Percy and microshaping, I need to think more of flexibility that I can mold to my choosing, rather than trying to find the "just right" spot. I need to be able to ask for him to put his head at any height I ask and flex just as much as I ask- but not in a demanding way. More of a "try this" way so that he frets less about being "right" and instead thinks about his own body and comfort.

Certainly plenty to work on but I already can't wait for the next clinic. Many thanks for Caroline Albert of Click for Confidence for organizing this clinic!!

Alexandra Kurland clinic blog post #2

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:12:00 +0000

On the second day of the clinic, we spent the morning doing people work. This portion of Alex's clinics may look the least appealing to the inexperienced but anyone who has felt what the horses feel by walking through her many exercises comes away a better handler/rider and grateful for it. Below is a photo of Alex demonstrating the slide down the rope utilizing Tai Chi bone rotations on a "horse".

Percy had settled down wonderfully in 24 hours. There was a window in his stall that he could put his head out of and view most of the farm. This was wonderful because he could study it all he wanted and nothing looked different when I took him out to work. In addition, I was on "farm time" and was awake well before everyone else each morning. I took advantage of that to get Percy out to hand graze. It couldn't have been more peaceful and he could eat and look and walk and eat and look and walk. Each day he ventured a little further but he really didn't want to go very far- his eyes needed to get full with right where he was!

When it was time to work horses, they had all been brought in from the paddocks and were dozing in their stalls. I chose the area right outside the barn to work this time. There was a little more room and he had had time to settle in and observe the goings on there. Plus, we were easily in sight of the other horses so there was no whinnying back and forth (to give Percy credit, Kizzy would whinny to him each morning when I took him out to hand graze but I didn't hear Percy make a sound all weekend). Everyone was assembled on the grassy hill to observe our session and I brought Percy out the door and down the little slope to where Alex and I had set up the cone circles and mats.
As I brought him down this tiniest of slopes, Alex commented, "He doesn't know how to go down hill".
"How can he not know how to go down hill?", I exclaimed, "he grew up in Vermont!".
I was picturing the side hills he played on daily in turnout, the hill I had to lead him up and down just to get to some of the paddocks, and the steep little thistle patch he'd been BORN on.
"I don't know," she said, "but he doesn't know how to go down hill in balance".

Thus began the day's lesson.

We took turns working him in small circles on this tiny slope. As Alex explained the exercise, he had to coordinate himself going just a couple steps down hill, then he got to go across the hill, then a couple steps coordinated up hill and then a couple more across the hill again. What I began to see was the way he'd let his body tumble down the hill once he got going. He did not maintain a steady rhythm of footfalls down hill and he'd speed the tempo up going up hill. This is another example of the beauty of Alex's work. Outside people looking in may see Clicker Training as tricks or even behavioral work; Alex is all about Classical training- building a horse who is strong, coordinated and aware of his body. It is why I couldn't wait to get Percy to a clinic with her. I was starving for this sort of thing with him so he'll have a head start when I really start to ride him. I'm not interested in just getting on his back and going- I want that beautiful piece of art underneath me. And I want his development to help keep him sound for many years to come. By teaching him how to use his muscles and joints, he will be less likely to break down.
In this photo, you can see he has begun to pay attention to his body. There is slack in the rope but he is stepping under himself (not completely, but at least his hind end isn't trailing), his body is bent gently toward me from poll to dock and his topline is slightly raised, rather than hollow. This was achieved not just with practice going up and down hill (he's been practicing all his life after all), but by carefully observing him and clicking for the correct moments. When I worked him, I wasn't completely sure what I was looking for, but observing Alex and re-watching the little video clips Sarah took (thank you Sarah!), I could see that when she had him, she was asking him for lateral steps on that hill. At the end of the session, she had people walk down a slope, feel our thumping steps, then practice a couple circles of lateral work, to return to the down hill and feel how much more balance we had in our own bodies.

I realized that as much time as I have spent leading him up and down hills, my focus has been on his behavior, not his body. I have been dealing with a youngster who desperately wanted to get out on his grass paddock and all the attention was on keeping the marbles in place. Now we have something else to work on. I have done it since getting him home and he is ever so much better. By giving him his body to focus on, he forgets about the silliness and we get both body and mind under control.

Oh- and he did get to practice his colors and standing on a mat for breaks from his hill work!

Alexandra Kurland clinic blog post #1- Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:37:00 +0000

In our area, there is an amazing magician whom you can hire for entertainment at parties and such. He also works the tables at a local restaurant on Sunday nights and I love to watch the faces of people as he performs his tricks- especially kids! He's no simple magician- this guy is good. Last time we watched him, he had a diner draw a card from a deck, look at it, and replace it. The magician then pinched the flame on the table candle...and 3 appeared in a blister on his finger and the spade symbol appeared as a blister on his thumb!!! (and yes, the woman's card was the 3 of spades). This weekend, Alexandra Kurland worked similar magic.

Saturday morning was the first day to work horses. We had turned everyone out and the trick was to find a place to work Percy that would be least upsetting to a young boy on his first overnight. We chose the driveway between the barn and paddocks, hoping his turnout time had allowed him to get a good look at that area and it also kept him fairly close to Kizzy (who had come along as companion) in the paddock nearby.

Percy likes to look at things. He can get his head way up in the air and his eyes open wide. It isn't a matter of just looking for a few moments...he really needs hours to examine a new area. I have confidence that this will change as he gets older and more time off the farm but this was only his second trip "out" and his first overnight. When I brought him out of his paddock, he couldn't decide which way to look first. He wanted to keep on eye on Kizzy on one side, but the other clinic participants were gathered along the barn on the other side to watch. People kept popping around a corner, cats wandered through the scene, more people appeared around the other side of the barn, the tractor was being used to transport manure to the pile, people were carrying chairs and wearing interesting hats. The minimally traveled dirt road was on yet another side and when cars or trucks did pass by, one could hear them coming from a ways away and I could see Percy mentally mapping the area as he first heard a vehicle and then tracked it like a periscope as it came closer and closer. There was a LOT to look at and he couldn't figure out which direction needed most attention. His front feet came off the ground a time or two, but I had to give him credit because it wasn't the full stand I have seen on rare occasions before. He wasn't trying to drag me around or plow me down...but it was definitely borderline meltdown territory. I began trying to run through the foundation lessons in order to get his attention, give him something to focus on and show Alex his scope of behaviors. He did target my hand, back on a light request and put his head down on request, but was so wound up that he wouldn't take the treat as reward- or took it but neglected to chew it. I had to give him a lot of credit for trying.

Alex quickly set out two very small circles of cones and two mats. We made a round of each circle as I used the Tai Chi wall to try to get him to bend toward me and pay attention, rather than stare off to the outside and push in with his shoulder. I told her I didn't consider mat work to be a very strong behavior for him because he tends to try to get his feet "just right" on them, rather than relaxing- but to my surprise, he did very well on them. One was a largish one made of medium width rubber. At one point, he pawed it and it curled up under him so he had to leap away but (on Alex's direction), I took him right back to it and he did stand on it. The other mat was a small (12"?) one of plywood. He stepped right over it, not paying any attention but coincidentally got a toe on so got a click and treat for that. So, he'd made one round of this training "loop" and on a scale of distractedness came down from a 9 to an 8.5. At this point, Alex told me to bring him to the inside of one of the little cone circles where she was standing. I was expecting her to have him target her hand as a simple behavioral reward to keep the Rate of Reinforcement (ROR) high. Instead, she said "Red. Touch." very clearly and presented a red cone from behind her back. Percy loves to target and so while I don't think he even looked at her or the cone, he absent-mindedly quickly reached out and touched the target for a click and treat. She immediately put the cone behind her out of sight again and then repeated the exercise. The third time, after saying "Red. Touch", she brought two cones from behind her back- one red and one green. Percy targeted the red one.

As an aside, this is the way I remembered it after much consideration at 4:30 the next morning when I woke up and thought about it. In all honesty, as it happened, it was as mysterious as watching that magician in the restaurant. Alex was the magician and I was the 6 year old with my mouth hanging open as she taught, in a matter of minutes, my 3 year old, highly distracted TB cross boy the difference between red and green. And Alex got as much of a kick watching my reaction as I always do watching the magician's observers. I could not believe what I was seeing.

Back to Saturday morning. Alex then said "Green. Touch." and presented both cones. Percy targeted the green one. I was dumbfounded as Alex grinned and sent us off for another round of "Why Would You Leave Me" on the cone circles and standing on the mats. We were down to a distraction level of 8- he was still watching the people, making sure Kizzy was in sight, listening to vehicles all while doing everything I asked with a minimum of attention. But he was now taking treats. And we returned to Alex and her red and green cones. He nailed it each time, regardless of whether she said red or green and even though she switched hands behind her back so that green was sometimes on her left and sometimes on her right and vice versa with the red. Off for another round of circles and mats. Now I could get head lowering on the large mat and at least get him to pay attention to the smaller one.

At some point, Alex introduced a yellow cone. At this point Percy made his first mistake with the colors. In the entire morning (which was in some sort of warp time so I have no idea how long we worked him...20 minutes?) he made three mistakes in probably 25 attempts. And I think he only made a mistake when she tried the yellow. She then returned to green and red and for the rest of the weekend, he was error-free.

This entire process illustrates Alex's "Loopy Training" method. She creates a loop of behaviors for the horse to progress through, each one reinforcing the previous one. The loop of

behavior -> click -> treat -> behavior

is the first loop. One looks for "clean" loops. She defined "clean" as fluid and prompt with no unwanted behaviors creeping in. So a simple clean targeting loop would include the horse immediately responding to the presentation of a target by touching it, the handler promptly and smoothly offering a treat which the horse immediately and politely took at which point the handler would smoothly offer the target again. If the horse were to hesitate at either the presentation of the target or the offering of the treat for any reason- unsure, looking away, trying to graze, etc, that would be an example of a loop that is not clean.

She also states that "when a loop is clean you get to move on. Not only do you get to move on, you should move on." Therefore, I asked why she had presented the color training to Percy that morning when, in my opinion, his loops were far from clean. He was looking everywhere but at what he was doing, he didn't consistently take the treats, he tried to wander off and the behaviors he did offer were far from his standard. She agreed completely, pointing out his baby rears. Her explanation was that she felt he was an individual who would benefit from something new and fun. While I can see some horses would become frustrated or worried when asked to do something completely new in a highly distracting environment, Percy loved it and that got his focus when his well-known behaviors didn't. He even became fascinated by something over the roof of the barn while Alex was presenting colors but it didn't affect his success rate.

And that was only Day 1.

This clip was taken the second day after he had calmed down considerably but illustrates the color training.

Thank you to Sarah Memmi for catching this video clip and taking great photos!

Backing Percy

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:10:00 +0000

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.

Turnout Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:14:00 +0000

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!)

Recaller Course Review

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:29:00 +0000

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...

Crate Games for Ponies

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:42:00 +0000

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!

Transferring Value

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:25:00 +0000

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.

ABC's: Critical Core and Foundation Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:41:00 +0000

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!)

Distractions

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 12:28:00 +0000

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.

Canine Correlations and Conflicts

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:10:00 +0000

I've been able to think of two horsepeople I know who don't also have dogs...and I read an amusing piece in the Chronicle of the Horse about Boyd Martin too. However, I think the vast majority of us have dogs as well as horses. Working with both has caused me in recent years to think more closely about training the two different species. I don't compete with our dogs (I did compete in Sheep Dog Trialling with some of our Border Collies for several years while I was learning and while my kids were very young but dropped it once I could start the dogs well enough and then got back into the horse thing...). So there's difference number one right there for some of us. Our dogs are companions and our horses are for sport. Not everyone- some people have horses as companions or for pleasure. But that affects our expectations of them.

Another difference is that one is predator and one is prey. Our horses' instincts call for flight first...the dogs not necessarily. That affects what our animals may find rewarding. Many dogs love to be chased around the yard for fun. I don't know any horses who enjoy that. I think it really helps to think about this In the big picture as well.

Another difference is that horses are bigger, of course (some exceptions with large breed dogs and minis). I know there are dog people out there who like to argue it but you can't make me believe that horses are not inherently more dangerous as a result. Put it this way, not many dogs can kill you by accident. Horses can. So their management and training has to take this into account.

Most of us also have our dogs sharing our living quarters (although in mud season, I wonder about the sanity of this decision). They come in the house, they snuggle on the furniture, they sleep in our bedrooms, if not our beds. When you believe that we are training all the time we are with the animals, this makes for a lot more training time (as well as the potential for a lot more screw ups) with our dogs than our horses. We can manage our horse's training time more carefully- when we take them out of their stall or pasture, the next 5 minutes or hour can be focused and then we put them away.

I have recently enrolled in a dog training e-course. Since dogs are not my business nor do I compete with them, I fought the urge to sign up (it was not cheap) but finally succumbed for a couple reasons. First, I had some surgery a month ago and was on "stall rest" for several weeks. I was going stir crazy. I couldn't do my chores, couldn't even get to the barn for weeks because of the icy footing and my condition. Once I could get around, I still had to avoid the horses for fear of getting accidentally bumped or knocked into. (side note- all is well and no long term repercussions other than a hormonal maelstrom). So I was ready for a diversion!

Secondly, Eloise the Jack Russell has been here a year now and has made great strides in becoming a farm dog. But Spring is a challenging time when all our dogs are enticed by creatures coming out of winter hiding. When the woodchucks start whistling, I get ignored a discouraging number of times. She's turned into quite the hunter terrier and I don't want to lose her down a groundhog hole without at least knowing what hole she's down. So- this course advertised that it would build a great recall into our dogs.

Last but not least, the horse connection. I wanted to explore more options for horses. Due to my surgery, I had to cancel my plans to finally attend Clicker Expo. That was a huge disappointment so this was somewhat of a training consolation prize. I've heard others, watched videos, read write-ups about the amazing things trainers were accomplishing with other species. One thing I have learned from attending TAG teach seminars is that stepping out of your own "specialty" can be a wonderful way to learn. Having spent a lifetime with horses, I sometimes have tunnel vision on how horses learn, what can be expected of them, what SHOULD be expected of them, etc. I want to really examine the pieces of this course through the eyes of a horse trainer. I'll use Eloise as my guinea pig. She's already showing great improvement.

The dog trainer who is offering this course is Susan Garrett. I've read her blog for a year or more and found some fascinating and fun ideas. Plus she has Jack Russells and Border Collies (she's had several World Champion Agility successes). While she strongly advocates positive reinforcement, the course is not specifically clicker training even though she has experience with CT. So that's another thing which piqued my curiosity. I intend to share what I find either on this blog and/or my Facebook page, depending on whether it's a little "aha" or a big one. I would love to hear feedback from others and make this a conversation. Please share your thoughts!

Ah, winter...

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:17:00 +0000

I really try not to complain because I live here by choice and I despise excessively hot summers, but winter can be troublesome at times. Yesterday we had a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. As a result, when I went to the barn this morning, the big sliding door was frozen shut for the second time this winter. The rain or melting snow runs off the roof and having nowhere to go because of all the snow, it heads for the open area of the barn door. Then when it gets cold at night, it freezes up and the door doesn't move.

At times like these, I'm very thankful for the dutch door to Mariah's stall on the back of the barn so I can get in and out to at least feed and turn out before attacking the ice around the sliding door with a pick axe. However, it does mean that Mariah has to be the first one out and that everyone else has to go through her stall and paddock to be turned out. A slight change in routine like that inspires a higher level of energy from everyone. Add a bright, sunny, cold, gusty morning and we had three very excited equines chasing each other around Mariah's paddock. My plan had been to get them all out there, and then take Percy and Rumer one at a time around to their paddock. Before I could do that, however, Rumer either got cornered or thought she was going to be, and went through the electric gate, destroying it in the process. Off she bounded. Since I don't use those paddocks in the winter, I take all the gates down to save them from the stress of winter snow and ice so she was able to keep going through on to the next paddocks. There she stopped, realizing that it was hard work up to her belly in snow that had a layer of ice on top. The ice was strong enough that the mid size (50 lb) dogs could run easily on top, but I could not. Beneath was powder so that Rumer and I both sunk in well over our knees. And so she stayed there. I quickly grabbed a flake of second cut and threw it to Mariah. She dropped her head to eat as if she was tied by a chain.

Which left Percy who was imitating a cross between an Arabian stallion and Totilas. His tail was straight up over his back (I honestly was amazed he could get it that high) and he trotted and cantered around, snapping his knees up to his chest with wonderfully elevated gaits.
This is where the clicker training came in (you were wondering if I was going to get to that or not, weren't you?). He trotted over to the gate Rumer had blown through and stopped. I honestly don't know why he stopped but I had a fraction of a second to change his mind. I was standing at the other gate and I stuck out my fist as a target and made the kiss sound that I use to call them to me. One ear flicked to me but he stayed where he was. Two more times I repeated this and finally he dropped his head a bit and turned to come to me. Phew. I had no halter and honestly didn't want one in those conditions. Where I was standing, the snow had come off the roof and was closer to hip deep, except where the rainwater had frozen along the edge which was slick ice and I had a electric fence gate in my hand. I didn't need a rope attaching me to a passaging 2 year old as well. Instead, I targeted him through the gateway and shut it quickly behind him. I wished I had some peppermints for that but all I could offer was hay stretcher pellets. Had it been a training situation, I learned as in my previous post, I would have spent some time with him as a reward but I really needed to deal with Rumer so he had his buddy back and could calm down.

Rumer had decided that the best way back to the barn was to dig her way back. By bounding out there, she hadn't left a good trail to return by, and she'd also made a big loop in her enthusiasm, rather than taking the most direct route. She did not like that crust on top. Pawing forcefully, she'd made it about 3 feet. I got her halter from the barn and fought my way out to her. Though it doesn't often show due to her clicker training upbringing, Rumer is p-o-n-y and can be stubborn when she wants to be. After putting her halter on, I turned to lead her back to the barn and she said no way. She didn't like that ice digging into her chest and shoulders with each step. I recognized the look in her eye and stuck out my fist for a target. She stretched out with her neck and managed to reach it. Click/treat. I took one step and stuck my fist out again. This time she couldn't reach it without moving but she didn't want to move. She studied the snow in front of her and then carefully lifted a front leg and put it back down in my footprint. Click/treat. And that's the way we made it back to the barn. Had I been pulling on her, she wouldn't have been able to choose her footing and she would have planted her feet and not moved. Up to my thighs in snow myself, there was no way I was going to chase her through it. She had to decide she wanted to follow me and be able to do it in a way she was comfortable.

I was very glad with both of the young ones that I had been able to use targeting to get them where I needed them to go. Walking in deep snow is similar to walking in the same depth of water- it doesn't make one light on one's feet. I needed quiet, sensible, thinking young horses on a day and in a situation which didn't lend itself to quiet sensibility. Thankfully, the tool box was full of useful tools.

Face Time

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:58:00 +0000

Percy has always loved to learn and has caught on quickly to new behaviors, loving them all. So it was rather a shock to me when I found two things in the last couple weeks he didn't like to do. One was backing away from me and the other was stationing (defined as staying put in a particular place while I walked away...to lead up to going to that spot on his own). It's important to point out some fine lines in these behaviors that it took me a while to figure out and that helped me solve the problem. He learned to back from a very light cue when he was still a foal and he learned to stand for grooming, feeding, etc at a younger age too. So it wasn't the idea of either behavior he had trouble with but I was adding further criteria to them both. I wanted him to back from a pointing cue, rather than a touch cue so that I could cue him to back from a distance. With the stationing, I didn't simply want him to hold still while I did things to him and around him...I wanted to be able to go a distance from him while he remained in place.

My motives for these behaviors were to get him out of my way when I am doing things. Being the very friendly sort, he comes running to the fence when I go to the barn, stands and nickers at me while I approach and then enjoys a very physical greeting- tasting my hat, unzipping my coat, etc while I rub his face and neck, etc. This became difficult when I wanted to go through his paddock with hay or water buckets for someone else. He didn't even try to steal the hay but he would be very much in my way, helping with the gate handles, etc. Bad enough in warm weather but when I'm dealing with gloves and dicey winter footing, etc, it was just too much. I wanted to be able to stand outside his paddock, get him to back out of my way and stay out of my way. The stationing also, was because he'd hang his head over my shoulder as I tried to open panels and squeeze through with a wheelbarrow or water. When I found myself wanting to ram him with the wheelbarrow just to get him out of the way, I knew instead I needed to teach him something different (not that people haven't suggested this before...nothing like necessity to back me into training something). I did trust him- probably too far considering his young age and breeding...ducking under an electric fence right into the chest of a 2 year old is not exactly safe management practice.

I began teaching him to back with a pointing cue at his chest by simply swinging my arm up before touching his chest until he associated the arm swinging from my side up to his chest as a precursor to the touch and in no time he was backing happily for his treat...until we proceeded to the point where I was far enough in front of him that my finger ended up by his nose and he was actually backing his bubble out of mine. Then he wanted to take my glove off instead. I upped the rate of reinforcement and did many repetitions until I was sure he understood and he was rock solid at responding when I was close to him, then I increased the distance incrementally. Again, when we got to the distance where my finger ended up near his head, instead of somewhere behind his head, he reverted to playing with my coat or anything rather than being willing to back further.

At the same time, working with the stationing, I found he would stand for a loooong period of time if I stayed in arm's reach of him. I could step one step away and stand there and he wouldn't move. I could go around behind him and come up the other side. I could go and pat him on the rump and he stood still. But if I increased that distance to a step and a half away from his head even, he wanted to follow me.

I think I was probably lucky that both these happened at once since the two together helped me see the problem. What I was asking in both situations was difficult and the reinforcer wasn't high enough. This occurred to me when I thought of pulling out something more valuable like carrots and I realized as much as he loved peppermints and apples, he has always been perfectly happy to work for hay stretcher pellets until now. Why was this different? I realized that when I asked him to back out of my reach, or when I tried to leave his reach...he did something to get back in contact with me: either nuzzled my hand or arm, or followed me.

Percy likes face time. Getting out of his reach was punishing for him. Why would he want to go away from the fun person or have the fun person leave him? The reinforcer I needed to give him was ME, not better food. Rather than asking him to back away and then step into to hand him two pellets and leave again, I asked him to back away and then walked to him wrapped his head in a bear hug and told him how clever he was while he was chomping on his 2 little hay stretcher pellets. Then I went a little further and repeated. He stepped away from my hand and I immediately clicked and went to him and rubbed his face and neck. Aha! That was the ticket. Once I understood, I applied the same reasoning to the stationing. If he let me step one step away, I returned and gave him attention for a half a minute rather than just treats. This seemed to reassure him that I wasn't walking away so that the game was over, but that I would come back.

Realizing how difficult these were for him, I have decided to spend a lot of time working on them in teeny increments rather than asking for anything involving big distances too quickly. I have incorporated them into the daily routine. Now when I approach his paddock, I ask him to back away from the fence and when he does, then I duck in and greet him inside, spending time with him before walking on to the barn. I work on stationing just before I leave the barn, asking him to stand by the door while I yo-yo back and forth, clanging the panel and disappearing momentarily out of sight into the barn and then returning to play some more. I end by dropping some nice second cut hay in his paddock and having him target my hand over to it before I leave...so that I'm not walking away while he is being good at his station.

It's made a huge difference. I was a little worried we were getting into some difficult age/stage where I was losing my cooperative boy. Luckily, I have figured it out and am relieved!

Looking forward to Clicker Expo!

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:03:00 +0000

I have signed up for Clicker Expo in Chicago, gotten my plane tickets and hotel reservations and am really looking forward to it. For anyone who doesn't know, Clicker Expo is held yearly in two locations, one in the west and one...well I hardly call Chicago "east" but maybe some do. I would have liked to be at the Expo in sunny southern California last weekend when the temperatures here went south of 20 below zero. I'm sure my husband was glad not to have all the chores to himself in that weather however. The one in Chicago is March 18-20.

Clicker Expo is a 3 day conference featuring all the greatest names in Positive Behavioral training covering many different species: Karen Pryor, Ken Ramirez, Kay Laurence, Jesus Rosales-Ruiz and of course Alexandra Kurland are among the presenters. Topics include Concept Training, Behavior Chains, Smart Reinforcement and Simplifying Training Tools. This will be my first Clicker Expo and my mind is just swimming with the possibilities. How I will choose among presentations I have no idea...especially since I will only be there 2 of the 3 days.

In preparation for the Expo, I have been reading and participating in online discussions. And today, in celebration of a blindingly beautiful day where the thermometer is actually showing a temperature over 30 for the first time in weeks, I decided to go out and test the basics. I wanted to test the foundation lessons on the youngsters, as well as really scrutinize my own training skills to make sure I was as clean and correct as I could be. One tends to get sloppy when working alone all the time so I needed to be a trainer's trainer sitting on my own shoulder.

I wanted to observe my own cues (are they clear and consistent?); my responses (is my click precise to the behavior I'm after?); my food delivery (feeding well away from my own body and requesting at least a rock back if not full step back from the horse); and my focus (keeping the lesson moving and not getting distracted).

As for the horses, were they responding promptly with no hesitation (showing clear understanding and willingness to work); were they correct in their response (again showing understanding as well as precision of my goal); and did they stay focused on me without losing attention to other activity around them?

First up was Ande who is coming five. First foundation lesson: head down. Cue...well the first several times there was no cue because head down (HD) is a default behavior for him. In other words, I show up, he drops his head. Bonus points on that one all around. I did about 8 trials, increasing the time and he did pop his head up once or twice, most likely because it's been a while since we've played this. So then I cued, and he dropped his head like a rock and left it there with his nose in the snow, breathing quietly. Focusing on asking for a step back with treating was definitely a change for me, but certainly no problem for Ande. All my guys are so polite that I do get sloppy with that- a needed reminder.

Second foundation lesson: backing. Again he gave me prompt responses, backing just as many steps as I asked for with no hesitation. My first cues were with a touch on his shoulder but he quickly advanced to backing with just my change in body position. I come at you, you back out of my way. No problems there.

Number three: Grownups are Talking...you stand next to me and don't bug me for attention or food or wander away (all this was done at liberty- no halter or rope). This one was interesting. Ande has always been good at this but he upped the ante on me this time. I had forgotten that I had begun to teach him "the pose" (I do hate that term but have yet to come up with a better one). But as soon as I stood next to his shoulder and faced forward, presto: he rocked back on his butt, lifted his withers and tucked his chin in. Hm! We seem to have muddied that cue a bit. The distinguishing difference in the cues is my hand position. Hands clasped at my waist is for Grownups; hands held like reins is for the pose. I couldn't complain that he was offering me his newest and fanciest trick but I did see that I needed to clarify things a bit in coming sessions.

Number four: targeting. Easy as falling off a log.

Five and Six: Happy Faces and Stand on a Mat. I had neglected to bring a mat out and mat work is hard when their feet fill up with snow so we didn't do that one. Happy Faces is a big black mark on my training history. I have no cue for it but work it into all of Ande's exercises since he is the one who showed me so well that it is critical and a foundation exercise for a very good reason. It's certainly something good to work on this time of year so that is going on my list to work on with all.

As to his general focus? I don't think I lost it once- not even an ear flickered away from me the whole time. He was thrilled to be playing these easy games. I threw him a flake of hay and moved on to Percy.

Percy, Percy, Percy. Smart, quick, enthusiastic and all I can do to keep up with. There has been some discussion recently about remembering to take a breath between steps and I think I need to really stamp that on my brain when I work with him. Approaching him is like walking into a whole classroom of preschoolers all shouting "lookit me!". First his head drops to the ground- ok, got that one. Duration? No problem, he'll leave it down there but ooh, he has trouble holding it still. He moves it around down there, and if I ask him to wait too long, his lips are untying my boot laces. Head down is so boring, he says, we really ought to liven it up a bit, don't you think?

The worst part about Percy is he makes me laugh. I really need to focus better myself. There is no fear about losing his focus! His attention is 150% on me. If I don't ask for anything, he starts trying them all. He can walk sideways and backwards; he can keep his head so far away from me that he ends up with his butt next to me. So we cover head down, no mugging, targeting and backing and I can't come up with new things fast enough. Definitely need to work on ME with that one.

Rumer- I think I'll save my Rumer story for another day. I started something new with her and it's a completely new and fun topic.

Dental Video

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:09:00 +0000

I finally got some video of what Percy has achieved toward comfort with having his mouth and teeth played with. My videos are never high quality but hopefully you can see the important stuff. A couple things to note: important to wait for chewing to be done before you ask him to open his mouth again; try not to tickle the corners of his mouth or he likes to lip at me; and stuffing a glove under an arm makes maneuvering more difficult (but putting them aside means he retrieves them for me!)

The Dentist's Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:19:00 +0000

In my previous post (wow, a long time ago!), I mentioned the list of veterinary procedures that Peggy Hogan posted on her "Clicker Training Horses" Facebook page (list provided by a vet in that group). Taking up the challenge, I decided to focus on teeth for a project with Percy. He had not been impressed when I asked my vet to check his teeth last Spring. I quickly asked the vet to abandon ship rather than get in a battle with my little red pirate. I wanted to work with him first so that things would go smoothly.

When I was younger, I had been shown how to grab a horse's tongue and then flip my fist vertically to wedge the mouth open to view inside. But I'd also heard of the damage that can be done (to the hyoid apparatus, TMJ, etc) by handling the tongue in this way. I was hoping to teach Percy to open his mouth willingly and be comfortable with hands in his mouth so this would not be necessary. I began by just inserting a finger in the side of his mouth the way, pre-clicker, I would open a horse's mouth for the bit. As soon as his gums parted slightly, I clicked and well, in no time he was happily opening his mouth wider and wider with just my finger touching the corner of his lips. One day he was jealous of me working with Ande and he actually came his stall door and yawned at me about 5 times! And yes, I rewarded it!

I was invited to observe a dentist at a friend's house. I took the opportunity to see how he handled the horses as well as how he did his job. I was very glad to have this opportunity as watching him gave me more things to work on. First, he simply stood in the stall letting the horse get used to him. The horses I observed hid in the back of their stalls. I knew Percy would undress him if he stood still that long (Percy loves zipper pulls, hood strings, hats, etc). Then the dentist slid his forefingers in the horse's mouth along the side "to give them an idea of what was coming" as well as do a preliminary exam. So there was my first new task: familiarize Percy with that feeling.

The dentist had his tools in the standard stainless steel bucket full of water that he stood in the corner of his stall...there was task number 2. Familiarize Percy with the sound and appearance of a clangy shiny bucket. Was this "necessary"? Would he totally freak out if I didn't? Of course not, but any new little things like this which were all added up could set a horse to being wary and I didn't want him wary. I wanted him as ho-hum as possible before the really freaky stuff started happening! So I took several of my kitchen serving spoons, metal and wood, and put them in a very small stainless bucket I had for dog water. I carried them out to the barn and let Percy play chef with all the spoons and make noise. He was thrilled to be clicked for all this fun play. Then I used the handle of a wooden spoon to poke in his mouth. This was all done with the clicker of course: open your mouth for the spoon, CT. Open wider, CT. All four feet still and head still while I slide the spoon in your mouth, CT. If he moved or put his head up, I just stood and did nothing until he approached me and wanted the spoon again, CT.

While working on my friend's horses, the dentist used a speculum. (to see a photo of one, http://www.amazon.com/Horse-speculum-dental-device-stainless/dp/B000M9QH9M ). I studied it carefully and asked if he always used it. He did and said the horses didn't usually mind it. I was very skeptical if a horse who thought he had "choices" would agree to that. Luckily, the dentist liked my idea of coming to just meet Percy and seeing what he could see without putting any pressure on him so I didn't worry too much about the speculum. He said he rarely got that far in a first visit with a young horse.

Last but not least was the way the dentist held the horse. While working on the mouth, he took a death grip on the halter with his left hand. I was sure this was to steady himself for arduous work as much as to prevent the horse from leaving but my little pirate does not like to be restricted. The beauty of Clicker Training has been that I never had to restrict him. I have always been able to present things in such a way that he wanted to participate. I had a discussion with Peggy about a horse of hers who feels the same way. Are there times we need to tell these horses "just deal with it"? Traditional trainers do this all the time and their answer would be "of course!". But when you see how much more you get when you don't deal with horses this way, you start to question. Percy has been taught to respond to the lightest touch by yielding...how was I going to teach him to brace in this situation? I have learned how sensitive horses can be, they feel the slightest touch on the end of a lead so that I never lead a horse by the halter...it's too much! It would be like grabbing a friend's necklace to get them to go with you!

Luckily, in our (Facebook) discussions, Peggy used the term "halter grab" and I remembered watching a DVD of a dog trainer who taught a "collar grab". She taught this as a safety measure: dogs frequently duck away when someone tries to grab their collar and if a car, dangerous dog, etc is approaching, you do not want your dog ducking away. This trainer did not use a clicker- just food, but I knew a clicker always works better.

I had done all the previous mouth work with no halter and Percy loose in his stall or paddock. I always begin things this way so that I am sure the horse has the choice of not participating. If he doesn't participate, I need to adjust my training so that he wants to.

So now I could add criteria by beginning with the halter. I put it on him and decided that my cue to "brace" would eventually be the fact that I was standing in front of him and the way I took his halter. I reached up with my left hand and just put a finger on the left side of his halter (his right side). He stood still, so CT. I repeated that a couple times so he understood that just standing was what I was asking of him...no response. Then I began taking the halter with several fingers and progressed to where I could reach up and grab his halter in a fierce grip and he just stood quietly. Phew. Had I done that without the gradual training, I know he would have stood up (which is what he did when the vet tried). OK, now I needed to add pressure. I grabbed the halter with a fist on each side and began tugging lightly left and right- I thought he'd resist that less than if I tugged down. He definitely yielded to me still (which I wanted) but he didn't look concerned that I was being so heavy handed. I did this all over several days and eventually could pull down, up, left right on his halter and he was happy to be manhandled around, yet still remained light to my rope cues when I was leading him otherwise.

After observing the dentist at the other farm, I had made an appointment for him to come meet Percy, as well as work on Mariah who was showing a little awkwardness in chewing. My last task was one I did not manage to get done before the appointment. I wanted to have some other people come and play in his mouth, especially a good friend who is a small animal vet and carries the requisite smells on her person! Because it was the holidays, however, I did not want to pull people away from their lives so this hasn't been done.

Of course the day he was scheduled to come was the day of the "blizzard" so we rescheduled for later in the week. My plan was to have the dentist observe what I had done, hoping he'd see how I handled Percy as well as have Percy "warm up" to the situation. Then I thought we'd give him a break, go do Mariah, and then come back to Percy. As it turned out, Percy was so comfortable with the situation that wasn't necessary. The dentist stood outside and watched as Percy opened his mouth, let me rub his teeth and I showed and explained about the halter grab. Then he went in with him. Percy sniffed him lightly and then came to me at the door. Here I got stuck. I didn't know what to do with myself! If I was in reach, Percy wanted to be with me. I went to the other side of the aisle and watched from a distance as Percy investigated the dentist's hat and pockets. He was perfectly happy to let him slip his fingers in the sides of his mouth and feel around and look. Oh- that was one other thing I'd seen him do with the other horses that we practiced...shining a flashlight in his mouth. I thought the bright light in his eyes might be startling so we practiced that. He was fine.

The dentist said he was really very good for his age. He certainly hadn't been as good for him as he was for me so I regretted not having other people work with him. But he didn't pull away when the dentist had his halter. I know that boy well enough to know he could have stood up or done any number of things to get away if he'd really wanted to. The first time the farrier came when he was only weeks old, I made the mistake of having my husband help hold him. My husband is accustomed to wrestling beef cattle but both Percy and my husband were on the floor in no time. He is now much bigger and stronger, which is why I do not engage in battle with him!

I went back in the stall to review his lessons and once again, he was perfect for me, so I asked the dentist which float he used first. He pointed it out and we just played touch the target a couple times until of course, Percy offered to grab it with his teeth and pretty soon I had it in his mouth. The dentist was thrilled and so I handed it to him and he actually was able to do a little floating, enough to make him happy. Then I grabbed the speculum and played touch the target with that as well. We went until he was happily biting onto the edge, which is where it sits in his mouth. We didn't do any more with that but I was really happy to stop there.

I did try to get some pictures but didn't want the flash going off and it was too dark without it. Percy has very cute teeth. The dentist wants to come back in April and pull his caps off. Neither of the other babies has needed this and I asked if there was something "wrong" that this would need to be done. He said no, he has a nice mouth, but it's just a good idea. I'd love to know from any of you reading this whether you feel that this type of dentistry is necessary, excessive, etc. I'm all in favor of doing what's necessary but don't like interfering if Mother Nature can do without.

More Medical Procedures

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:15:00 +0000

Peggy Hogan, in California, hosts a great group and site on Facebook called Clicker Training Horses. If you're on Facebook, I highly recommend you check it out. The subject of training for medical procedures came up recently, right as I was dealing with the same issue myself.

Percy, my TB x WB, age 2, came in with a fat hock. Fat hocks make me nervous. This was unusual in that it was high and inside. There was very little heat, and no pain or lameness. I didn't really think it was joint related but hocks aren't something I like to ignore. I was torn because I know how to throw the book at a hock on sport horses (icing, medicating, wrapping, sweating, x-rays, injections etc) and I know how to look the other way when a lesson pony has a puffy spot (they just get better). But Percy didn't fit either of those categories. I didn't need to worry about losing training days but I also didn't want to ignore anything which could cause problems for his career as a sport horse down the road.

Oh, and one other problem. We've been working on having him pick his feet up nicely with just a touch on the hind leg. Oops. Now I needed him to leave his foot DOWN so I could palpate. I decided to give the leg 24 hours to get better by itself. It didn't. I called the vet. He offered to come out immediately as it was the only time in the next 2 days he could get here. I decided it was a good idea. Time to panic train. I had 20 minutes to convince Percy that leaving the leg down was as reinforcing as picking it up. Thankfully, that was a breeze- a much smaller problem in reality than it was in my mind. I just clicked for leaving his foot on the ground when I touched his stifle (not anywhere near where I touch him for picking up his foot) and then worked my way down. I was also careful to maintain a very different body position- squatting and facing him, not bending over toward the rear. He got it in minutes. By the time the vet arrived, I could poke, rub, massage all over that rear leg from either side.

Feeling confident, I led the vet to him. Percy was in the round pen because it was bright natural light and we have had so much rain this fall, it was the driest place outside. The only problem with the round pen is that Percy feels Important when he's in there and likes to puff up a bit and show off. Funny boy. As the vet approached him and reached out to stroke his neck, Percy flattened his ears back. Wow. I realized that was the first time in his life I had seen him do that. He is SUCH a sweet and inquisitive soul, but I had never realized that he never put his ears back until I saw him do it and it was a shock. (Ande used to pin his ears at only days old when his mother tried to move when he was nursing!) I have to admit that I was struck incapable at this. I just did not know how to react.

I really like our vet- he's capable, common-sense, quiet and unafraid. But he's not a clicker trainer. I have never felt comfortable asking either my vet or farrier to adapt to my training techniques. I know I could make their work with my horses go better if I did and I should get over it but for some reason, I just feel that they are professionals and I shouldn't be telling them how to do their job. Perhaps if I felt that either one was too harsh, I would feel differently. But they both have wonderful, if traditional, approaches that do not intimidate the horses. And while I can get the horses to do things for me with CT, sometimes they need to learn that others need to work with them as well. I can do the prep work, but I can't BE somebody else.

So here was Percy, head up in the air, ears back and my vet simply continuing on slowly. OK, so he wasn't being reinforced for his behavior- the vet did not back off. But I also know how talented Percy is at standing up (he demonstrated that at his first hoof trimming as a baby and practices regularly in the field while playing with others) and I feared that was next. I needed to redirect this before we went there because that WOULD stop forward progress and be reinforcing. I tried putting a fist out to target, but his eye was on the vet. So I said "HEY!" to get his attention and instantly put my hand on his poll (I could barely reach it). Thankfully, we have practiced that a zillion times and he reacted instantly by dropping his head a couple inches. Click and treat and hand on the poll again. Rapidly. Normally a hand on his poll instantly puts his nose in the dirt, but even in this tense situation, I got an immediate reaction of some kind which I could reward and we were on the road. I continued to CT as the vet worked his way back toward his hind end and down the leg. He lifted his leg once, I put a tiny bit of pressure on the lead and was quiet. When his head came down a fraction, his leg did as well- CT and we were making progress again. He put his leg all the way down and left it on the ground. Phew.

The vet agreed it was probably not the joint (another big Phew!) but a sprain/strain in the lower gaskin area. We discussed hosing but Percy hates being hosed. We have worked on it I know his mother hates it as well, as do most TBs unless the air and water temperatures are just right. They just have very sensitive skin. In northern VT with no hot water in the barn, I had 2 days this summer when it was hot enough that he enjoyed being hosed with icy water. Now it's fall, cold and muddy. Luckily the vet understood that and thought bute and massaging would be good as long as we saw progress. He suggested an IV injection of banamine and dexamethazone to get the healing started. I let Percy loose for a moment in case he wanted to let off steam while the vet went to his truck for the meds. No, he wanted to follow us.

When we went back in, Percy's ears went back again. It made me so sad! It reminded me of a certain little girl who needed some nasty medicine when she was about 2 years old. Normally a very cooperative child, she did not want that medicine! She fought like a wildcat kitten and it took three adults to hold her down to squeeze it in her mouth. At the same time, she was using her best adult verbal skills to bargain with us to no avail. With Percy, there were only two adults and he weighed a lot more than that little peanut of a girl. My Clicker Training skills were all I had to explain the process. Thank goodness they worked! Head down= CT. Any level was accepted as long as it kept getting lower. My vet slipped the needle in in a split second and I just kept clicking away as long as the head came down when asked. The ears waffled between back and sideways but he stood like a rock for 2 syringes worth. My biggest concern at that point was Ande who was reaching through the round pen to chew on him! The vet kept saying, "he's really doing quite well, don't you think?" Amen!

Next project: twice daily bute paste. I hadn't done anything with a paste syringe since worming him a couple weeks ago. The first time with the bute, I tried putting a halter on him and CT'd him to stand while I approached his lips with the syringe. I got it in but it really didn't feel right. So the next time I went in his stall without a halter and just stood with the syringe. Being friendly and curious, he couldn't stand it and took a step toward me. CT. That continued to be my approach. I kept my standard to 10 clicks before increasing the criteria. He usually increased it on his own before I had to. I think the important part of letting him approach rather than me approach him, along with the 10 clicks at the same criteria level, was that it gave him a LOT of opportunities to sniff the bute paste. He got a little in his nose just from the end of the tube, he got to walk away and come back. He got to sniff and sniff and sniff without being at all threatened by it. He volunteered to take it in his mouth and then I walked a step forward between each click until he was pursuing me around the stall trying to grab the syringe. Mentally, that was a big step for him.

Then I stepped back by his shoulder so he had to turn to touch it and that's how I managed to get him to target it with the corner of his lips rather than his muzzle. I made sure to get a full 10 trials with it in his mouth before squirting the bute in on the 11th. Then I clicked and offered the hay stretcher pellets. He took them and dropped them. I continued to CT for any interest in the syringe. This is the hard part because he got "punished" by the nasty medicine and I wanted to override that with many more positive experiences but they can't taste anything good afterward. He has a lifetime of reinforcement for the click though and it seemed to work for me here because he kept touching it for the clicks, even though he dropped the treats each time. After a few times like that, he stopped taking the treats so each time I dropped the treats into his feed tub. Even though he wasn't eating them, I think the noise of them falling into his tub was reinforcing and they would be there for him. I also unwrapped a couple peppermints. I think the noise of those unwrapping is highly reinforcing and hoped that their strong smell would overpower the bad taste. I kept this up until he was taking the syringe in his mouth again and then just dropped a handful of hay stretcher pellets in his tub along with a couple more peppermints and left him. He had been trying to eat a couple and so I was pretty sure that left alone, he would commence to eating, which he did. AND he'd taken the syringe in his mouth many times without the punishing taste being repeated. So now I'm going to go back out and do it again.

There is a whole list of veterinary procedures on this discussion on Peggy's Facebook site that were put together by a vet who recently attended one of her clinics:

1. Intranasal vaccines
2. Clippers
3. Injections: intramuscular, intravenous
4. Eye meds
5. Handling ears
6. Handling the lips & tongue, giving oral meds
7. Handling the sheath or udder
8. Taking the temperature
9. Handling the feet
10. Just standing still

I think these are great winter projects!!!

Similarities and Differences

noreply@blogger.com (Bookends Farm) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:29:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the opportunity to audit a day at a clinic with a nationally known trainer. I've decided not to name this person (I think) because my intention is not to criticize nor recommend, but simply discuss what I saw. I was there from 9: to 3: and heard afterward that they were just finishing up at 7:30 PM! I left at 3: both because I had to get home to my own chores but also because I reached a point of discomfort in watching this trainer work with one of the participants' horses. Until then, I had actually been reasonably impressed with what I saw and heard.

First off, I was bemused that this poor person had to take the time, on what was the third day of the clinic, to instruct on bridling and mounting! It did make me feel better about the number of times I have needed to do the same thing with students. With beginners, one expects to do this. But it's frustrating with people who have been riding for a while. Unfortunately not many instructors teach their beginners how manage these basics properly, and they proceed through life bumbling along just "getting it done" with no thought to what they are doing or how. They move on to instructors who assume they know these basics so they don't even look at the student until he or she is in the saddle. And so we have hordes of people who call themselves riders when they have to fight the bridle onto their horse and then play ring around the rosy on the mounting block until they finally launch themselves into the saddle, to quote this trainer "like a sack of turds". So, it was nice to see her pay attention to these things and address them, even though you could sense the sigh of frustration when she realized these were issues.

Secondly, there is this topic of trying to figure out what one's horse is feeling. This trainer specializes in this topic. Some people just don't care- the horse is no more than a machine which doesn't have feelings or if it does, it just needs to "get over it" so the rider can do what she wants. It was really nice to see this trainer's responses and hear the explanations as she interacted with the horses. For a while anyway. But I'll get to that. For most of the day, she kept me happy by truly giving the horses choices and accepting it when they chose not to do something. She seemed to get what she wanted from them by just asking again and backing off when they complied. My take is that the horses appreciated her efforts and were not worried about the outcome so they were willing to work for her.

OK, now that last sentence was completely non-scientific in behavioral terms. Words like appreciate, worried and willing are pretty loose and many of the smoke and mirrors trainers on the clinic and demo circuit abuse them. But I'm getting off topic here. Smoke and mirrors will have to be another day.

I also appreciated this woman's understanding of biomechanics. I was a little horrified at the lack of decent muscle development in the horses that were there. But she talked about lateral bend and longitudinal bend, had the horse she was riding stepping under with his hind end and rode easily off the inside rein. Her position was faultless and her seat dead quiet. She stressed the importance of ground work as basics.

What got me back in the car on the way home at 3: was when she started working on the shoulders. She began with the horse she'd been riding and when he didn't get the exercise right off, she got into his face too much for me. Previously she had been rewarding try, but here she seemed to want it all- bingo. When she didn't get it, she got louder. In the morning, she had used the example of how useless it was to scream at deaf people, and yet, that's what it seemed to me she was doing. And at that point, I thought she also stopped giving choices and reading the horse's responses. I saw fear and confusion in the horse (that's smoke and mirrors talk for a high-headed, wide eyed horse whose respiration had gone up rapidly).

She had been trying to demonstrate something to one of the clinic participants so he could do it with his horse. The interesting thing to me was that when she got in the horse's face (literally waving her hand and rope at the horse's head), she not only lost clarity for the horse, she lost clarity for the person observing! He could not see what she was doing and how to mimic it. It became very fuzzy for everyone. When she first began the exercise, I thought, "oh, this is just like Alex's Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder exercise. Instead it was hip scramble scramble. The clinician was unable, in my observation, to explain it to her horse or to the participant. So then she took the participant's horse. And that is when I had to leave. Because she didn't explain it to that horse any better and she started "talking" for the horse...saying this mare thought she was pretty. The mare had the same body language as the other horse- head up, eyes wide, nostrils showing increased rate of respiration. Maybe pretty to some, but I don't think that's what the mare was thinking herself. Instead, her body language said "I want to get out of here" and she avoided the trainer as best as possible.

So to my eyes, it was bad enough to have brought this fear out while at the same time not explaining it to the horse. But then I felt I was being lied to when she was speaking for the horse. So I came home to my own horses, not at all sorry to have observed, certainly giving me plenty to think about, but also hoping those horses figured it out without too much more fear and confusion being involved.