I was interested in trying clicker training with my pony, and he picked up the basics very quickly. The problem is he’s a bit of a monster when taking the treat. He opens his entire mouth and tries to grab the treat with his teeth, rather then gently taking it with his lips. I’m worried he’s going to accidentally take a piece of my hand as well. Is there a way to teach him to be more gentle? Or is clicker training with treats just a bad idea with him? I ordinarily do NOT feed him by hand.
The following is advice from a good website on clicker-training horses:
http://www.equineclickertraining.com/faq/faq_new.html
To teach a soft mouth (taking the treat with the lips or tongue):
1. experiment with food size. You can experiment with using one large treat so the horse is not anxious about getting all the crumbs, or smaller treats so the horse has to use his lips or tongue.
2. hold the halter with one hand and treat with the other so that you can control how much the horse moves his head.
3. feed from above. This means that instead of feeding by holding your hand flat and presenting it to the horse from below, hold your hand up higher and sort of dribble the food into the horse’s mouth. This works really well with grain and also with carrots. I learned this from Alexandra Kurland and it really works because a lot of anxious horses push hard against your hand when you hold it flat and end up using their teeth. By changing your hand orientation, if they push into it, they are just pushing with their lips.
4. If I have a horse that pushes down into my hand and/or scrapes me with his teeth, I allow the horse to move my hand as he takes his treat, not a lot, but enough so that he has nothing to push against.
5. have your horse back up before getting the treat. To do this, I present the food so the horse has to bend his neck or back up slightly to get to the food. Most horses will get the idea that they have to back up a step as you feed them, especially if you are consistent about doing it this way.
I am an enormous fan of clicker training. BUT, I have come to believe that it is not for every horse and every handler. Some horses are just too food aggressive or too excitable around treats to ever calm down around treats.
But before you throw in the towel, be sure you have studied proper treat delivery.
For instance, don’t hold the treat in your hand before you click. Don’t reach for the treat until after you click. Don’t rattle the treats around in your pocket. Hold the treat in your outstretched hand (with your body a foot away from the horse). Present the treat close to the horse’s chest so that the horse has to shift away from you to get the treat. Never click when ears are pinned or when the horse is posturing for a treat. Do click when the horse turns his head away from you.
Consult some of the clicker training books and DVDs for more details.
And good luck. When it works, clicker training is so wonderful.
I’ve been working on clicker training one of my horses, who is an older mare. It’s worked really well for her so far, she loves the positive reinforcement and LOVES to be rewarded.
The key for me was starting by only rewarding non-mugging behavior. She only got her treat (and the treats have varied depending on what I had on hand - sometimes it was just pelleted food! Other times, a piece of carrot) when she turned her head away from me. When she was in this “neutral” non-begging position, then she got her click and her treat.
Is he at the point where you don’t need to treat every single time? Has he associated the click as the positive point?
If you’re getting nervous when you give the treat, you could experiment with using a flat piece of plastic (like a coffe can lid) instead of your hand for reward delivery.
My horses LOVE Clicker Training. I can almost hear them saying “Me next, me, me, me!”
Great advice already.
Do have your treats somewhere, not on you, also helps, but where the horse can’t access them.
Also, make your treats of different kinds, some grain, pellets, fruit, all mixed so the horse has to kind of learn to sort thru what you have there, not just take a bite and gobble it down.
Want to also watch that treats don’t distract too much from working for behaviors, make them small and easy to take and continue doing what you are doing.
Be sure the treats become incidental, that the horse is learning to work for the work itself, not because it gets a treat.
Horses do get where, if they are doing something very interesting and so inherently rewarding itself, they become ho-hum about stopping to get their treat, until the fun is over.
Then they love their treats best, after a chain of behaviors.
That is where you want to end.
