Let's talk positive reinforcement (R+)

That was super cute! They should try out for AGT—they are far better than the chicken acts.

They put a lot of time into that and it was good! So Clanter are you saying they hauled their goats to a clinic and they were able to perform away from home and do those tricks? Your twins are also super cute.

yes, the clinic was north of Dallas at a big hunter/jumper/dressage farm

That tape was for the producers of America’s Got Talent producers who tracked them down, they talked with them, did a few tapes then got contacted by another production company who invited them out to Hollywood for a taping… they had to sign a do not disclose agreement so there nothing I can post about that whirlwind trip of hauling four goats across the country. At first the producers were going to fly them out until they found out the goats are not small (Chip weighs about 220 pounds). They did their show taping, got paid so they have child actor coogan accounts now

edited to add here they are off to California

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I feel like my mare is the one to get anxious. I’ve got her trained to turn her head away before I give her a treat, and that’s really helped with nosy!mare.

Where I didn’t get far was with trailer loading. She was a mostly reliable self leader for years, but over time unloading became really stressful… a place where her lack of “wait” was really a problem. And still is. But the result of all that is a horse who doesn’t want to load, because she will have to unload. I got her to get her front feet in the trailer using the clicker but no further. I got a trainer with a gentle NH background to help after that, mostly with a lot of gentle urging and praise, especially for letting one of us tell her when to back out, but when moving day came, we had not yet closed the butt bar.

I’d love to use R+ to get her more comfortable about the trailer… but haven’t been able to figure it out on my own.

She’s retired so it doesn’t matter that much… but in an emergency all bets are off.

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Trailer loading is hard for a lot of people and horses! I think I get more anxious than my horses :woman_facepalming:t2:

It’s not exactly convenient to practice either. Hook up rig etc etc.

Emergencies and needing to haul are the worst! In those situations we just do the best we can and hope for the best.

My horse will keep his muzzle straight but dip his eye towards me sometimes which is hysterical.

My first dog was clicker trained. It helped a lot with some fear aggression behaviors that she had towards other dogs and people. She was a lot of fun; she was afraid of a floating balloon but with R+ we got to where we could volley a balloon back and forth to each other.

My current pony would try to kick me into next week if I got anywhere near his sheath. Even when sedated for his power float he almost got the vet. In just a short time I can touch it, sponge it, stick my fingers in there and pick out gunk. He’ll actually nicker to me and looks forward to it. He’ll also target my palm for stretching exercises.

I have not heard the term bingo cue but some years ago dabbling in R+ I started clicking, as opposed to ‘kissing’, for good job. Now I try to ‘load’ the click to reinforce it, esp with new horses.
I us the kiss as a cue to move but that’s a different thread. :slight_smile:

I tried clicker training a few years ago, found it worked well for me in some situations,I taught my mare to touch one of those giant balls. She would follow that ball like a Quarter horse on a cow! She would bump it with her chest then catch it with her nose.
Not useful…

Just recently I taught a very nervous horse to pick up her feet so I could work on them with clicker training. Couldn’t touch the rest of her yet but could trim her feet.

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I started playing with clicker training with my hyper vigilant gelding. He seems to think it’s more of a fun game than work and he’s been super cute about the whole thing. What I didn’t anticipate was how much it would help with my timing awareness.

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I don’t do R+ only because I am often working on things the horse needs to when I ask (like pick up a foot) but use the clicker and treat system. I honestly don’t have the patience for true R+ which never uses a restraint or negative to release pressure for the reward.

I used it on my older horse to teach him stretches using a target to touch and to do a half bow. I also put the half steps on him with a clicker - traditional in hand work made him feel very trapped and he’d either blow through or rear.

With my young horse, I forgot how I had taught the older horse all these ground manners and tolerance for husbandry tasks. So the young horse will now stick a dewormer tube in his mouth after clicker training. My vet just took a video last week because she though it was pretty neat. I do have to refresh with a few rounds of R+ after we actually administer dewormer. He’s also been impatient and regressed this year with the farrier, so I work on holding his foot up, setting it on something, etc. with the clicker and treats. He’s also starting the half steps in hand with the clicker, but there’s a lot more R- involved to get to the click and treat - tap with the whip to go forward and hold or tell him to woah while tapping with the whip, but when he does the right thing, click and treat.

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Haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s replies yet, but count me in as another recent convert as far as clicker training. My TB is a sweet soul but a bit guarded about some things, and does not respond well to a lot of pressure. Once I introduced the clicker via having her touch a target, I’ve been able to use the clicker/treat system to teach her how to stand completely still for fly spray (she used to fidget), how to back up on voice command, halt at liberty, how to accept her udders being handled, how to give me more space when we are hand walking and she comes a bit too close (I use a verbal command “space” and she will back off), loading, stretches, etc etc. All in good time, with no fighting, no stress, just a relaxed horse who understands instantly if she offers the right answer. Currently working on using the clicker to get her to offer her feet more readily.

It’s not an approach that works well with all horses and it does need to be implemented wisely, usually with other tools in the training toolbox…but a LOT of horses respond really nicely to it and it is simply a more pleasant working dynamic than what I personally grew up with (shank 'em at the smallest provocation-type bs, common in Arab show barns around here…)

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