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The
Natural Horse Group was established in 2001.
It aims to provide
information that enables people to explore ways of keeping and managing
equines that enhance wellbeing and encourage a natural lifestyle
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Articles
Clicker Training
By Manda Scott
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Clicker training of any animal is as much about altering our attitudes to ourselves, to the process of learning, and to the integrity of the animal with which we are exploring avenues to changing behaviour.
Clicker training uses positive reinforcement that is, it adds a reward when the horse performs a desired behaviour. At its simplest, the click acts as a 'bridging signal', to tell the horse that its last action was the right one - that canter transition <click>, that step of shoulder-in <click>, that willingness to go forward and touch the scary plastic bag <click and jackpot> - were what we were looking for. The click marks the behaviour so that I don't have to be split-second accurate in my delivery of a piece of carrot to my horse, but he'll still have a reasonable idea which of the various things he was doing at the time, was the one for which he was rewarded.
Of course, the horse has first to learn that it can 'make the click happen' by its actions, and that by progressively better actions, it can make more clicks happen. It has also to learn basic manners. If you're training a dog that goes overboard for the treat bag, you get a wet hand. If your horse decides to help himself to your bag of carrots and goes through, or over, you to get it, you may end up in hospital, so the first thing we teach is to associate the click with an action and with food and the next thing we teach is that mugging doesn't work. See picture sequence overleaf
After that, there are no limits. The click and the reward it signals are simply an effective, repeatable means of saying 'yes' and 'thank you' in roughly that order. With horses, when there is so much we can do, or not do, the real question is 'to what do I want to say 'yes'?' and this requires a degree of basic horsemanship, or the willingness to learn from others. Clicker training can be applied equally well - or equally badly - to everything from Parelli's Natural Horse•Man•ship to classical dressage.
To learn more, I would recommend Alex Kurland's books, and her web site
(www.theclickercenter.com) as good resources, largely on the grounds that Alex is an excellent horsewoman and has spent years watching and learning from others, particularly horses.
Here are the basic rules of clicker training, followed by Alex Kurland's 'check list for clicker-safe riding.
- Safety always comes first – learn the rules of safe behaviour. Teach manners first. Hone them until they are second nature to you and your horse.
- Clicker training is all about working out what you want your horse to do, not what you want him to stop doing or not do.
- Reward what you want, ignore what you don't want (as long as you stay safe).
- Be sharp in your timing, be consistent in your rewards, but remember that variable schedules train behaviours faster.
- Keep records, they matter.
- Get the behaviour. Get the behaviour. Get the behaviour. Worry about the cues afterwards.
- Be a splitter, not a lumper. If your horse doesn't understand by the second request, you're not asking clearly. Go back, think again, split down to smaller chunks and ask for something attainable.
- High rates of reinforcement work best in the new stages of any behaviour.
- Remember that you cannot ask for something and expect to get it on a consistent basis unless you have gone through the process to teach it to your horse
- Don't expect your horse to read your mind. Do expect to read his.
- Every step is learning, make it count.
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