Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Horses

Bad Bob

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"He's surprised, did you see that?" I said, laughing, to the watching people. It's easy to startle a horse; but this was not alarm: this was just pure amazement. That expression told me two things: first, he thoroughly understood the game we were playing. Second, in his past experience, things usually just went on and on getting worse, not better. What I wanted to do was to pat Bad Bob (which at present he would probably hate) or throw my arms around his neck, or give him a month's supply of alfalfa pellets. What I did was smile, and pay him his treat. Poor thing. Maybe Festina Lente will turn out to be a better place for you.

Clicker Training For Your Horse: Clicking the First Rides

Alexandra Kurland — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0600

You can also begin to incorporate the clicker into your horse's regular training. Indy, a six year old half arabian gelding came to me in June for training. He was a kind, beautifully-mannered horse. His owner/breeder had never had time to saddle-break him, so at six he had a lot of catching up to do. During the worst of the summer heat when the temperature was creeping towards 100 and neither of us wanted to work hard, I introduced him to the clicker. He was slow to catch on. It took three sessions before he finally got the connection between touching the cone and getting grain. After that there was no stopping him. He became an enthusiastic over-achiever. He needed only minutes to shift from touching one cone to touching a whole circle of cones. (Figs. 7a, 7b).

Clicker Training For Your Horse: First Clicker Lessons

Alexandra Kurland — Tue, 01 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0600

So how do you actually begin to teach this to a horse? I start by teaching a simple trick. My intent here is to condition the secondary reinforcer and to establish the link between behavior and reward. I'll worry about practical applications after he's learned how the game is played.

I like to start with something that's very simple and easy to understand. I'm going to teach the horse to touch his nose to an object. I've found this works really well in part because it is outside the horse's normal training program. It's so different from anything else he's been asked to do, he has to pay attention to figure me out.

Clicking in Scandinavia: Norwegian Champions

Miranda Hersey Helin — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Morten Egtvedt and Cecilie Køste, two of the newest ClickerExpo faculty members, are a married training team from Norway. The pair were early adopters of clicker training and are Scandinavia's leading authors on this technology. Morten and Cecilie have been top European competitors in obedience, tracking, and agility. Their clicker training school focuses on using clicker training to win in competition; teachers and students from their school are not just top clicker trainers, but also top-notch competitors in European dog-related sports. Morten and Cecilie edit and publish a full-color magazine on dog training, and publish and sell Don't Shoot the Dog, as well as many other clicker titles in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Finnish. Recently we spoke with Morten and Cecilie about their background and success.

Michele Pouliot: Dancing on Air

Miranda Hersey Helin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:00:03 -0500

Michele Pouliot has trained dogs for more than three decades. Since first joining Guide Dogs for the Blind in 1974, she contributed to the organization in many different ways, and today is the director of research and development. Michele is also a champion in canine musical freestyle and participates in equestrian combined driving events. This year, we're proud to welcome Michele to the ClickerExpo faculty. We recently spoke to Michele about her breadth of experience and success.

Congratulations to the Canis Film Festival Winners!

KPCT — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Laura VanArendonk Baugh won Grand Prize at the first-ever Canis Film Festival, a contest designed to showcase innovative animal-training videos. This unique festival focuses on short films of seven minutes or fewer that educate animal owners and professionals about the power of training based on the science of operant conditioning.

The Panda Game

Karen Pryor — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Miniature horses are a special breed. According to horse owners, miniature horses are not descended from ponies, but developed from regular horses. Most of them are about the size of a large dog, and, like some large dogs, they make great guides for blind people.

Kudos for Alexandra Kurland and Clicker Training for Your Horse

KPCT — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0600

From Bettye Baldwin, Pleiades Pony Farm, TX: I'm getting pretty excited about this clicker stuff. I specialize in teaching timid riders or those that have lost confidence so anything that can help in that is exciting. I've been dinking with the clicker training this past week while waiting for your articles to arrive. I used some of the target training I read about in your on line articles with an old school pony of mine that is a real case. He was in complete charge of his people for many years and did NOT appreciate my trying to exert any control. He was a mugger first class and had NO sensitivety whatsoever. Within moments I had him focusing on touching the target instead of searching my hands and pockets for the treats he knew were there. I haven't given him treats by hand for the 2 years I've had him, but he would still try to "mug" me, so observing this change in a matter of moments was incredibly exciting. I'm going to attempt to train the youngest of the Arabian mares I bought last month to put her halter on herself. She is coming along pretty well as is, but this should be good for both of us.

Let's Get Clicking! From "Clicker Training for Your Horse"

Alexandra Kurland — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Abridged from Chapter 2, Clicker Training for Your Horse

Mini-Horse, Maxi-Guide

KPCT — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600

Ann Edie is blind. And, like many blind people, she used a guide dog to help her get around. When her dog suddenly died, it was a very sad thing for Ann. Not only did she miss her special friend, but she also missed his help. What would she do?

She could use her white cane, of course. And she could get another guide dog. But dogs can work for only a few years. So she came up with a different idea: "What about a guide HORSE?"

Expo Faculty Profile: Alexandra Kurland, Horse Trainer

Miranda Hersey Helin — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Alexandra Kurland has been teaching and training horses since the mid-1980s as a dressage specialist and an accredited Ttouch practitioner. She began clicker training in the early 1990s, recognizing the power of the method for improving performance and enhancing the relationship between people and their horses. Alexandra teaches the use of clicker training for all equine needs and sports, from providing a gentle, companionable personal riding horse to halter training foals, training advanced performance horses, and reforming difficult and unmanageable horses. She travels widely giving hands-on clicker training seminars in the US and internationally.

Playtime

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Ah, summer! For weeks I haven't been able to get anyone on the phone, businesses don't answer their e-mail, professors are unreachable, my family is camping on the beach, and trainers I need to talk to are tracking down their ancestors in Iceland or bird watching in Belize or going fishing.

Everyone is playing. Play is a highly important part of life. I think it's also a highly important part of clicker training. No, I don't mean as a reward—following the click with a game of tug, say, rather than a treat. That's okay in its place; but that's not what I mean.

Pony's Choice: On Behavior Revisited

Karen Pryor — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The article below is excerpt from On Behavior entitled "Pony's Choice." This selection comes from a speech, The President's Invited Scholar's Address, which I gave to the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) in 1992. I chose it as an example of how one could use operant conditioning techniques to develop abstract thinking—the weighing of alternatives—even in an animal not generally considered intelligent.

Why Use a Clicker?

Alexandra Kurland — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Once the horse understands that a whistle or a click means food, I can link that sound to behavior. The horse begins to learn that the only time he hears the click is when he presents certain behavior. Now it's the horse who thinks he has me trained. He's aware of the power of his own actions. Present behavior. Get treat. What a wonderful system!

Clicker Training For Your Horse

KPCT — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Now Alexandra Kurland's classic volume on equine clicker training is available in a deluxe hardcover edition packed with full-color photographs. Produced by our British co-publisher, Ringpress, this special edition of Clicker Training for Your Horse will stand up to years of reading and reference. It also makes an elegant and enduring gift for every friend you would like to introduce to the power of clicker training.

Learning by Observation: Pony See, Pony Do

KPCT — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500

From Abigail Curtis: I did my science fair project on learning by observation when I was in the fifth grade. We put eight ponies in a ring, tied up so that they could all see what the pony in the middle was doing. Before we brought them in we had put a treat under a bucket on a chair. Then we let one of the ponies, go and timed how long it was before the pony found the treat. The first timing was about 2 minutes (it was so long ago that I have a hard time remembering exactly what the timing was). When we let the next pony go the time was much shorter (about 30 seconds). After that all the other ponies ran straight to the chair when we let them go.

Clicker Training For Horses: Liberty's Story

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 May 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Liberty was born here to an Arab mare named Sky that I got for $300. Sky was an abuse victem. She was beautiful, and only 10, but she was unbroke, and unmanagable, terrified of people, and bred. By the time Liberty was born, I could manage Sky well enough to do foot care, etc, but I was then in the midst of a terrible divorce, and didn't do much more than toss feed to the horses during that time. Incidentally she adopted her dams attitude of dislike and disdain for people, but not the fear. When she was about 6 months old, I started attempting to create a relationship with her. And I did, unfortunately it wasn't a good one. She was completely out of control, and although it burns my pride to say so, I was afraid of her.

Clicker Training For Your Horse: Table of Contents

KPCT — Sat, 01 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Clicker Training for Your Horse: About the Author

KPCT — Sat, 01 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Alexandra Kurland earned her B.S. degree from Cornell University, where she specialized in animal behavior. In the 1980s she studied with Linda Tellington-Jones and became a TTEAM Practitioner. The other major influence on her riding at that time came from the high school dressage trainer, Bettina Drummond. In the early 1990s she added John Lyons' training into the mix to develop her own teaching program, "Riding In a State of Excellence."

Clicker Research Challenges

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0600

People ask clicker trainers the same questions, over and over. Why can't I just use my voice? Why can't I tell the animal what to do? When can I get rid of the food? Why should I bother to shape the behavior inch by inch when I can just make the animal do it?