a.) Clinic #1: Off To A Great Start with Clicker Training

Clinic #1: Off To A Great Start with Clicker Training

Let me share in a roundabout way what I hope you get from this first course.

I am a clicker trainer. That tells you that I use positive reinforcement in my training. But it doesn’t really tell you much beyond that. There are so many ways to use positive reinforcement. Which “brand”, “which “umbrella” do I fall under?

To tell you HOW I train I need to add that I am a constructional trainer. That means that instead of tackling head on an unwanted behavior, I shift my focus to what I would like my learner TO DO. I consider underlying component skills that make up the behavior I want. I teach those smaller, simpler building blocks first.

That gives me the repertoire I need to teach the more complex behaviors. Except by the time I’m ready to teach them, they don’t feel complex any more. I have the repertoire, both in terms of skills needed and concepts understood to make them the next easily achievable step.

I don’t want to teach my horses in one way and then use a completely different approach with people. So I have taken a constructional approach to these courses. I could let you jump in anywhere you like. That would mean I’d have a lot of people jumping straight to Course #8: Riding from the Ground Up.

I know riding is where most of us are heading with our horses. Of course, we want to ride. So let’s go straight there. It’s even tempting to let you. Many of you are already very familiar with clicker training, and your horses are reasonably safe. You’re thinking you can skip past the first couple of clinics, especially the first one on the basics of clicker training. You know about targeting. Let’s get on with it!

I’m not just a constructional trainer. I’m a loopy trainer. That means I use movement cycles to train. You’ll be learning about these concepts in the course. I won’t try to explain them here. But I will say that in loopy training we want to begin with success. We want to begin with a behavior that is already familiar to your learner. You are often choosing a very simple behavior because you want to get consistent “yes” answer responses right from the beginning. More than that, those “yes” answers aren’t surrounded by a lot of unwanted “no” answers.

So I don’t want you to begin in the middle where you don’t have the training steps in place to support the new concepts and skills that I’ll be presenting.

I want us to begin together at the beginning. I want to build this work through the constructional process, layer by layer, developing a shared repertoire of core concepts and skills.

When I need to video one of the foundation skills, I often use my horse, Robin. It’s been decades since he had his first targeting lesson, but every time I go back to these early lessons with him, there’s a ripple out into the rest of his training. He knows these basics, but the context has changed over the years. So returning to the simplicity of the basics is always useful.

I’m saying this to all of you who have been through the basics. So have I. Many, many times. In fact more times than I could possibly count. And I will tell you I always learn from them.

Advanced training is just the basics done very, very well.

So what do I want you to get from this course?

The core repertoire of skills and concepts that form the building blocks we’ll be using as we move forward through the rest of the courses.

“Yes, yes.” I can hear the impatient replies. “But what will I be learning? My horse doesn’t load on the trailer. Will you fix that?”

I’m not going to be fixing anything in any of these course. I am going to be showing you how to teach your horse what you would like him to do.

In this course I’ll be showing you how to introduce a horse to positive reinforcement training. We’ll look at the details that make a difference. For example, when you feed, are you getting more “bang for your buck”, meaning do you use the food delivery strategically?

You can feed any old which way and end up with a higgledy-piggledy horse on his forehand. Or you can feed so your horse normalizes good balance. You can very sneakily be having a riding lesson in that first targeting lesson.

I want to be certain you understand how this works because we are going to be using “sneaky training” throughout. In this course I’ll be using the basics of clicker training to introduce you to some complex concepts such as the use of cues as reinforcers.

And here’s how sneaky this is. You’re learning how to teach using positive reinforcement and constructional training. At the same time your horse is learning great ground manners. These foundation skills can then be used to teach the universal husbandry skills that contribute to our horse’s well being. The universals include grooming, foot care, blanketing, basic leading, haltering, medical care, etc.

That’s a lot of ground to cover and it all sits inside this one course.

At the end of it you will have a good understanding of the core skills and concepts that I want you to take forward into the rest of the courses.

That includes an understanding of

• the role the environment plays in successful training.

• the six foundation lessons of clicker training.

• loopy training.

• dynamic food delivery.

• the many options you have for teaching strategies.

• cues versus commands.

• how to keep behaviors (and your horse’s emotions) in balance.

• how to chain behaviors together using cues and base behaviors.

This gives you a great starting place for being able to answer for yourself the many “how do I teach my horse to _____” questions you may be starting out with.

These clinics very much follow the adage: “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime”. (As a vegetarian, I am tempted to change the wording, but I will leave it as it is.)

The bottom line is this. Want two things from these clinics. I want to teach you how to train in a kind, horse-friendly way that always keeps the spotlight front and center on the horses well-being - both short term and long term.

And I want to draw you into my obsession over good balance. I want to help you understand why it is so important for your horse’s welfare. I want you to experience good balance. I want you to see it. I want you to feel it, both in your horse and in yourself. Because once you do, there’s no going back.

Here’s more of what I want: when associate positive reinforcement training with happy horses. You see confident horse, enthusiastic horses. And you see beautifully balanced horses. The images that pop into your mind are of round, soft, balanced, happy horses.

To help get you there I have filled all eight courses with images of horses who discovering their own good balance. These are horses just like your own. The handlers are recreational riders not professional trainers. What they are discovering is both the beauty of their horses and the deep connection that comes through thoughtful training.

And here’s something more that I want: at the end of all of these courses the image of good balance that comes first and foremost to your mind is that of your own beautiful horse.

Have fun!

These are just some of the beautiful horses you will meet in this course.