Equiosity

Karen Pryor coined the term “poisoned cue”. She commented that behavior analysts can easily set up experiments that look at pure positive or pure negative reinforcement. But Karen said that’s not the real world. The real world is filled with mixed consequences. What happens when a cue can lead to good things happening or to bad things happening but you don’t know which it is going to be? That’s the poisoned cue. Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz explored this question in a study he conducted with one of his graduate students at the University of North Texas. In this podcast Dominique Day and Alexandra Kurland describe his findings and discuss how this relates to horse training.

Movement cycles give us the beginning kernel, the beginning small step in our training out of which we can grow great changes. In this podcast movement cycles are first defined, then we describe how they can be used with the foundation lessons to create dramatic changes in a horse’s balance. So how do you learn to recognize good balance? How do you know what you’re clicking for? This leads us to a discussion of kindness.

Goblins and Ghosts - Oh My Oh My! What do you do when your horse spooks? That’s the opening question of this podcast. We explore what it means to be a constructional trainer. You want to build the skills you’re going to need BEFORE you need them. A great skill building exercise is the creativity game: “101 Things a Handler Can Do While A Horse Stands on a Mat.” We describe how you can use this to prepare your horse for a world filled with novelty.

It’s spring here in the Northeast which means the Siren’s call of the grass is pulling at our horses. In this podcast we talk about how to turn the grass from a distraction into a reinforcer. That takes us to the general training principle of “Train where you can, not where you can’t.” We define Loopy Training and look at how that teaching strategy can help create clean training. Be sure to listen all the way to the end. We’re including a bonus article with this week’s podcast.

How well does your horse adjust to change? When you take your horse on a weekend outing or you move him to a new barn, how well does he settle in? Do you recognize his signs of stress and do you adjust your expectations based on his needs? These are just a few of the threads we follow in this week’s conversation. We wind our way around to the homecoming many of us find when we begin to explore clicker training.

Have you ever gone on a treasure hunt? A good treasure hunt should follow the Goldilock’s principle. If the clues are too hard, you’ll become frustrated and quit. If the clues are too easy, there’s no pleasure in solving them. When the clues are just right, at first they puzzle you. What does this clue mean? What is the answer? And then you get it. That little feeling of frustration turns to pleasure. You got it! Over time that feeling of being puzzled is welcomed. You have become a confident puzzle solver. You KNOW you can solve the puzzle and you welcome each new challenge. When we’re teaching rope handling we are setting puzzles. If we make them too easy, our learners won’t become smart puzzle solvers. If we make them too hard, our learners will become frustrated. But get them just right and our learners will dance with us! Good rope handling is connected to choice, to communication, to connection. Part 2 of this podcast on Rope Handling follows several threads that take us to creating

Clicker training lets us work so effectively at liberty should we even put leads on our horses?  If we do, how do we use them? How do we turn rope handling into a clicker-compatible tool?  These are some of the many questions we explore in Part One of a two part series on rope handling.  In this podcast we talk about the "dance" that evolves out of good rope handling.  Used well, the lead becomes an incredibly light and tactful communication tool. The "dance" of good rope handling is both beautiful to watch and a delight to use.

This episode is packed!  It's as though we used an over-sized suitcase and had three people sitting on it to get the lid to close!  It is stuffed full of good things.  In this episode we talk about each of the six foundation lessons of clicker training.  I won’t list them here. You’ll be learning about each one in the podcast.
 
 The foundation lessons let us respond to the emotional needs of our animals.  They always tell us what they need to work on.  They let us know when they’re confused or frustrated. And they tell us when they’ve GOT IT!!   
 Getting behavior is the easy part of training.  It’s fun.  It’s exciting.  Managing the enthusiasm is another whole layer:  •   What do you do with the animal that is just throwing behavior at you hoping you’ll reinforce something?  
 •   How do you manage the food when it’s still a distraction?  
 •   How do you teach the basic manners that let horses and humans work safely and cooperatively together?  
 •   Why are the first behaviors you teach with the clic

After taping episodes 1 and 2, we took a short break from our conversation and went for a walk with Dominique’s dogs.  When we came back, I asked Dominique to share a story she had just told me about how she solved the dilemma of getting her dogs to come in at night.  This relates to all of us who have eager clicker learners who don’t want the training sessions to end.  
 
 Several more stories follow all illustrating how important it is to set up your environment for success.  Whether you are training goats, dog, horses, or guinea pigs this principle very much applies. 
 Ending well means we end with a reinforcer for you, so be certain to listen all the way to the end of the podcast to learn how to receive your bonus material.

This podcast is packed! We start off by talking about the bonds horses form with one another and how important it is to support and protect the friendships horses form.  Then we move on to a discussion of smart learners, enthusiasm and the need to develop calm, settled behaviors to create emotional balance.  That leads us to a discussion of mats: how to train them, how to use them.  
 
 Still with the overall focus on emotional balance we move on to food delivery.  We share several stories that show how much a horse’s behavior can be influenced by how you deliver the treats.  Enthusiasm and joy are always cherished.  I end with a favorite story about my horse, Robin. 
 Be certain to listen all the way to the end.  We have some wonderful “reinforcers" for you to thank you for listening to our podcasts.  We’ll be telling you about them at the end of the episode.

This first podcast focuses on the importance of building a relationship with the animals you train. That seems a very appropriate topic for our first episode. Come get to know us as we introduce you to Pellias and Elyan, my two cashmere goats. We’ll also be talking about horses, relationship building, control and choice. These are topics that are getting serious scientific attention these days, and with good reason. Always it is go to people for opinions and our animal learners for answers. Our horses tell us that choice is indeed a powerful reinforcer. Be certain to listen all the way to the end. We have some wonderful “reinforcers" for you to thank you for listening to our first podcast. We’ll be telling you about them at the end of the episode.