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Clicker Training: How to start with a horse that is traditionally trained?

7 Comments / Advanced Clicker Training, Positive Reinforcement (+R) /

How do you start positive reinforcement training with a horse that is already trained with negative reinforcement (traditional or natural horsemanship training)? Start with a \’clean slate\’ I would suggest start with some exercises that are totally new to the horse. Choose exercises (and cues) the horse doesn\’t know yet. You should make sure it is a new […]

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Myth Monday: Training with Food rewards causes pushy Horses

1 Comment / Positive Reinforcement (+R) /

All positive reinforcement trainers have heard people say: \’Training horses with food rewards makes them pushy\’. Some people even state \’dangerous\’ instead of pushy. Maybe you have said it yourself before you started using positive reinforcement (+R) to train your horse. You get what you reinforce In +R training you use a reward that reinforces the behaviour

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My favourite motto is… Make haste slowly…

6 Comments / Horse training, Set up for Success /

Is the translation of a Latin saying. A saying with a long history starting with the Romans. Festina lente, maybe you\’ve heard of it. To me this has proven a very valuable oxymoron  and it is one of my favourite personal mantras in horse training. If you take the time it takes, than it takes less time. So many times I wanted a result

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Reflections on +R vs -R (positive reinforcement vs negative reinforcement)

Horse training /

How valuable is a behaviour to you when it is associated by the horse with aversives (-R, negative reinforcement)? Is a behaviour that is associated with something pleasurable /appetitives (+R, positive reinforcement) worth less, or more to you? Or do you not care at all what your horse\’s associations are with your ways of getting

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How to… train for a dressage test with clicker training

Positive Reinforcement (+R), Riding /

Dressage riders who use positive reinforcement have asked me: \’I can\’t click and reward my horse during a dressage test. So how can I practice a test and still use clicker training?\’ Or they say: \’I don\’t want my horse to stop in the middle of the test because he expects a treat\’ or \’He stops because he is used to

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Key to Success: make a Shaping Plan

7 Comments / Clicker Training 101, Key Lessons (your Key to Success in R+), Positive Reinforcement (+R) /

Clicker training your horse can be difficult and confusion. The Key to Success is writing a shaping plan. A shaping plan is a written manual to train a behaviour from scratch. In shaping the trainer splits the goal behaviour into easy achievable steps for the horse. Then you rehearse and reinforced each step, until your

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Key lesson: targeting

17 Comments / Clicker Training 101, Key Lessons (your Key to Success in R+), Positive Reinforcement (+R) /

In my previous post I talked about the key lessons safe behaviour around food ,  equine emotions during training, head lowering & backing. Another key lesson I want to encourage all clicker trainers to teach their horse is \’targeting\’. Targeting In targeting you ask your horse to touch a target with a body part. You start this

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