Many positive trainers are fond of of saying that an animal can be taught to do anything it is physically and mentally capable of doing. Behaviors are often taught through shaping–using successive approximations towards a final goal. (For instance, a trainer could teach a horse to put it’s nose in a trailer, then put two […]
Archive | June, 2009
Can you unsaddle your horse while cantering over jumps?
This is an incredibly impressive video. Watch the Metropolitan Mounted Police perform at the London International Horse of the Year Show in 2006. See three horses jumping in sync over a jump, horses jumping through fiery obstacles, riders taking on and off their jackets while jumping, and at the end, even taking off their saddles while […]
Going Back to Kindergarten
I’ve been reading Karen Pryor’s first book on training, Lads Before the Wind. Written in the 70s, it’s her personal account of how she learned the principles of operant conditioning and positive reinforcement training by training dolphins in Hawaii. Her park was one of the first to do this, and the book is filled with […]