Last weekend was ClickerExpo, a wonderful clicker training conference that is organized by Karen Pryor Clicker Training. If you’re not familiar with ClickerExpo, check out my post about why you should go to ClickerExpo. I, sadly, am not going this year. However, this evening I found I blog post that I wrote two year ago [...]
More Clicker Training for Medical Tasks
I’ve been corresponding a bit by e-mail with an equine clicker trainer from the UK, Hannah Dawson. That’s one thing I absolutely love about the internet, I can talk to people about training even though they might be an ocean away. Anyways, Hannah posted a video on her blog recently of one of her clients. [...]
Teaching Targeting to a Blind Dog
My friend Miki over at Blind Dog Training recently posted a video tutorial that I really like. In the video, she explains how to teach a blind dog to target your hand. Here’s two reasons why I really like this video: 1. Clever use of cues. Miki first snaps with the target hand so that [...]
Gracie makes more progress
Kirsten captured some great pictures over the weekend of Gracie and I interacting. I’m petting her in most of these, but the way my body is turned, you can’t really tell. I just love how calm, relaxed, engaged and curious she looks in all of them. She is definitely a different horse from last November! [...]
Autumn Plays Touch the Goblins
The great outdoors can be a scary place! Autumn and I have started going for walks around the yard, which I wrote a bit about here. We’re encountering all sorts of strange sights, sounds, smells, textures, and noises. Some of these new objects can seem like monsters to a horse, especially once they’ve left the [...]
Clicker Training Shoulder Targeting
I often think of targeting as a simple exercise. It’s one of the first skills I teach the horses when clicker training and it works great for teaching other behaviors. Usually, I think of targeting as a dog or horse touching their nose to something. However, there are many different ways to expand on targeting [...]
Shiloh Jumps the Blue Barrels
Well, jump isn’t perhaps the right word, as it implies a major exertion of energy. However, he was pretty interested in them, especially once he learned I’d reward him for interacting with the barrels with a click and a treat. First, Shiloh nudged the barrel with his nose a few times. This evolved to licking [...]
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I'm a graduate student studying the science of behavior and training. On this blog I share stories of my animal training adventures, as well as tips, techniques and tricks to help you improve your training. Although most of this blog centers around training rescue horses, the ideas discussed apply equally to all species. The other animals I work with, including dogs and rats, also appear occasionally on the blog.
Mary Hunter
cheeriotrainer@gmail.com
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