I love that more horse magazines are publishing information about clicker training in their magazines and on their websites. We’ve been discussing this article from Practical Horseman on a group I’m on. There was also a nice article this summer about clicker training and trick training in Equus magazine.
Many people start clicker training because they need a way to solve problems that they are having with their horses or because they are interested in trick training.
In regards to the Practical Horseman article, I thought the article was overall very good. It does a good job describing clicker training and explaining how to teach several behaviors. However, I was pretty surprised by the 3 behaviors highlighted in the article:
- Touching the face of a horse who doesn’t like to be touched
- Retraining a horse who doesn’t like to have his feet picked up
- Catching a hard to catch horse
Although the clicker is a GREAT tool for problem solving, I think horse people often get into trouble and ultimately decide that the clicker “doesn’t work” when they jump straight to problem solving without first teaching a few other behaviors. I think it’s best to start with behaviors such as targeting, backing, and head lowering when clicker training. (These three behaviors are three of Alexandra Kurland’s six foundation lessons).
Teaching foundation behaviors before you start problem solving is important because:
- Behaviors like targeting, backing, head lowering etc. teach the horse the rules of the game and how clicker training works. Better yet, these types of behaviors establish a foundation that will keep the trainer safe. If you can ask your horse to back up or lower his head, he can’t be biting you, pushing into you, or mugging you for treats at the same time.
- Teaching a few basic behaviors also teaches the trainer mechanical skills and shaping skills. There’s a lot to think about when you first start clicker training! If the horse and human already have some understanding of the clicker training process, the trainer will be much better prepared to shape what she wants, rather than potentially making the problem worse.
- “Problem behaviors,” such as those mentioned in the article, often have to be solved at a deeper layer. Using the clicker for the presenting problem just adds a band-aid if the “problem” is an indicator of a deeper problem. This is often the case with hard to catch horses — it’s not really catching the horse that’s the problem. Instead, the horse is less than thrilled about what happens to him each time he is caught.
So, if people are interested in using clicker training to solve problems I usually encourage them to think about training a few other behaviors first. Teaching your horse to target is a great place to start. Then, teaching the horse to back up, lower his head, or turn his head away from you are all fun behaviors to try next.
All of the above holds true as well for trick training! Once people discover the power of clicker training, they are often interested in teaching their horse all sorts of fun tricks. However, teaching a few foundation behaviors first helps teach the horse and human about cues and stimulus control. Without an understanding of the clicker training process and adding cues, trick training can quickly lead to problems.
If you’re interested in learning more about clicker training with horses, I encourage you to check out my article “What is clicker training?” and my clicker training resources page.
What do you think? What behaviors should a person train first when clicker training a horse? Is it okay to start with problem solving (or trick training) or what other essential behaviors should be taught first?
Foundation before specialization. Without a solid (or even a basic) foundation, anything you do with your horse will eventually fall apart. A good horseman will realize there is a weakness in the foundation and go back to fix it; too many horse owners will blame the horse or the method, ditching one or the other (or both) and end up with the same problem over and over.
Hi Lisa,
What great points!
With my work with rescue horses, I meet a lot of horses who have not necessarily been neglected or abused, but who have “issues” or “problems” of one variety or another. Often, I think this is only because someone rushed the horse at one point or forgot to train certain things during the horse’s early training.
Like you say though, so many people want to blame the horse. Taking the time to retrain can take some time, especially if the unwanted behavior has become an ingrained pattern.
One reason why I really like clicker training is because the teaching methodology is based on building things in small steps. Also, making sure the horse can do the behavior and understands what is wanted, before moving on.
cheers,
Mary
Totally agree!! You can’t expect to teach a complex behavior at first without the basics! I am a complete amateur at clicker training, but I have been pretty successful with the stuff I have taught my horse so far, but nothing is multi-stepped or difficult. It also helps that she is pretty smart and loves food! I have really enjoyed your resource page to help with with my own timing issues, get new ideas, and help me over some clicker humps that I had!
Hi Allison,
I’m glad you’ve been having fun with the clicker training so far!
Also, thanks for the kind words about my resources page. I’m glad you’ve found some useful information on it.
cheers,
Mary
I totally agree! I started with head lowering, backing, ears forward, and targeting. Once my horse understood the clicker game, it was so easy to solve some of his issues. He became easier to catch just because he enjoys training now and I also think we’ve developed a better relationship.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for the comment.
I love how some “issues,” like catching, just solve themselves when we change our training approach.
It sounds like you and your gelding are doing great!
cheers,
Mary
Great article!
I’ve learned to advise beginners to START with tricks only. The big advantage of this is that the finished behaviour in not important, and failure is of no accord, do the ‘trainer’ can relax and enjoy the activity. Another advantage of tricks is that if you don’t get what you want, you’ll probably get something else which will also “do” as a trick.
And in the meanitme the trainer learns how to use a clicker effectively 🙂
Actually, I found that teaching mice and/or rats tricks was the very BEST way to learn how to use a clicker 🙂
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for the comment. I completely agree with you — trick training tends to be low stress for horse and human because if you “mess up” you can always just teach a different trick, or let what the horse offers evolve into a new trick.
Also, because many tricks involve props, it’s easy to put away the prop when you’re done working. Since the trick is tied to the prop, I think this reduces the amount of behaviors the horse voluntarily offers in other contexts — something that can be frustrating for someone new to clicker training who hasn’t learned how to put behavior on cue yet.
I think trick training works well because the tricks people pick to train are usually completely different from what they normally do with the horse — so there’s much less chance that they’ll be dealing with behaviors or cues that have been poisoned in other context.
Oh, and I COMPLETELY agree with you about the rats and mice! My rats have helped me so much to improve my observation skills and shaping skills. 🙂
cheers,
Mary
I started with trick training and targeting. It is fun for horse and person. When I taught my mare to smile, she started smiling at anyone who walked past her stall, trying to get treats. It was pretty cute!
That’s awesome that she started smiling at everyone! Sounds like she really enjoys the clicker training and trick training. 🙂
Great post!
I myself became interested in clicker training because I hoped that it could help my horse overcoming her fear of large moving vehicles. I started with targeting, but tried to clicker train calmness in situations where we encountered for example tractors. The problem was that I had totally underestimated the strenghts of my horse’s feelings. So we had to go back, starting from a much lower level.
The better horse trainer you are, the better you can interpret the horse’s behaviour and train at a level where the horse is comfortable and able to learn. I think clicker training can be very helpful in teaching a trainer about reading the horse. When pressure is removed it is often much clearer what the horse really feels about things. For example, on a lead rope my horse would walk up to another horse, but looking angry and unhappy. But when free, she wouldn’t get any closer than 3 meters from this horse even when she knew that she would be clicked and treated for following me there.
So I think that another beneficial thing about first training simple behaviours and tricks is that it gives you a baseline of how the horse behaves when it is not afraid or reluctant. With that in mind it could be easier to adapt the training program for problem behaviours to keep the steps easy enough for the horse. If the horse is afraid, it will probably not learn very much.
Another good thing about teaching basic behaviours first that I wish I had realised from the start is that they can be used as building blocks for more complex behaviours later. It is probably easier to teach standing still at the mounting block if the horse has learned to stand still in a neutral place first, for example.
And finally, sorry for the long comment! I find it much more difficult to write compactly in a language that is not my mother tongue!
Hi Ã…sa,
Thank you for the long comment!
I think you made some really great points in your comment. 🙂
I especially like how you talked about simple behaviors and tricks “giving a baseline of how the horse behaves when it is not afraid or reluctant.” I think this is SO completely true. When we give our horses the opportunity to express themselves, sometimes we see a completely different horse.
cheers,
Mary
Thank you Mary!
I also think that what you said about not replacing solving the underlaying problem with clicker training was very important. With clicker training, we have very powerful techniques at our hands, so we also have to be careful of how we use it.
We know that it is possible to teach animals to withstand a certain amount of pain and discomfort for food, as when they teach an ape to accept her daily insulin shot. That’s good, but of course we don’t want to teach it involuntarily if pain is what is causing the problem behaviour in the first place.
Good post! I had never heard of clicker training for horses until 6months ago. I have 3 dogs and never really considered clicker for them as I have never needed to. As I go more and more into natural horsekeeping I stumbled on an article about clicker training horses and decided to give it a go with my thoroughbred as he was very twitchy about having his feet trimmed (he is barefoot). He really took to it quickly, the first thing I taught him as to back up, then head lowering followed on and then started on the feet. He was fine for his front feet but still twitchy for his hind. I took it really slowly and just asked him to relax his foot first before clicking and treating (carrot slices work great!), then we moved on to lifting the foot, holding it up for longer periods of time and finally lifting it up higher and higher. Now he is much more relaxed during foot trimming and I don’t have to use the clicker to do it, he just chills out and gets a treat when it is over. He has really taken to clicker, I don’t always have set times for it, I always have a pouch of carrot slices on me and the clicker and sometimes he will come to me in the field to ask to play. I have just started target training with a ball, and he loves it. Clicker training is not only fun but very useful and safe if done properly.
Hi Sonia,
Thanks so much for leaving a comment! I’m glad to hear that you are using clicker training with your horse.
It sounds like clicker training has really helped you communicate what you want him to do in regards to picking up his feet for picking out and trimming.
Also, it sounds like the two of you are having lots of fun with the clicker training. 🙂
cheers,
Mary