This holiday season, I’ve decided to share twelve books with you.
At the bottom of this post, you can enter for a chance to win a copy of this book.
You can also visit this page to find the entire list of books and giveaways.
You may not know this, but I started out clicker training first with horses, not with dogs. I was living in Kansas at the time, and I had met a woman who was letting me ride and work with one of her horses, in exchange for a little bit of help around her property.
The mare didn’t really like to be ridden, and it was very hard (and sometimes impossible) for me to catch her in the pasture. As you can imagine, it’s difficult to do any riding or training if you can’t get within 50 feet of the horse!
About this time, I read Karen Pryor’s classic book, Don’t Shoot the Dog. (Here’s a link to my review of Don’t Shoot the Dog.) I didn’t really know anything about clicker training or positive reinforcement training, but it sounded like it might work, and I was out of ideas.
It took some time (and quite a lot of patience), but I was able to make friends again with the mare. Furthermore, I was amazed at how much she loved clicker training and how fast she was able to learn new behaviors using positive reinforcement.
At that time, I wish I would have had a copy of Katherine Bartlett’s new book, Teaching Horses with Positive Reinforcement. I’m a pretty detail-oriented person. I like having very thorough, precise instructions. In addition, I really like understanding “why” something works.
Katie’s book is all of this. It introduces horse owners to the basics of clicker training with clear instructions and plenty of good advice. For example, there’s a section on what to consider when choosing the first behaviors to teach your horse, a section on how to detail with errors and unwanted behaviors, and a giant section on food delivery (which is something that can cause a lot of unwanted behaviors in horses, if done incorrectly).
In addition, the book explains some of the science of positive reinforcement training. This helps readers better understand the recommendations in the book and also will help readers generalize the ideas in the book to other training situations.
Teaching Horses with Positive Reinforcement wasn’t available when I first started clicker training. But, it’s available now from Amazon as both a printed book and as an ebook. Earlier this year, I wrote a longer review of the book on my blog, which you can find here.
When I first wrote my review of the book, several people commented on Facebook that this book isn’t just for beginners. I would agree with that completely! The science sections and all the detail mean that even more experienced horse clicker trainers will likely find this book to be a useful resource.
So, if you’re interested in learning more about horse clicker training or if you have a friend who could benefit from a well-written book on the subject, I highly recommend that you get a copy of Teaching Horses with Positive Reinforcement by Katherine Bartlett.
Enter to win a copy of this book
To enter the giveaway:
1) Leave a comment on this post to earn one entry.
2) Fill out the Raffelcopter box below.
3) You can also earn entries by being a member of the StaleCheerios email list and/or by telling a friend about this post!
Terms and Conditions
One lucky reader will win a new copy of this book.
Winner will be chosen at random.
This giveaway ends on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018 at 11:59pm Central Standard Time.
Winner will be notified via email on December 15.
If the winner does not respond by Dec 17, he/she will forfeit the prize.
Void where prohibited.
Entering the giveaway form means you agree to the terms listed above.
Take a moment to enter the rest of my holiday giveaways!
I’m looking forward to reading it. So far I’ve only read the introductory book by H. James which I found very helpful with the links to the videos.
Awesome! 🙂
This book is on my christmas wish list, along with other books about animal training. Would love to win it too :-). Thanks for the review.
I would love to read this book. I have one by Alexandra Kurland about clicker training.
I have wanted to get this book and it is now on my Xmas wish list. I have read Don’t Shoot the Dog and loved it.
This is the best book on the subject currently available!
I would like to read this book. There is always more to learn from others!
Hi Mary! This is one book I have not yet read. I would love a copy of it as it is on my wish list.
Sounds like a great book- lots of applicability for me – not only euth dog training but creating measurable life skills and i teach a specialty subject so sounds great fir developing kearning olans fir my students!
Just started clicker training my horse yesterday! I’d love to read this and get some more ideas.
That’s great that you just started clicker training your horse. How exciting. 🙂
If you want, send me an email, and I can share some additional resources and information with you.
Looking for good ideas for dealing with a difficult mare.
I didn’t begin clicker-training with dogs, I started with parrots (who unlike ultra-forgiving dogs, cannot be punished into “good” AKA desired behaviors, as punishment causes incredible amounts of fallout & long-term issues with psittacines, who have very long memories!)
I then used reward training with horses who had problem behaviors, & quickly realized that the very FIRST thing to teach any horse who is being marker-trained, particularly with food tidbits, is *never, ever* to MUG THE TRAINER, or indeed to molest, harass, or pester anyone for “goodies”.
A 60# Lab or a 40# Std Poodle can be cute & appealing when they beg; a1200 to 1400# saddle-horse who begs, threatens, or rips pockets out of coats & trousers in search of horse-nuts or peppermints, is a freakin’ menace. =:—0
When I begin teaching a horse to pair the marker with rewards, I simultaneously teach her / him that they must step BACK to get the goody delivered – not merely hold their position, but move ===> away ==> from me & the tidbits, which means step back from the fence or the stall-guard.
They can never lean against the barrier, or even touch it, nor can they crane their heads & necks out into my space / the barn alley, to actively reach for their goody when I am afoot; they must give ground & let me step in to deliver it to them, as they stand back.
This keeps everyone safe. :—)
I always begin training in protected contact – not loose in a field with nothing between me & the horse, not inside the stall or paddock with the clicker-novice, but behind a clearly defined barrier.
Being mounted changes the parameters, & they can turn their heads to the side so that I can deliver their payout; they cannot step on me or push me into the stall boarding or trap me in a fence corner, when I am on their backs. ;—D
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