Chewie and I have been working on some targeting exercises.
During a recent training session, Chewie was practicing touching a wall target with her nose. However, shortly after we started, someone began doing some work with a loud tractor, very close to Chewie’s pasture.
When the noises started, Chewie left our training session and walked a short distance away. In the photo above, she is standing still, watching and listening to the tractor.
Years ago, when I was new to training, I used to think that it was bad if my horse left a training session. I might try to stop the horse from leaving or try to get the horse to come back immediately.
These days, I have a different perspective. It’s okay if my horse leaves a training session.
My horse is giving me valuable information regarding how they feel about the training session AND about how they feel about other events that are happening around us.
Rather than being frustrated at the horse, I need to assess WHY the horse left.
In this situation, Chewie wasn’t afraid of the tractor. However, the tractor had appeared rather suddenly. Chewie needed a moment to listen and figure out what it was doing.
I could have used a handful of food to entice Chewie to come back to the target. However, her attention would have been split between the training session and the tractor, and the quality of our training session would have suffered.
Instead, in these situations, I like to acknowledge what my horse is doing and respond to their behavior.
So, I went and stood by Chewie, and we listened to the tractor together. After a minute or so, she turned toward me and was ready to play training games, again.
Training tip: Behavior is information. If you animal leaves a training session, don’t get frustrated or angry. Instead, how can you respond to what they need, in this moment?
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