Spring has arrived in north Texas and with spring comes spring grass! The arena at our barn has grass all along the edge. Delicious, yummy grass. Tempting grass…. Apollo and I have sometimes struggled with the spring grass in past years. This year, we’ve been working on a new reinforcement system in the arena with […]
This year, Apollo and I have been working on some horse agility training. Horse agility is similar to dog agility. The horse and trainer must navigate a series of obstacles with teamwork and precision. One fun obstacle that is often used for horse agility or horse obstacle courses is a pool noodle obstacle, sometimes called […]
Several years ago, I wrote a post about Grand Prix clicker training. This was a concept that we discussed at a 2014 clinic that I attended with Alexandra Kurland at Cindy Martin’s ranch in Arkansas. “During our discussion, Alexandra offered another perspective on ‘Grand Prix’ that was not limited to top level competitions. Instead, think […]
Apollo and I have been looking for some new challenges. So, I’ve been trying an activity that we discuss in the “Creativity” episode of our new Listen and Learn online course. In the episode on creativity, Alexandra discusses a simple strategy for helping yourself be more creative. Put some new stuff in your arena or […]
Several years ago, Ken Ramirez gave a talk at the Art and Science of Animal Training Conference which was called “Training when you’re not training.” You can read my notes from Ken’s talk in this post. One of Ken’s main points was that training is always going on. We have many informal interactions with our […]
On the Thursday before ClickerExpo, Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz and I gave a one-day PORTL workshop to an excellent group of about 40 Karen Pryor Academy trainers. Here’s one interesting idea that came up during our discussions. As we interact with our animal or human learners, the patterns of behavior we reinforce can sometimes unknowingly create […]
