Marine Mammal and Terrestrial Animal Training Resources » Horse Training

Buoy target with handle

Meg — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:23:30 +0000

Earlier in the week I said I would post some pictures of the buoy target I am using. The first picture shows how the buoy can be used with the handle. using-buoy-target-with-handle.JPG While the stallion is targeting calmly now, the handle helped me keep all my fingers! The other picture is with a mare that is in the early stages of learning to go to a remote target. using-yellow-buoy-target-for-initiating-remote-targeting.JPG

You can find these buoys with a handle at www.mytrainingstore.com with the following link http://www.mytrainingstore.com/productView.asp?ID=8

New target for clicker training with horses

Meg — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:22:58 +0000

I have started to utilize a new target for the horses that I am clicker training. Rather then the traditional buoy target I have started to use a 8 inch inflatable buoy that has a handle. It has become multi functional. For the stallion that I am training it allowed my hand to be protected while he figured out that he simply needed to touch the target and not bite it or me. For some of the mares the target (which is bright yellow but also comes in purple) has been great to use for basic targeting while I am holding it but also is a great remote target when I put it on the ground. With the handle, the buoy does not roll away when touched. And for a mare that was VERY hesitant to participate with the training, it has become one of the cues that a fun session is about to start. When she sees it she comes right over. If she gets spooked during the sesssion and is hesitant to return I can hold the target to my side and her ears go forward and the feet follow. I will try to post some pictures of the target in action later on this week.

Ken Ramirez Animal Training Book is widely sought after

admin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:56:11 +0000

The book, Animal Training: Successful Animal Management Through Positive Reinforcement by: Ken Ramirez is very popular. We sell an abundance of them in our online animal training shopping store called MyTrainingStore.com . Whether you are looking to increase your knowledge in dog training, cat training, as a professional animal trainer or one in training yourself, look no further.

Packed with great information for training different species of animals! Produced for professional animal trainer and animal behavior/husbandry students, this book focuses on sound operant conditioning training principals. Organized around critical skills essential to successful animal training, this experience-based book is a valuable resource for all animal training practitioners.

Shows how to develop an overall strategy for animal training
Offers an innovative and successful approach to animal training
Explains husbandry training process using operant conditioning
Uses real examples of human-animal interaction in positive reinforcement training
Provides a comprehensive collection of articles and reading on animal training “Animal Management Resources (MyTrainingStore.com) is the number one seller of my book Animal Training: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement.” – Ken Ramirez, author of Animal Training: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement.

USERL Special Needs Training

Meg — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:09:32 +0000

After we moved to North Carolina I learned about the United States Equine Rescue League and their desire to improve the lives of starved and abused horses. At a USERL monthly meeting I listened as a story was told about trying to halter one of the horses in a field and spending hours as the horse ran away every time the volunteer got close.

While I didn’t have a life time of horse knowledge to share with the group it was apparent that my background in training could be put to use and help the volunteers learn to establish trust with horses that had no reason to trust.

My husband, Greg, and I were asked to put together a series of training classes as a pilot program for USERL. Below is an article about the class that was published in the USERL quarterly newspaper.

Special Needs Training by Will Walls

Horses: starved, sick, abused, abandoned, unwanted, unloved. We see them everyday.

Some are relieved, grateful to have survived. Some are scared, fearful of more abuse. Some are depressed, careful not to be hurt again. All have special needs.

As horse lovers providing foster care, we’ve come to learn that while proper nutrition and nurture are critical, they aren’t enough. We have to help these horses overcome their past so they will be safe to handle and can lead happy, healthy lives.

We have to find a way to train out their bad habits and train in the good manners they’ll need. Even more, these horses have to learn to trust people again so they’ll be safe to handle. Without that, they don’t stand a chance.

Recognizing the problem wasn’t enough. None of us had the skills needed. And then we met Meg Dye at a monthly meeting in the Sandhills.

Meg and her husband Greg recently moved to North Carolina to start a business training animal handlers at zoos and aquariums. As Meg described how she’d trained a zebra to come to the fence and stand quietly while the vet drew blood, the light came on. If she can do that, what can she do with one of our horses? If Greg can train a 3000 pound walrus to come out of the water and wait quietly for pre-natal examinations, what can he train a horse to do?

Quite a lot as it turns out.

Using the same techniques they use to train animal handlers, Meg and Greg are now teaching a group of volunteers the skills they need to work with Special Needs horses. The class work is rigorous, the required reading and field work is demanding.

The course consists of three segments: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Students must complete each in turn before they can go on. Each segment contains three classroom sessions of three hours each. During the two weeks between classroom sessions, students work with their horses, applying the lessons learned in class. Meg provides feedback via the Internet so students are never “on their own.”

The entire course will require nine months to complete. Those students who successfully participate will have gained invaluable skills that will make a difference.

Real horses with special needs will be getting the training they need to be safe to handle. They’ll be more desirable to adopters and much more likely to find a safe, loving home for the rest of their lives.

Are you Clicker Training, or Training with a Clicker?

Meg — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:49:53 +0000

Are You Clicker Training, or Training with a Clicker?is a great article by Kathy Sdao. I like it because it addresses the fact that just because a trainer uses a clicker, they are not necessarily a clicker trainer. I have found in my consulting that some clients have been led to believe that it is the clicker that does the training – not the person behind the clicker. In our classes, we discuss that the clicker is not magic. The person using the clicker needs to understand a variety of elements including operant conditioning, the importance of timing and how to take small steps in their training to achieve positive results. Training is a mechanical skill and needs to be practiced and refined – thus, just because a trainer is using a clicker does not necessarily mean they understand clicker training.

What’s the Cue here?

WWalls — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:46:35 +0000

One of the important behaviors we want horses to do safely is lift their leg on cue and let us examine and clean the bottom of their hooves.

I’ve worked with my 6-year old gelding for over 18 months to get him to lift his feet briskly when I cue him. The procedure is for me to stand by the side of his leg facing toward the rear. I’ll run my hand gently down the top of his leg to the knee (front leg) or hock (rear). I’ll then squeeze the knee gently and he lifts his leg and presents his hoof. We’ve been working to improve the speed of response and the height he lifts it.

After I finish the first front foot, I’ll move to the rear on the same side then around to the other side until I’ve examined, cleaned, and if necessary, treated all four hooves. We do this at least once every day. It’s a routine part of his life.

Recently I heard a suggestion that handlers should be able to lift all four feet from the same side. There may be situations in which I can’t get to one side or the other and would still need to pick out his hooves.

So we tried it. He gives me his rear feet just fine from whichever side I ask for them. The front legs are a different matter.

With some coaxing and patience, he will give me his right front with me standing at his left front. He’s obviously confused and hesitant though.

There is no way he’ll give me his left front with me standing at his right front. I stand where I would if I were asking for his right front foot and run my hand down his left leg, stopping at the knee and squeezing. He promptly lifts the right front foot. The more I ask for the left front, the faster and higher he lifts the right front. To the point where I thought he was going to smack me right in the nose with it. The expression on his face is one of irritation and confusion. He obviously thinks he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing and he wonders what’s wrong with me.

I suspect that what I think is the cue for the front legs, i.e., squeezing the knee I want him to lift, means nothing to him. I suspect there is something in the way I stand next to him, bend over, and move my body that tells him to lift his foot.

All this time I’ve been sending him one cue and he’s been learning another. Now I need to figure out what his cue is and either work with that, translating it to the other leg as well, or untrain and retrain him to the cues I thought he was learning in the first place.

If anybody has experienced this before, and I’m sure it’s not uncommon, I’d appreciate some thoughts and advice. The horse isn’t stubborn. He loves to learn and he wants to please. It does irritate him when he thinks I’m acting stupid, though. Can’t say I blame him.