Anyone use clicker training?

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Daisy2

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Just been reading about positive reinforcement training using clicker training and thought I might give it a go... Any books you would recommend and advise plus success stories and your experience
 
Go for it! Have a good google. Is there anything in particular you want to teach? You will need very quick timing and the first lesson is always "you will get the treat when I click and not when you mug me!"
 
After reading lots of posts on her about clicker training I bought 'Clicker Training for your Horse' by Alexandra Kurland. Highly recommend it.
 
Started today! Alexandra Kurlands book arrived yesterday, so I read the first few chapters and had a go this evening. I did it in the field, took the headcollar off, simply couldn't juggle rope, clicker and target and treats - he got it pretty quickly, I only had Polos so he HAD to get it by the end of the pack! The last three or four touches I was holding the target away from me, and he was working it out, checking along the arm and getting to the target. Very pleased. He is rising three, and I intend to get him out on the roads, in hand, soon, and lightly back him, so I want to use the clicker to build his confidence, his trust in me, and for specific tasks such as standing at the mounting block.
 
When I couldn't ride my youngest horse (who is delightful,but a little bit of a worrier) for a week I played around with clicker training just to socialise him.

However, just recently, he lost confidence in being mounted/dismounted due to a set of circumstances. I used clicker training as a fun way to help him regain his confidence - it was so easy and non-confrontational, and now he really understands that his job is to stand there until asked to move off.

Then I decided to use it under saddle, just to see, using it as a 'bridge'. To my amazement, when he got the canter I was looking for I would click and I could almost hear him relax knowing he was doing the right thing - so clicker training can be really really useful!!
 
I have been using clicker training for years- training classical dressage. We dont use a clicker under saddle, but a tongue 'clock' noise, rather than the sort of tongue click you use to encourage forwards movement.

I have found that positive reinforcement in this way, turns round difficult horses incredibly quickly, stimulates their interest and almost any horse in my experience, learns faster and with more enjoyment. Alex is very good- has been here to my Devon yard several times- and Ben Hart is also another very well known and excellent clicker trainer/behaviourist.
 
If you google Derwen Zebadee there is a blog by his owner who is really into clicker training. She's done quite a lot with him. I think Zebs is 2 in June.
 
We had a previous thread on this and Shawna Karrasch - well known trainer from the US - made some really helpful comments (
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=524930)
Shawna is visiting the UK and Northern Ireland for the first time at the moment, and anybody interested in finding out more about clicker training for horses would really enjoy her introductory talks. She covers lots, whether it's starting youngsters, working with older horses, improving performance (Shawna has worked with Beezie Madden in the US) or even dealing with problem behaviours.

Details of the sessions she's doing are here on Jo Hughes's website:
http://equilibrehorses.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/shawna-karrasch-visits-the-uk-in-april-2012/

(p.s. Jo is also an excellent source of information about clicker training and horses).
 
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