lvbal
New User
Hi everyone,
I am having big problems clicker training a friends horse and would appreciate opinions on what could be going wrong. This horse has had problems in the past 2 years, he started off by starting to look moody and then gradually getting worse over the following year by biting and refusing jumps and generally not wanting to be around his owner. It transpired that he had severe stomach ulcers and obviously found riding (esp jumping) painful and had associate riding with his owner. Once he had been diagnosed he stopped being ridden and started being out full time on max grass/ forage and had gastrogaurd to treat his ulcers. He started to get better but still associated his owner with painful riding experiences (he had also been punished for biting and refusing jumps). He continued to bite and try to kick if anyone tried to do things with him. I suggested going back to basics and teaching him that people are ok using positive reinforcement training (using clicker training). His owner started the training and seemed to be doing ok he was biting much less and he started to become happy with the process of having his bandages and tack put back on him and generally doing ground work. I had specifically told her not to ride until he was happy and willing to do all ground work that he would be expected to do under the saddle and even then she was to start riding by simply getting on his back and then off again and taking it in v small steps. The owner decided at this point to randomly take him out for a ride on which he reared and then bucked her off obviously too much for him and he went back to almost how he was before biting kicking etc. Owner gave up and I started working with him. First of all I just wanted to teach him stand near me without biting using the clicker to reward standing away from me he got the hang of this quickly so we started with going back which he can now do very well on command I then started target training which he was also very quick to pick up on and will touch anything I present on command and will stretch up / down to the sides etc with no problem. The only problem I have is that he is still biting and licking for long periods of time during training sessions. Usually a bite occurs just after I have given him the treat then he will lick. I am VERY careful to never ever reward him in any way for licking and biting and he still persists I also do not move away from him when he bites I just wear 4 coats and a riding hat! He was taken off the gastrogaurd over a month ago now and it seems that this may be linked to his licking a biting behaviour but in other ways he seems much better in that when he runs around his field he moves very nicely, no stiffness that we saw when his ulcers were bad and he seems in much better spirits too. I dont know what to do, he is not learning in the way that all of the other horses I have clicker trained have learnt. He is just stuck on biting then licking for long periods of time! Do you think this could be down to ulcers? Or could there be something I am doing wrong? I should say that my timing with clicker training is good I have trained horses and dogs using the clicker before now.
Best wishes,
Bee
I am having big problems clicker training a friends horse and would appreciate opinions on what could be going wrong. This horse has had problems in the past 2 years, he started off by starting to look moody and then gradually getting worse over the following year by biting and refusing jumps and generally not wanting to be around his owner. It transpired that he had severe stomach ulcers and obviously found riding (esp jumping) painful and had associate riding with his owner. Once he had been diagnosed he stopped being ridden and started being out full time on max grass/ forage and had gastrogaurd to treat his ulcers. He started to get better but still associated his owner with painful riding experiences (he had also been punished for biting and refusing jumps). He continued to bite and try to kick if anyone tried to do things with him. I suggested going back to basics and teaching him that people are ok using positive reinforcement training (using clicker training). His owner started the training and seemed to be doing ok he was biting much less and he started to become happy with the process of having his bandages and tack put back on him and generally doing ground work. I had specifically told her not to ride until he was happy and willing to do all ground work that he would be expected to do under the saddle and even then she was to start riding by simply getting on his back and then off again and taking it in v small steps. The owner decided at this point to randomly take him out for a ride on which he reared and then bucked her off obviously too much for him and he went back to almost how he was before biting kicking etc. Owner gave up and I started working with him. First of all I just wanted to teach him stand near me without biting using the clicker to reward standing away from me he got the hang of this quickly so we started with going back which he can now do very well on command I then started target training which he was also very quick to pick up on and will touch anything I present on command and will stretch up / down to the sides etc with no problem. The only problem I have is that he is still biting and licking for long periods of time during training sessions. Usually a bite occurs just after I have given him the treat then he will lick. I am VERY careful to never ever reward him in any way for licking and biting and he still persists I also do not move away from him when he bites I just wear 4 coats and a riding hat! He was taken off the gastrogaurd over a month ago now and it seems that this may be linked to his licking a biting behaviour but in other ways he seems much better in that when he runs around his field he moves very nicely, no stiffness that we saw when his ulcers were bad and he seems in much better spirits too. I dont know what to do, he is not learning in the way that all of the other horses I have clicker trained have learnt. He is just stuck on biting then licking for long periods of time! Do you think this could be down to ulcers? Or could there be something I am doing wrong? I should say that my timing with clicker training is good I have trained horses and dogs using the clicker before now.
Best wishes,
Bee
