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The best "whisper" is a "click"

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Exploring new ideas

This is a post from a recent FB discussion. Worth posting here.


It seems the forum has led us to the place where we want to talk about things that are unseen, things that are hard to describe, things that might not be tangible, things that go outside the bounds of normal horse training conversation. While my focus is clicker training, I love exploring the different modalities. Actually one of my favorite books is "Kinship with all life" and that has enough "woo-woo" to make lots of people scratch their heads LOL.



And as long as we're sharing personal revelations maybe I can share more too. It's funny how the pendulum swings in a person's life. I have two main schools of psychological influence that act like the Yin/Yang in my psyche and daily thinking process. On the one hand I am influenced by my degree in Depth Psychology. Basically Depth Psychology studies matters of the unconscious, think Jung and Freud. For example I'm always looking at what is being said "behind" what is being said.



In regards to the intuitive and depth side, I rarely talk about it on the forum. One of the reasons I don't discuss the intuitive side very much is that we don't have consistent measurable ways to test our ideas. And let me make this clear, I am NOT talking about anyone on this forum. So for example there are those who think that horses can be trained with thought alone. To me this is a form of magical thinking. What I mean by magical thinking is, we want to just "think" something and assume the animals around us will understand. A shadow side of magical thinkers can be a low priority placed on follow-up communication or observation to assure that we're understood. I'm not talking about good, clear visualization or imagery. I'm talking about those who assume their thoughts are the main ingredient to good communication in training.



An example of magical thinking was demonstrated to me recently by a horse owner who needed to ship several baby horses. She had failed to prepare them, nor had they been weaned. She very confidently told me she sprayed some stuff in their mouths, and told them in her mind to go into the trailer. She said everything worked out just fine. But in my mind I thought of un-weaned babies, frantic mothers, future problem trailer loaders, and all around bad training.



I know this lady had good intentions. She took an idea and implemented it, but didn't follow through to see the consequences of her idea. I've also seen other examples of the fallout of her approach. My thought on this is if we take the mystical side of ourselves and don't balance it with the practical applications that are also available to us, the results can be devastating to our animals.



This brings me back to the pendulum. I've been trained in depth psychology, I love the mystical, and now I'm totally focused on behaviorism. So the behaviorist side of myself says please, please, please, become masters of observation. Study your horse's body language as carefully as your horse has leaned to study yours; this will help make communication work. Watch for patterns of repeating behavior. Become so skilled at reading subtle learning nuances that your horse thinks you are magic at reading HIS mind. Instead of making your horse do something and then clicking him for it, try to see what your horse can offer you and click him for THAT. Fully explore shaping; you may find just as much magic there.



I hope I didn't offend anyone. The posts are wonderful and there is such genuine seeking and sharing going on here. I just want to encourage people to learn to observe behavior, analyze behavior, find ways to help your horse develop his mind.

Keep it positive

I’m going to indulge myself and “think out loud” about some interesting observations and experiences in my horse training lately.

This little spate of introspection was brought about when I had to introduce my mare to a new small arena that was surrounded with hot wire. I led her out to this new place and was a bit surprised that she showed some fear and resistance. She has had experience with hot wire, and was definitely letting me know she was afraid and unsure of the “opening” I had asked her to walk through.

I have an extensive background in Natural horsemanship and it was an easy thing to just lift the line and slightly suggest with the tail of the lead that I needed her to walk forward. She did so, but was a little “impulsive” in her movement. So I asked her to come back out of the opening, and repeated the process until she was able to walk through at a comfortable level. The whole thing took about 4 minutes and looked quite mild by NH standards.

Just to make it interesting I asked her to do it again at liberty and “helped” her make the right choice by pointing at the opening and tapping my leg to add impulsion.

So what’s the big deal? Well, at that point I walked back to the barn and got my clicker and her favorite treats and went to revisit the situation. I opened the gate as asked her to walk back through at liberty. Only this time I didn’t use ANY pressure to let her know what I wanted. I let HER decide when she was comfortable and clicked when she stepped forward.

I have to admit I was surprised, because she was so willing when I had her online. BUT when I gave her the CHOICE, she clearly showed me what she preferred.

And so that’s where we worked. Yes, it took longer than 4 minutes, but at the end of our session she was even MORE confident and saw me as an even better source of comfort and safety. I didn’t need any pressure at all and she had made the choice out of trust and positive feedback.

To me this was a dynamic illustration between positive and negative reinforcement. Even if my pressure was soft and subtle, it’s still pressure. So THIS is the philosophical place in which I find myself. I don’t want to use pressure. I’m committed to continue to seek new refined techniques as a clicker trainer using positive reinforcement to train horses.

Thanks for letting me share….

Learning to Wait for Buckwheat

Buckwheat has taught me many things, but probably the most profound lesson is the necessity of “waiting” for him to make the right choice. Though this is a corner stone lesson in the Clicker Training world, it hasn’t always been an easy one for me; I have a tendency to want to be “helpful.” Sometimes that means taking a more direct approach and giving him a known physical cue as a backup to the verbal cue. Other times when I know that HE knows the answer but isn't interested in the task, I want to add a little more “pressure” as I learned in the Natural Horsemanship days.

Since Buckwheat is a kind of "I'll get to it in a minute horse" he continues to make me face this issue head on, to “wait” or NOT to “wait.” The most interesting part of this question shows itself when I watch Buckwheat with the other horses. There is no doubt in my mind that he does NOT care one “whit” about saving his hide. He can go day after day acquiring new “dings” from Buck's teeth by refusing to move when Buck pins his ears. Once again, Buckwheat's M.O. is to say “in a minute,” and even another horse applying enough pressure to remove some hide is not enough motivation for him to move.

So by watching Buckwheat interact with other horses I'm seeing the "fly in the ointment" with the "keep adding pressure" types of training modes. I'm also seeing that with Buckwheat in particular, POSITIVE reinforcement is a far more powerful tool than negative.

So where does that leave me as a trainer? It’s a constant reminder to wait…and wait….and wait….and…..It leaves me with the knowledge that if I DO wait, he’ll take a big sigh and do the task I’m asking; he’ll make the choice to join me. And the good thing is the next time he offers it more quickly. Our goal becomes mutual and it finishes with giving him what he wants. Yes, giving him what he wants; dignity, respect, food and the time for him to decide to make a change. And it's working better every day. Phew!