Clicker Training on YouTube.com

There is a treasure trove of clicker training videos on YouTube.com

Here is another inspirational piece.


I think Shoki would be more comfortable if Kim added some verbal cues, but she is doing a great job and you can see how the horse wants to perform for her.

Q&A: clicker training mini-donkeys

Hi Patricia,

I saw your contact on the members list at the equine clicker training website and wanted to ask about clicker training a mini donkey.

I have a rescue mini donkey that I have just started clicker training. ‘Burrito’ can be a grumpy little fellow but so full of character that I find him irresistible. I started clicker training with targeting on a cone. Within a week I could kick a horse ball a few feet across the paddock and he will jog over and touch it. He learned very quickly-and just as quickly decided he shouldn’t have to touch a cone or a ball to get the treat. He figured he deserved the treat just for standing there. In contrast, my Welsh pony, an easy going fella, thought this was all a bit silly but if I wanted him to touch the cone, then fine, he’d touch the cone. Whatever it took to get a treat!

But Burrito was adamantly indignant. While he’d always touch it in the end, he’d insist on some ear pinning, dramatic head shaking, refusal to even look at the ball, or he’d go over and pretend to touch the ball-but not quite make contact. Seemed like he was trying to trick me. I was just about convinced he was confused and that I should click the “try” to shape him to touch the ball, but luckily, I had hesitated just long enough for him to get impatient for the treat and give the ball a good strong touch. I immediately C&T’d and then next time, he’d repeat the same performance.

I would back right up to the beginning, holding a cone right in front of his nose where he would almost bump into it accidentally so I could C&T but this just made him grumpier. Like he was offended that I thought he was stupid. I’m trying to achieve a balance between not frustrating him but not boring him with repetition. I know donkeys don’t like repetition.

Have you had any similar experiences with your donkeys?

Thanks for any advice,

Deborah & Burrito

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Deborah,

You have to be so patient with donkeys and they will always try to pretend that they don't remember what it is that you want. If you can arrange them to be in adjacent pens, where you can slip between your pony and the donkey, you can make the donkey aware that you will just walk out if he doesn't want to play. My mules and donkeys both respond to this very well... at first they don't believe that you will just leave, but pretty soon they get the idea that if they don't want to play, well, its no skin off of your nose, you don't want to play either.

DO NOT GIVE HIM A TREAT UNLESS HE PERFORMS!!!!! Just walk out. Leave it up to him. If he is trying, play, if he is not, walk.

Chester, the mule, turns into a genius when he knows I will walk.

Donkeys take about 10x as long as horses. They are aware that there may be easier options.

Yours,
Patricia

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Thanks Patricia,

I should mention Flash & Burrito actually belong to the farm down the road. The farm owners live in the States for the winter so the pony and donkey live at my place. I exercise the pony for his owner over the winter, and the donkey is a companion for the pony.

Good ideas in your reply. I actually do walk away. If he turns his butt to me I walk, or if he stalls too long. And, I do have the pony in an adjacent paddock and I'll start with the donkey so I can move on to the pony while the donkey "sulks". But he's so cute even when he's bad. That's part of the attraction for me. I expect the pony to be good so I'm miffed when he doesn't get it. Conversly, I expect the donkey to be bad so I'm honored when he deigns to oblige me!

Deborah

BiDirectionality

You could get really creative and target away from you using a helper or a stationary target, but, realistically you need to teach yielding like yielding gets taught... pressure to move away, even if its just a wagging finger, then release, or release plus reward.

I teach my horses to yield with positive reinforcement more than negative reinforcement (release). Here is how....

Decide what the cue is that makes intuitive sense to you. For me, it is a combination verbal and hand signal. For example, I want the hip to move away. I use the term "around" to mean turn by moving your back legs, or I could use "hips away", then my hand signal is a waving hand pushing toward the hip. The first time the animal even leans away, bridge and reward. It won't be long before the animal will swing it's hips around. To get the animal to move toward me, my cues are the v-sign target and the verbal cue "target hips".

I have found that moving the hips away on command is one of the best things I can do to maintain control of my animal when things get dicey, so we spend a lot of time on this issue. If I can get them to face me, I can control panic. I want that to be second nature to them. The targeting of the hips to move toward me is not something I want them to feel so good about since it is the prelude to a kick. Not that my animals kick at me, but hips swinging around makes me a tish nervous, especially if I am not directing it.



The reason I am duplicating the commands "around" and "hips away" is that I am teaching the command "away". She originally learned it as "around", but teaching her "nose away", "shoulder away", and "away" in general is going to help her tendency to be pushy with me.

Breakthroughs with Photography

Kayce Cover called me up to ask if I had any photos of doing Bridge & Target with Cisco. You may remember that she came out a few months ago and helped me with him. She took a lot of videos, but she's working on an article for Planet Cheval, and didn't have any thing she could use.

Hmmmm. Of course I never take photos of me working my animals since it is always inconvenient to handle a camera and I have been quite fuzzy about the whole B&T thing, though I use the Bridge part all the time. I just never quite grokked why have a target.

Well.... let me tell you the lightbulb came on when she told me how to proceed with Cracker's Kneeling Act. "Quit pulling his leg!" Hmmm. She said I needed to establish some basic targeting for his body parts. He needs to know what I mean by the words "nose", "knee", "hoof", "ground", and "up". I need to be able to verbally tell him to lift your hoof and put your nose and knee to the ground. I started thinking it would take years, but since I was going to try to photographically capture Cisco doing B&T, I might as well warm up on Cracker. The little hinny had a momentary confusion between lips and nose, then he was putting nose to my "Peace Symbol" target quite consistently. I started pointing to his knees with the target and it only took a moment to get the knee to reach for the target. I opened up the camera to try to capture it, but I couldn't hold up the target for anytime before there was a body part stuck to it (usually nose). We targeted hoof for a few minutes then I gave up for a fresh animal.

Chester volunteered. He must have already known nose, and maybe somewhere in his history someone already taught him knee. You can't photograph it fast enough with a digital camera to get the target finger anywhere but on the mule. We'll work on other body parts later, but I suspect that his anatomical training has been rather extensive, so I put him away.

It was clear I would have to NOT tell Cisco what we were actually doing to start out with if I wanted a photo of fingers and horse reaching for each other. I held my fingers out in target gesture and focused the camera on them. Then I waited for a curious mustang to sniff them. Click!!! Then I spent five minutes teaching him that "target nose" was an easy thing to do. We shifted gears and I pointed the target at his back (problematic) hoof. "Target hoof" He trialed the front foot and finally cocked his back ankle just a tiny bit. Yes! Soon he was fishing that ankle up and swishing it around trying to contact the target. I needed duration to get the photo though, so I started giving him intermediate bridge signals (like saying "almost, almost!") until he was holding it up in contact with my fingers for several seconds. I got out the camera and started shooting each attempt, but with the digital delay most of the shots didn't work. Finally he just cranked up his leg and got a look on his face like "I know you won't be satisfied until you get that photo, so JUST TAKE IT!!!" It was time for a jackpot reward for the boy.

Ah, yes, I am finally figuring out Bridge and Target! It's about time! How much utility is in it is yet to be seen, but the animals love the training. Ms. Paisley knows "target shoulder gee" from "target shoulder haw" as well as nose and knee. She also just about has "nose to ribs" figured out.

Here is Kayce's website address: Synalia.com incase you see how useful this might end up being.

New Mare in the Corral: Rita Mae

There is a little liver-colored mustang mare in the ox-pen corral. She arrived this afternoon with Billy Hibbler. He has had her for a while and not had the time to get her past her wildness, so she is a resident in therapy now.

We started out with a little work towards conditioning a terminal bridge. I edged up to where I could feed her some grain while I was standing facing the other way. She was snorting, but she must have had grain before because she sniffed toward me like maybe I wasn't a mountain lion after all. I said "X" in my normal voice and she bucksnorted and hit the pipefence on the other side of the corral, falling down in the process. Next time I managed to get close enough to feed some grain, I merely whispered "x" and gave her a handful. Pretty soon she was standing and waiting for me to say X and dip her out some more sweetfeed. Good start.

She is going to be my experimental animal for ESCT (Equine Stress Control Therapy). My new manual arrived today and we are going to see what it will do.

The good part about this mare is she is really little. Cisco the mustang came over to sniff her across the fence. He is 16 hands tall and starting to fill out. He looks like a monster compared to her. Her old name was Bugsy..... that just isn't going to do it, no wonder she acts like she is buggy and bug-eyed! I think I want to rename her after my best friend, who sometimes goes by the alias Rita Mae.

More tomorrow,
Patricia