Clicker Training
Clicker training is a wonderful way of training for horse emotional and physical balance.
Rewards
Rewards based training is not a new concept, it has been around for almost 100 years. Deemed the most ethical and effective way of training since it conception, it has been used by world famous animal trainers to train performance animals at zoos and aquariums etc.
Cueing Behaviours
Clicker training is about rewarding the behaviours that you want. By rewarding behaviours they are more likely to occur again in the future. You can then put those behaviours on a cue (a visual signal, a verbal signal or a riding aid from you) and your horse will offer that behaviour 'on cue'.
Body Aware Horses
This simple teaching concept begins to develop a horse who is not just wonderfully responsive, it develops a horse who is body aware. The overall result is enhanced physical and emotional balance (a must have for a spooky or anxious horse).
Who Can Clicker Train
Whether you have a horse with some behaviours you would like to enhance, or a horse who has significant behavioural issues, whether you are a serious competitor or just enjoy spending time with your horse, whether your horse is fit and well or injured, off work or even on box rest, clicker training will create a wonderful bond between you and your horse. Communication with your horse becomes clearer and time with your horse is more fun than ever.
A Bit of Clicker Training History
Clicker training is a training method that uses positive reinforcement (operant conditioning or trial and error learning) to encourage the animal to perform behaviours that you want (rather than punish the behaviours that you don't want. In other words, it is rewards based training.
B. F. Skinner
The use of positive reinforcement as the most ethical way to train animals was initially defined by B. F. Skinner in the early 1900's. He defined the way that animals learn in terms of reinforcers (which encourage desired behaviours) and punishers and he also stated that the most ethical ways to train were using the reinforcers.
Many trainers went on to adopt this method of training due to it's efficiency and it's ability to produce very reliable and accurate behaviours in response to a cue (or instruction).
Bomber Pigeons
A famous couple who were behaviourists and trainers, the Breland-Baileys, trained with B. F. Skinner and, among many other significant achievements in life, were commissioned by the US Government to clicker train bomber pigeons in WWII.
Bob Bailey continues to share his knowledge with trainers and is famous for his chicken training (training schools where the animals being trained are chickens). They move so quickly you learn good timing skills very quickly !
Sea World
All of the animals that you see at Sea World, The Shedd Aquarium, etc are trained using positive reinforcement (clicker training) and more and more professional animal trainers are turning to Clicker Training, a faster, more effective, force free training method that is fun for both the trainer and the trainee.
The Click
The reason it is called clicker training is because we use a small plastic box with a metal strip in it which, when pressed, makes a clicking noise. This click marks the moment that you want to reward, or you want to say 'yes' to (it is called a bridging stimulus). For the dolphin and whales that we see in the aquariums, a whistle is used as this is audible for the animals, but it is the same training method.
Pet Owners
Clicker training has become so popular with professional trainers and pet owners alike that an international training conference (continue professional development course) called ClickerExpo is held each year in the USA.
If you would like to learn more about clicker training with your horse, contact The S.M.A.A.R.T. Horse Company using the contact form.