Capturing Behaviors with Clicker Training is Fun

 Capturing Behaviors with Clicker Training is Fun

People wonder how I taught Cole his tricks.  I didn't.  He just taught himself, and I rewarded him for it.  That is called "Capturing a behavior."

Cole's signature move is his silly walk.  It is his version of a Spanish walk.

It started when he would get really hyper on the hill when we were going home from our trail rides.  He was so bad that I used to lead him instead of riding him for safety reasons.  When he started jumping or prancing, I would spin him to get him back under control.  It was really exhausting.

I decided that it would be hard for him to do all of that if I taught him to put his head down and walk quietly next to me.  It isn't that hard to teach a horse to put his head down by pointing.  They tend to follow our hands, and we then click and reward.  Soon, all I had to do was point to the ground, and he would lower his head and walk quietly.  He got so good, that it looked like I had an invisible lead rope that was holding his head down.

One day, I thought I would see if he could lower his head and match my footsteps.  I wasn't even sure if he would grasp what I wanted, but what did I have to lose?  At first, I tried to match his steps, and I would click him--soon he was matching mine.

Only a few days later, he started lifting his legs up high all on his own.  I clicked him for it, and now it is his most annoying--and cute trick.

If I am leading him, all I have to do is either step deliberately or point to the ground.  If I am riding him, I ask him to lower his head, (which I taught him to do if I jiggle one rein) and give him a push with my seat.

We captured his parking out and his 2 kinds of bowing, too.  We were just clicking him for stretching one day--and the rest is history.

Ellen has avoided teaching Dante tricks, because he has the capability to be far more annoying than Cole--Dante tends to twist things a bit; where Cole is always trying to please us.

That being said, I was supervising Dante and Starry when they were turned out.  There are a couple huge balls in the pen for the horses to play with.  Dante likes to touch things, and Ellen has rewarded him for touching scary objects.  The balls aren't scary for him, though.  As I was watching him, I saw him touch one of the big balls.  I clicked him and walked over to give him a treat and then I went back to sit down.  Less than a minute later, he touched the ball, again.  Behavior captured!  I clicked him, again and went back to sit down.

This happened about 5 times, and a friend of ours, who was out grazing her horse, saw it and was amazed.  I responded, "That's clicker training."

After the next click, I rolled the ball away from Dante a short distance.  He followed it and touched the ball, again.  We did it a few more times, and then it was time to bring the boys in.  Kevin got Starry, and I called Dante--he kept touching the ball instead.  He wanted to keep playing.  Eventually, he turned around and walked over to me.

It really is that easy.  Of course, Dante is a clicker horse, so he will catch on quicker than a horse just learning clicker.  Now, as long as Ellen isn't riding around any balls, she'll be okay.

Clicker training is a way to easily take an offered behavior and keep it by capturing it with a click.