Treat Delivery

Treat Delivery

Somewhere along the line, Cole decided that if I am giving him a treat from the saddle, that he will not bend his neck.  Instead, I have to lean way over and bring my hand to his mouth.  I'm not all that crazy about doing it this way.  Early in the summer, I decided to try and teach him to turn his head towards me to get his treat on his own.

I tried and tried.  My verbal cue was, "Turn your head," and I would hold my hand out to the side.  I thought if I just waited, he would do it because he wanted his treat.  Sometimes it worked, but usually it didn't.  It was very frustrating.  If I refused to give him his treat, instead of asking for it by bending his head towards me, he simply wouldn't do anything.

We were at a stalemate.  This went on for months, and there was no signs of improvement.

Now, I know that when you hit a training problem, it is often best to go back to the beginning. Clicker training is also very effective if you break things down into baby steps.  It is just that all I really want to do in the summer is go trail riding.  I didn't really want to spend time back at the barn with this.  It really wasn't all that important.

Then Cole cut his leg, got stitches and needed to be on stall rest for 2 weeks.  I needed to find ways to entertain him while he convalesced.  I thought I would work on treat delivery.

After giving it some thought, I decided that I would teach him to target touch my hand.  That was pretty easy, since I taught him to touch targets long ago.  I just needed him to know that my hand was the target.  He learned that in about 20 seconds.

We practiced hand targeting.  I would move my hand up, down, to the side--whatever I felt like.  He got really good at that just on the first day.  Of course, this being Cole, he added in some bowing, too.

After a few days of doing this, I decided I needed to stand by his side in the spot I would be if I was riding and ask him to bend his head around to touch my hand.  It actually took him at least 5 minutes to really understand what I wanted.  I actually started to wonder if he had been dealing with some sort of neck stiffness.  He definitely did better on the left side than the right side.  I like to give treats from the right since I am right handed.  Of course, we practiced both sides, and we did it every day.  He got quite good.  If neck stiffness caused the problem, stretching his neck solved it.

His two weeks were up, the stitches were removed and I was allowed to hand walk him until he was healed up well enough to ride him.  That evening, I fell while hiking and broke my wrist.  With all that excitement, I completely forgot that I was teaching Cole to turn his head to me when I give him treats from the saddle.  

Ellen took over Cole.

I never told Ellen to practice it--in fact--I was back riding a couple weeks before I realized he was turning his head towards me when I was giving him treats.  I may have forgotten, but Cole figured out the next step of his training on his own.  I think he must have been practicing with Ellen, and she didn't even know it. 

Going back to the beginning and breaking it down into baby steps was the key, of course.  It always is.

Treat delivery has gotten much easier...