Nippy Horses
Hey Susan! J
Well, let’s see. This a general “lesson” which can apply to virtually any behavior that is unwanted from the horse. The basis is … teach the “opposite” behavior. Bopping in the mouth teaches nothing except the horse is going to get bopped in the mouth everytime h/she tries to nip or bite. That’s well and good but it doesn’t change the thinking of the horse at all. It still thinks that its OK to use his mouth. He is probably teething and just like a human kid wants to explore with his mouth AND push the buttons. *grin* He’s doing this, too, cause he CAN! So let’s try to teach this little guy something else to do in PLACE of nipping or biting. It’s kinda like the difference between “not doing anything” and “doing nothing”. “Not doing anything” is just that … not doing anything. “Doing nothing” is an active thought, active will, active behavior. When we’re riding and we want the horse to whoa, we need to exhale and “do nothing” … the horse receives that impulse of doing nothing whereas if we were to just “not do anything” then he’d not know what to do cause there would be no active communication or cue. See the difference? OK … so, we need to replace the nipping behavior with another behavior that is a bit more acceptable and pleasant for all concerned. Teaching him ‘not to bite’ is like ‘not doing anything’. So what is he supposed to do when he gets that urge to bite? Well, think of what he could do. He could “Face” or he could “step back 3 steps” or he could “drop his head” or any number of more positive, acceptable behaviors. Anything but biting the human! What I am seeing/hearing is that he is invasive of human space without invitation … sooooooooo, let’s teach him how to stay within his own boundaries and not come into YOUR space or any other human space without invite. Big order for a little, young guy but certainly not un-attainable.
I use positive reinforcement teaching … aka “clicker training” (but without the clicker for the most part cause it always seems to travel elsewhere and I can never find the danged thing!) … very simple to start if you’re not familiar with it. Simply teach him to equate a specific marker (sound) with a treat! ONE Cheerio or ONE fruit loop or ONE piece of haycube … whatever but just one. Not a handful! “click” (use a tongue click or a specific, clear word in lieu of a clicker if you want) and give a treat. Click/treat. Click/treat. Repeat this as many times until you see him RECOGNIZE the “click” and search out the treat. Now he understands the relationship between click and treat. Simple. Doesn’t take long. Usually less than 5 times or so. Now, be prepared for him to start “mugging” you for treats. OK. Don’t want that, right? So now think of a behavior (target a specific object or drop his head or step back one step … whatever) and set him up to DO that behavior. I like the “head down”. Snap your fingers, point down to the ground and tell him “head down”. WAIT for him to lower his head, even for a fraction of a sec. IN THE INSTANT of that second, CLICK and treat. Do it again .. but WAIT for him to drop his head then click and treat. Once you see that he’s DELIBERATELY dropping his head, he’s got it! Now … if he begins to mug you, point your finger to the ground, tell him “head down” and click/treat when he drops his head. There you have it … the beginning of the alternative to nipping/biting. If you “snap” your finger and point when you see he’s getting ready to nip (yep .. ya gotta always be one step ahead and know “what happens before what happens, happens”) he’ll drop his head to be clicked and rewarded. Pretty soon he’ll come up and just drop his head! That’s offering the behavior when he wants a treat. (good way, everyone, to teach a horse NOT TO MUG FOR TREATS! It’s funny when you go out to a paddock with several horses and all of a sudden they’re all dropping their heads down!)
This little, quick exercise does several things. It teaches the horse that he cannot “mug” for treats nor put his mouth on you. It teaches him to respect your space. It teaches him to THINK and CHOOSE the appropriate behavior to get what HE wants. It allows him to think that HE’S controlling the situation with HIS choice of behaviors. This can be altered for any number of different things. It’s a great way to work with a spooky horse (they learn to “self-calm”) … it works for horses that are pushy (they learn to back up or stop before invading human space) … it teaches them to learn to think through their instinctual behaviors. You’ll see, as the exercises progress, that the horse will start thinking of things to do! They CAN problem solve and this is a really neat and fun way to help them learn how to do this.
I have an article by Casey Sugarman coming out in a brand new publication (click on it on my signature) on the 15th of this month. It’s called “The Curse of Consistency” and talks about how horses can learn to think through situations with learned behaviors where they CHOOSE how to act/react. This goes hand in hand with what I just explained to you BECAUSE … once you work with the horse and begin to teach it how to apply specific behaviors to one situation, they can learn to use those same behaviors in other situations to reap pleasant, positive results. The bopping of a horse in the mouth is negative punishment and does nothing to “teach” the horse cognitively. All it does it to teach him he’s gotta get that nip/bite in faster than you can dole out the bops! It becomes a game. So, you need to change the rules of the game .. in fact, change the game altogether!
Well, let’s see. This a general “lesson” which can apply to virtually any behavior that is unwanted from the horse. The basis is … teach the “opposite” behavior. Bopping in the mouth teaches nothing except the horse is going to get bopped in the mouth everytime h/she tries to nip or bite. That’s well and good but it doesn’t change the thinking of the horse at all. It still thinks that its OK to use his mouth. He is probably teething and just like a human kid wants to explore with his mouth AND push the buttons. *grin* He’s doing this, too, cause he CAN! So let’s try to teach this little guy something else to do in PLACE of nipping or biting. It’s kinda like the difference between “not doing anything” and “doing nothing”. “Not doing anything” is just that … not doing anything. “Doing nothing” is an active thought, active will, active behavior. When we’re riding and we want the horse to whoa, we need to exhale and “do nothing” … the horse receives that impulse of doing nothing whereas if we were to just “not do anything” then he’d not know what to do cause there would be no active communication or cue. See the difference? OK … so, we need to replace the nipping behavior with another behavior that is a bit more acceptable and pleasant for all concerned. Teaching him ‘not to bite’ is like ‘not doing anything’. So what is he supposed to do when he gets that urge to bite? Well, think of what he could do. He could “Face” or he could “step back 3 steps” or he could “drop his head” or any number of more positive, acceptable behaviors. Anything but biting the human! What I am seeing/hearing is that he is invasive of human space without invitation … sooooooooo, let’s teach him how to stay within his own boundaries and not come into YOUR space or any other human space without invite. Big order for a little, young guy but certainly not un-attainable.
I use positive reinforcement teaching … aka “clicker training” (but without the clicker for the most part cause it always seems to travel elsewhere and I can never find the danged thing!) … very simple to start if you’re not familiar with it. Simply teach him to equate a specific marker (sound) with a treat! ONE Cheerio or ONE fruit loop or ONE piece of haycube … whatever but just one. Not a handful! “click” (use a tongue click or a specific, clear word in lieu of a clicker if you want) and give a treat. Click/treat. Click/treat. Repeat this as many times until you see him RECOGNIZE the “click” and search out the treat. Now he understands the relationship between click and treat. Simple. Doesn’t take long. Usually less than 5 times or so. Now, be prepared for him to start “mugging” you for treats. OK. Don’t want that, right? So now think of a behavior (target a specific object or drop his head or step back one step … whatever) and set him up to DO that behavior. I like the “head down”. Snap your fingers, point down to the ground and tell him “head down”. WAIT for him to lower his head, even for a fraction of a sec. IN THE INSTANT of that second, CLICK and treat. Do it again .. but WAIT for him to drop his head then click and treat. Once you see that he’s DELIBERATELY dropping his head, he’s got it! Now … if he begins to mug you, point your finger to the ground, tell him “head down” and click/treat when he drops his head. There you have it … the beginning of the alternative to nipping/biting. If you “snap” your finger and point when you see he’s getting ready to nip (yep .. ya gotta always be one step ahead and know “what happens before what happens, happens”) he’ll drop his head to be clicked and rewarded. Pretty soon he’ll come up and just drop his head! That’s offering the behavior when he wants a treat. (good way, everyone, to teach a horse NOT TO MUG FOR TREATS! It’s funny when you go out to a paddock with several horses and all of a sudden they’re all dropping their heads down!)
This little, quick exercise does several things. It teaches the horse that he cannot “mug” for treats nor put his mouth on you. It teaches him to respect your space. It teaches him to THINK and CHOOSE the appropriate behavior to get what HE wants. It allows him to think that HE’S controlling the situation with HIS choice of behaviors. This can be altered for any number of different things. It’s a great way to work with a spooky horse (they learn to “self-calm”) … it works for horses that are pushy (they learn to back up or stop before invading human space) … it teaches them to learn to think through their instinctual behaviors. You’ll see, as the exercises progress, that the horse will start thinking of things to do! They CAN problem solve and this is a really neat and fun way to help them learn how to do this.
I have an article by Casey Sugarman coming out in a brand new publication (click on it on my signature) on the 15th of this month. It’s called “The Curse of Consistency” and talks about how horses can learn to think through situations with learned behaviors where they CHOOSE how to act/react. This goes hand in hand with what I just explained to you BECAUSE … once you work with the horse and begin to teach it how to apply specific behaviors to one situation, they can learn to use those same behaviors in other situations to reap pleasant, positive results. The bopping of a horse in the mouth is negative punishment and does nothing to “teach” the horse cognitively. All it does it to teach him he’s gotta get that nip/bite in faster than you can dole out the bops! It becomes a game. So, you need to change the rules of the game .. in fact, change the game altogether!
posted by Gwen at 12:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home