Clicker Training

 CLICKER TRAINING A HORSE TO LOAD ON A TRAILER 

By Colleen Archer

 When I put on clicker demonstrations with my trick pony, I am often asked if the clicker could be used for regular training, such as loading a horse onto a trailer.  In the past I would always reply that I presumed it could be, but that I couldn?t speak from personal experience as I had only used it for trick training.  Now, thanks to my two-year-old palomino Aurum, I can say that I have found clicker training to be highly successful in teaching a horse to load.

Aurum had spent the first two years of his life in a field and had had minimal handling.  He seemed a pleasant horse, although the woman who did the vet check was unable to examine his back hooves.  She assured us it would only take a couple of weeks of handling to rectify this problem.

Aurum was fine for his needles, but it took two men and the vet over an hour to load him onto our trailer with the use of ropes, a chain lead shank and a tranquilizer.  Then, when we got him home, we found that despite our daily handling, we were unable to clean his hooves.  When the farrier came, the horse went berserk.  (The previous owner had told us that on the rare occasions when Aurum had had his feet done, the person who did them had tied up his legs.)

I wanted to take Aurum to a trainer four hours away who specialized in such problems, but this meant I had to teach him to load onto our trailer.  In his first week with us, I had already used a clicker to teach him to walk off-line over a ramp, and to go through my pony?s hoop.

It took me exactly two days to get Aurum self-loading onto either side of our two-horse trailer.  I had my husband put the trailer in a fenced field, and I used grain as a lure and then clicked each step forward.  The first day Aurum entered the trailer far enough to get the grain by stretching his neck out, and the second day all four feet came on to a ?move up? command.  Over the next week, I reinforced each day, and Aurum began staying for longer and longer periods of time without backing off.

I believe the clicker method proved so successful because the horse has the option of leaving, and so he doesn?t feel trapped.  We had only had Aurum three weeks when he left for the trainer, so when we went to pick him up with his farrier problem solved, I wondered if he would remember his loading lessons.  Sure enough, he walked right onto the trailer and made the four-hour journey back home with no fuss.

For readers who haven?t heard of the clicker method, I will give a brief description of its development.  Clicker training was originally developed by marine dolphin trainers who used a high frequency whistle as a ?bridging signal? to mark correct responses in training.  The sound of the whistle meant a reward was coming.

Most trainers of land animals use a toy clicker instead of a whistle to mark a desired behavior.  The sound of the clicker tells the animal that whatever it was doing at the exact second it heard the clicker is what has earned its reward.

The word ?exact? is important here, and it is why the method is so quick and so effective.  Once the animal learns the meaning of the click, it will become eager to discover the latest desired behavior.

The clicker method is wonderfully positive.  When the horse or pony does the correct thing, I click at once and say enthusiastically, ?That?s exactly right.?  Then I give the treat ? usually an alfalfa chunk.  The sound of the click really seems to capture the horse?s interest, and training is highly enjoyable for both the equine and the handler.  A wrong response brings nothing bad - just a quietly spoken ?Wrong,? or ?Sorry.?

To start clicker training your horse or pony, the first thing you have to do is to get him to understand that ?click? means a reward is coming.  This is easiest to do by teaching him to ?target.?  Each time he touches a target (I use the end of a hunter bat ? some people use a small cone), you click and reward.  It?s amazing how soon your animal will be following the target.

Most clicker trainers wear a treat pouch on their waist while working.  A lot of people worry that using treats to train will make your horse pushy, but if clicker training is done properly, your horse will be less likely to mug you for treats than he was before.  That?s because you never, ever reward pushy behavior, or touching the treat bag.  A sharp ?No!? or ?Wrong!? is usually all that is required.  The only thing that will get the reward is the desired behavior.

Once the horse has the idea of the clicker, the possibilities for tricks are endless.  My pony can laugh, shake hands, fetch a dumbbell, kick a ball, give a kiss, stand up on a ?pause box?, do weave poles, jump through a hoop, blow his own horn (this is a bicycle horn and he squeezes the bulb with his teeth), and fetch a tissue out of a box when I sneeze.  (A word of caution here:  Before you teach your horse any tricks, make sure you will be able to control the behavior once you have it.  I plan to leave rearing out of both Aurum?s and my pony?s repertoire.)

As you can tell, I?m a big fan of equine clicker training, and the next time someone asks me if you can teach a horse to load on a trailer using the clicker method, my answer will be a resounding ?Yes!?

P. Colleen Archer

Box 1577                                                                                            

Deep River, Ontario, Canada

K0J 1P0

Email: archer@magma.ca

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