Hopefully some of you will remember me taking on Sov so thought I'd give you an update and ask for some advice.

Just this morning I started teaching her first ever clicker session as she will now eat feed from your hands (still not apples/carrots/polos, but will eat grain). We started with targetting on a whip with loads of baler twine wrapped rouind the end in a big ball so its easier to see. She soon got the hang of it and was following me around the field over poles and through pole grids etc. She's even touching it on the floor and jumping up on her back legs to bump the target if I stand on a stool and hold it just out of her reach. My boys didn't catch on this quickly and Toby is still wary of touching it on the floor or above his head.

I think it was the Karaasch (SP?) book I saw a pic of them teaching a horse to bow and thought i'd try this with her. Shes happy for me to poke the target through her front legs and she bends down to touch it and steps her front leg back out of the way but then we have a problem. Instead of 'bowing' she continues to walk back and touches the target when its in front of her. How can I break this down more so she understands what I want? Any ideas greatfully received

Laura

Hi Laura

Well done you - you've obviously been making lots of headway and taught her that treats are a good thing!

I think this really highlights some of the limitations of targetting. It's a great thing to do but you have to be very careful about what the horse is actually learning. Eg following a moving target over a pole is actually a very different behaviour from consciously stepping over a pole.

So now that you are trying to teach her to bow she is doing exactly what you have trained her to do - which is to touch the target, and it sounds as though she's doing it beautifully. Some horses just flukily get it right first time, others do what you're experiencing. She needs to learn to keep her hind feet still so you could introduce this as a criterion (whilst following Karen Pryor's rules of shaping). But at the same time, I would imagine if she's only ever been rewarded for touching a target she might find this confusing so you'll need to teach it separately from the "bow-training". You could also use bending front leg as a criterion but probably a much harder thing to shape so not sure I'd bother .

Don't forget that it may be uncomfortable to assume the bow position (I don't know, I'm guessing) so if she's unwilling the may be a good reason.

And just a note of caution. Am I right in thinking you're effectively teaching her to rear and touch the target? I wouldn't do this as it is too easy to get out of hand and become dangerous due to the nature of extinction bursts and variable schedules of reinforcement (read up on these if you're not sure what I mean or come back to me). You should also read back in the THF archives for a thread called (I think) "Clicker Trained Rear"

Catherine