4H Clicker Demonstration

Many thanks to the High River 4H Club for inviting me out today to present a clicker training demonstration. We had a whole lot of fun despite all the snow that fell last night. Clicker training is something I think the kids and parents can have a lot of fun with. For those of you unfamiliar with clicker training (operant conditioning); it is similar to the work they do with dolphins at Sea World only they use a whistle and fish. Clicker training has also been a popular training method in the canine world for many years and now we are finding wonderful ways to interact with our horses using clicker training. Recently I discovered that the Calgary Zoo also relys on clicker training methods when working with large mammals (i.e. giraffe, elephant, hippo and gorilla).

I personally have had tremendous success using clicker training to fix problem horses. A few examples are; hard to catch, difficult to bridle (from head tossing to rearing back), biting, pawing, not accepting de-worming, and not standing still to mount.

The best thing about clicker training is that you only focus on the positive behaviour and virtually ignore undesirable behaviour. This leads to improved communication with your horse and a more trusting partnership.

While the results are phenomenal, you really do feel like you are playing with your horse and I don't know of any other training method that is so much fun.

Thanks again High River 4H Club for the opportunity to share this wonderful training tool with you.

Tovie