Thyme's been doing great accepting my bare hand on her nose, but I thought it was a good idea to go back to the stick target and clicker today so that we can press on. As her familiarity with working increases, I anticipate that her trust and willingness to be touched will also increase. I can wait.
I spent about an hour in the morning hanging out with Tyche and Thyme and Tigerlilly. The weather is lousy and the shed immediately outside their stall doors still has a crater-sized hole in the ground, so they had to stay in their stalls. Ugh. Tyche does get in the way. There is only so much I can do with Thyme with the little attention hog underfoot. :) A divider wall between the two is coming in the not-too-distant-future.
First Thyme got some review trials about touching the tip of the green target with her nose. The challenge here was to touch the stick, without mouthing it. Her automatic reaction is to mouth. She did make progress, though she is not yet perfect. I didn't distinguish between trials in which she touched the stick and trials in which the stick touched her. She did not seem to mind. Go Thyme. :)
Next I worked on trying to touch her face somewhere other than the tip of her nose. She tolerated (barely) touches to the middle of her blaze, and her cheeks. Well, her right cheek. I couldn't get any good touches on her left cheek. She wouldn't let me. I don't know if this is because the arrangement of the stalls prevented me from being able to easily reach her left side, or if she has a bias that prevented her from exposing her left side. You hear horse people talk about how horses have a bias for work on their left side and get upset with work on their right side, though it's usually discussed in the context of trained horses, which Thyme obviously is not. It is anecdotal also. Don't know how much I believe it. There are hemispheric differences in approach and withdrawal tendencies in humans, so I am inclined to think that may be at play. In general, the left brain hemisphere is biased to approach while the right hemisphere is biased to withdraw. Because of the way the brain is set up, that should mean there's a slight bias to approach objects that are physically on the right and to withdraw from objects that are physically on the left. Or maybe I've got that backwards...ugh again. Should probably look it up. Or forget about it. :)
Regardless of the side biases, Thyme was not excited about me touching any part of her with the target, left or right. After some frustration on both our parts, I decided we needed to build on our successes, so I switched tacts.
Thyme is in a double stall (with Tyche) that runs 20 feet down the aisle. Starting at one end, I had her touch the tip of the target, rewarded her with a click, then moved down 5 feet, repeated and so on, to the end of the stall. This way, I had her practice following me. It worked well. She got to use what she had already learned, by touching the target, but she did it in a newer, more interesting, and more challenging context. We went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Occasionally, she'd get frustrated and move away, but she always came back. Occasionally, I'd mix things up by only going half-way down the length of the stall before turning and going back the other direction. She followed along well. We ended the whole session after 5 or 10 minutes of this. Watching her work this out made me want a videocamera to document her progress on tape. I will look into that. I may be able to find an unused camera at work.
Odds and ends.
(1) Tyche got some good practice having her body touched all over with the target. She definitely needs the practice with her legs, so that was a positive. The challenge here is to avoid training her to turn her back on me. It makes sense -- she is just trying to get the reward by offering her back for touching, but it's a bad habit for obvious reasons.
(2) Tigerlilly got some practice touching the target with her nose and also letting me touch her with the target. She doesn't mind the target/stick, but she is a little put off by the click of the clicker!
(3) Shadow got several good trials touching the target with his nose. Like Thyme his automatic reaction is to mouth it.
(4) Annie got a couple of trials touching the target with her nose. She is extremely put off by the whole thing. The target and the clicker are both met with lots of snorting and withdrawal. This is typical Annie. Hackneys are high-strung and she is no exception.
(5) Josie was too busy eating her hay (as always) to even bother looking at the target. :)
(6) I didn't give the little guys (Bom Bom, Jeff, or Mutt) any chances to do anything. Sorry boys.
(5) Finally, the most entertaining moment of the whole morning was Riversong's introduction to the clicker, target and grain. River is the queen bee goat. She's very curious in general and friendly, though none of the goats really like to be handled. They're a pretty wild bunch. (This has to change eventually.) River was fast. Because I had already been at it for an hour or more, I collapsed the trials that paired the clicker with grain and the trials that paired the target with reward. Basically, I went almost straight to the target training. It took her a bit, but she got it. Touch the target, get a click and some grain. Touch the target, get a click and some grain. She struck me as smart and eager -- not shy at all. Nothing like Thyme. I'm going to give it some more thought before I proceed with her though, since I got the feeling that she could move quickly if I do it well.
All in all a very productive morning!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
We're on a roll now
Night check seems to be the sweet spot -- Thyme's calmest point of the day. I'm sorry that I never noticed that before. Tonight she let me put my whole hand on her nose and hold it there (briefly.)
She tends to stand with her head over the wall of Tigerlilly's stall. This leaves her facing the front of the barn and gives her am unobstructed view up the aisle. Tonight I took advantage of this by giving Tigerlilly a good scratching while Thyme watched. I am absolutely certain that Thyme understood that she too could get a good scratching if she'd just let me touch her...and then she let me touch her.
I stood with them for a good five or ten minutes, periodically asking to touch Thyme's nose. She'd come forward, then back away, then come forward, then back away. For the first time ever, I saw her licking and chewing. Generally when she backed away.
I think she's really trying.
She tends to stand with her head over the wall of Tigerlilly's stall. This leaves her facing the front of the barn and gives her am unobstructed view up the aisle. Tonight I took advantage of this by giving Tigerlilly a good scratching while Thyme watched. I am absolutely certain that Thyme understood that she too could get a good scratching if she'd just let me touch her...and then she let me touch her.
I stood with them for a good five or ten minutes, periodically asking to touch Thyme's nose. She'd come forward, then back away, then come forward, then back away. For the first time ever, I saw her licking and chewing. Generally when she backed away.
I think she's really trying.
And again
Three more touches to the nose this morning and two light brushes to her cheek (!). She was not as accepting this morning as last night, but she was motivated to push herself, because I was withholding her morning grain. (Sorry sweetie, but it really has to be done. It's time.)
Three real touches above her nose with my bare fingers. This is progress.
Three real touches above her nose with my bare fingers. This is progress.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Just a touch
Thyme was startled by the goat invasion tonight. After the goats were corralled and the barn had settled down again, she let me touch her not once, but three times on the nose with my hand. No reaction at all. Go Thyme.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Thyme who?
Haha. No one would accuse me of working Thyme too hard.
She got her fourth formal training session yesterday. The weather was beautiful, so I worked with her outside. As always, there were challenging circumstances. One thing I have realized is that I have to grab whatever opportunities I have. We will never make progress if I'm always waiting for the perfect moment. In this case, Tyche was with her. It requires a bit of forethought to separate Tyche smoothly at this point and I just didn't have time yesterday. Last time I tried to separate them quickly, Thyme broke the door trying to follow Tyche. Thyme didn't see me closing the door and I didn't see her coming. Result -- a broken slider. Oy. (At least I didn't hurt Thyme, though I did scare the bejeezus out of her.) Yesterday, Tyche stayed with her mama.
In the end, I think it may not be such a bad thing to have Tyche in the session with Thyme as long as she's not completely in the way. Tyche tends to be an attention hog. She is much more eager and willing than Thyme. That means she will do things that Thyme is not ready to do, but that Thyme can watch. This can not be bad.
For the training, I was on one side of a corral panel. Thyme and Tyche were on the other side. We practiced touching the target. This is the tip end of the green mop handle that I introduced last time. Thyme had no problem doing this and made only a few attempts at the very beginning to touch the handle somewhere else along the pole. The challenge for me was holding the target in a position that Thyme could reach, but Tyche could not. This meant alot of reaching above Thyme's head, which she is not crazy about, but will do. Better than last time certainly. Periodically, I gave Tyche a turn. They both crowded the fence.
After 5 or 10 minutes of this, I upped the ante a bit. (Did I mention, I can be impatient.) Instead of rewarding Thyme for touching the tip of the target with her nose, I wanted to reward her for letting me touch her nose with the tip of the target. On my first attempt, I lightly tapped the tip of the handle on her blaze, halfway between her nose and eyes. She rocketed straight up in the air. Such a subtle, but important difference. The speed and location of the target relative to her were virtually identical to what came before. Nonetheless, when the contact was caused by me instead of by her, she lost her cool. Amazing.
She was both startled (clearly) and a bit confused about this turn of events. She held back and approached the fence much more reluctantly after this. Each time when she got close enough I tapped her with the target. Always around her nose area. I couldn't even come close to reaching past her nose area without her moving away. No poll, no neck, no shoulder, not even her cheek. I intermingled trials of her being touched with trials allowing her to touch the target herself. I also, I should say, reduced the schedule of grain reinforcement around this time. Which is to say, I am no longer giving her a bite of grain at every single click.
I can not say that Thyme acclimated to being touched with the target. But something equally interesting did happen. While Thyme was hanging back, fearful of being touched, Tyche was center stage begging for attention. So I tried giving Tyche a couple of taps with the target. Now, I should say, Tyche doesn't have any extraordinary problems being touched. She loves having her nose and face and ears scratched. But, she is still an untrained baby for the most part and doesn't, for instance, like having her legs touched or her feet picked up. When I reached out and touched her shoulder with the target, she didn't jump, she just tried to grab the pole with her mouth; even more so when I tried to touch her legs with the pole. It only took a few trials to get her to stop though. She very quickly figured out that there was no click and no grain when she mouthed the pole. After, I would say, only 3 or 4 trials during which I withheld the reward while she mouthed the pole, she figured out that she needed to stand still while I touched her back, her legs, her shoulder, etc.. She was quite receptive to this idea. Meanwhile, Thyme was thoughtfully, if somewhat apprehensively, watching the whole interaction.
I wrapped up the session with a few more trials for Thyme, allowing her to come touch the target for a reward of grain. I did this only so she could end on a positive note.
A few miscellaneous notes.
1. Since our last session (Training day n), I have definitely felt that Thyme is less apprehensive of me in general. She seems less likely to startle when I approach her stall undetected -- for filling her water bucket for instance. In the past, I have sometimes caused a one-horse stampede when feeding and watering her. She is also more eager to come up to me at the gate if she does notice me first. And as always, if she sees me when my back is turned, she will come right up and stick her nose in my back. For obvious reasons, I try not to put myself in that situation. I do not want to end up in the path of the one-horse stampede.
2. I got another slight indication of Thyme's sensitivity to my attentional orientation (whether I am looking at her or not) while working yesterday. It was beyond the scope of what I wanted to accomplish in the session, so I didn't pursue it. At first I had trouble offering the target to Thyme in a way that Tyche couldn't beat her to. I held the target in my right hand with the clicker in the palm of the same hand. This way I could hold the cup of grain in the left hand while keeping it clear and out of the way. With this arrangement I could easily stretch the target up and far to my right, while facing Thyme. She in turn had no trouble following this action and doing what she needed to do (touching the target). But to stretch the target out to my left while holding it up over Tyche's head, required me to reach my right hand far across my body. This in turn caused my body to swivel to the left, in effect turning my back on Thyme. In these cases, Thyme refused to approach. I wondered at the time if this was related to her understanding of my attentional focus. This configuration, 'back turned, but target offered' is very conflicting information if you are trying to understand the actor's intent. It would not be surprising if a deeply timid animal responded to such conflict with hesitation. "I'd rather just be safe and stay back, lady. You can keep the grain." Hmmm.
3. Also, since I posted last, I have had a few informal clicker sessions with Boomerang. Which is to say, I took him for a walk with the clicker. I used it to reward moments of not pulling on the leash. I have to admit that my motivation and focus are less strong with Boomer, so I can only give broad impressions. Maybe he got the message. Maybe he pulled a bit less on the leash by the end. I'm not sure. I also got him to practice sitting and lying down some and those he's definitely improved on. His improvement can be felt in the house in daily interactions as well.
She got her fourth formal training session yesterday. The weather was beautiful, so I worked with her outside. As always, there were challenging circumstances. One thing I have realized is that I have to grab whatever opportunities I have. We will never make progress if I'm always waiting for the perfect moment. In this case, Tyche was with her. It requires a bit of forethought to separate Tyche smoothly at this point and I just didn't have time yesterday. Last time I tried to separate them quickly, Thyme broke the door trying to follow Tyche. Thyme didn't see me closing the door and I didn't see her coming. Result -- a broken slider. Oy. (At least I didn't hurt Thyme, though I did scare the bejeezus out of her.) Yesterday, Tyche stayed with her mama.
In the end, I think it may not be such a bad thing to have Tyche in the session with Thyme as long as she's not completely in the way. Tyche tends to be an attention hog. She is much more eager and willing than Thyme. That means she will do things that Thyme is not ready to do, but that Thyme can watch. This can not be bad.
For the training, I was on one side of a corral panel. Thyme and Tyche were on the other side. We practiced touching the target. This is the tip end of the green mop handle that I introduced last time. Thyme had no problem doing this and made only a few attempts at the very beginning to touch the handle somewhere else along the pole. The challenge for me was holding the target in a position that Thyme could reach, but Tyche could not. This meant alot of reaching above Thyme's head, which she is not crazy about, but will do. Better than last time certainly. Periodically, I gave Tyche a turn. They both crowded the fence.
After 5 or 10 minutes of this, I upped the ante a bit. (Did I mention, I can be impatient.) Instead of rewarding Thyme for touching the tip of the target with her nose, I wanted to reward her for letting me touch her nose with the tip of the target. On my first attempt, I lightly tapped the tip of the handle on her blaze, halfway between her nose and eyes. She rocketed straight up in the air. Such a subtle, but important difference. The speed and location of the target relative to her were virtually identical to what came before. Nonetheless, when the contact was caused by me instead of by her, she lost her cool. Amazing.
She was both startled (clearly) and a bit confused about this turn of events. She held back and approached the fence much more reluctantly after this. Each time when she got close enough I tapped her with the target. Always around her nose area. I couldn't even come close to reaching past her nose area without her moving away. No poll, no neck, no shoulder, not even her cheek. I intermingled trials of her being touched with trials allowing her to touch the target herself. I also, I should say, reduced the schedule of grain reinforcement around this time. Which is to say, I am no longer giving her a bite of grain at every single click.
I can not say that Thyme acclimated to being touched with the target. But something equally interesting did happen. While Thyme was hanging back, fearful of being touched, Tyche was center stage begging for attention. So I tried giving Tyche a couple of taps with the target. Now, I should say, Tyche doesn't have any extraordinary problems being touched. She loves having her nose and face and ears scratched. But, she is still an untrained baby for the most part and doesn't, for instance, like having her legs touched or her feet picked up. When I reached out and touched her shoulder with the target, she didn't jump, she just tried to grab the pole with her mouth; even more so when I tried to touch her legs with the pole. It only took a few trials to get her to stop though. She very quickly figured out that there was no click and no grain when she mouthed the pole. After, I would say, only 3 or 4 trials during which I withheld the reward while she mouthed the pole, she figured out that she needed to stand still while I touched her back, her legs, her shoulder, etc.. She was quite receptive to this idea. Meanwhile, Thyme was thoughtfully, if somewhat apprehensively, watching the whole interaction.
I wrapped up the session with a few more trials for Thyme, allowing her to come touch the target for a reward of grain. I did this only so she could end on a positive note.
A few miscellaneous notes.
1. Since our last session (Training day n), I have definitely felt that Thyme is less apprehensive of me in general. She seems less likely to startle when I approach her stall undetected -- for filling her water bucket for instance. In the past, I have sometimes caused a one-horse stampede when feeding and watering her. She is also more eager to come up to me at the gate if she does notice me first. And as always, if she sees me when my back is turned, she will come right up and stick her nose in my back. For obvious reasons, I try not to put myself in that situation. I do not want to end up in the path of the one-horse stampede.
2. I got another slight indication of Thyme's sensitivity to my attentional orientation (whether I am looking at her or not) while working yesterday. It was beyond the scope of what I wanted to accomplish in the session, so I didn't pursue it. At first I had trouble offering the target to Thyme in a way that Tyche couldn't beat her to. I held the target in my right hand with the clicker in the palm of the same hand. This way I could hold the cup of grain in the left hand while keeping it clear and out of the way. With this arrangement I could easily stretch the target up and far to my right, while facing Thyme. She in turn had no trouble following this action and doing what she needed to do (touching the target). But to stretch the target out to my left while holding it up over Tyche's head, required me to reach my right hand far across my body. This in turn caused my body to swivel to the left, in effect turning my back on Thyme. In these cases, Thyme refused to approach. I wondered at the time if this was related to her understanding of my attentional focus. This configuration, 'back turned, but target offered' is very conflicting information if you are trying to understand the actor's intent. It would not be surprising if a deeply timid animal responded to such conflict with hesitation. "I'd rather just be safe and stay back, lady. You can keep the grain." Hmmm.
3. Also, since I posted last, I have had a few informal clicker sessions with Boomerang. Which is to say, I took him for a walk with the clicker. I used it to reward moments of not pulling on the leash. I have to admit that my motivation and focus are less strong with Boomer, so I can only give broad impressions. Maybe he got the message. Maybe he pulled a bit less on the leash by the end. I'm not sure. I also got him to practice sitting and lying down some and those he's definitely improved on. His improvement can be felt in the house in daily interactions as well.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Day n - Training to a target
Well, I'm clearly not going to manage training every day with Thyme. In this case, do I count days trained, or days since training began? This conundrum is more than I can bear. Therefore, no more counting.
Phwew. Glad to get that resolved.
Today was a training day. I grabbed a few minutes at lunchtime to spend with the little brown pony. The weather was beautiful and the ground not too too soft, so I put the other ponies out. Even little Tyche went out and hung with Tigerlilly for ten minutes, while her mom worked. It was good.
Thyme has done so well with both the clicker sessions and her willingness to approach me since we started. She even let me kiss her nose yesterday, which is huge, but does not, I should point out, involve me reaching out to touch her with my hand. In any case, I decided to move on to target training,
I selected this object to train her with. It's the broken handle of a swiffer mop. It's perfect as a target and it does my heart good to find a new use for a busted mop. Thyme took exactly 3 trials to figure out that she had to touch the target instead of the orange cup. Her reactions were beautiful. Ab.so.lute.ly beautiful. She was so curious and so attentive and so eager to figure out what the game was. She was also very much her timid little self. She'd stand way back and stretch her nose out as far as she could possibly reach to touch the target without committing her whole body. She was far more comfortable when I held the target level with her mouth than if I held it above her head or down by her knees. She tried to take the whole thing in her mouth a couple of times, which I did not reward her for, instead waiting for her to nuzzle the very tip of the target with the tip of her nose. Two or three points she became overwhelmed and walked away. She'd turn away as though to regain control of herself, yawn a couple of times, and then come back and try again. People have a lot of theories about why animals yawn in contexts like these. My feeling is that the animal is expressing something like frustration, along the lines of, "I know I should, but I don't really want to."
All in all, Thyme had a marvelous third session and I am super optimistic about her potential.
Phwew. Glad to get that resolved.
Today was a training day. I grabbed a few minutes at lunchtime to spend with the little brown pony. The weather was beautiful and the ground not too too soft, so I put the other ponies out. Even little Tyche went out and hung with Tigerlilly for ten minutes, while her mom worked. It was good.
Thyme has done so well with both the clicker sessions and her willingness to approach me since we started. She even let me kiss her nose yesterday, which is huge, but does not, I should point out, involve me reaching out to touch her with my hand. In any case, I decided to move on to target training,
I selected this object to train her with. It's the broken handle of a swiffer mop. It's perfect as a target and it does my heart good to find a new use for a busted mop. Thyme took exactly 3 trials to figure out that she had to touch the target instead of the orange cup. Her reactions were beautiful. Ab.so.lute.ly beautiful. She was so curious and so attentive and so eager to figure out what the game was. She was also very much her timid little self. She'd stand way back and stretch her nose out as far as she could possibly reach to touch the target without committing her whole body. She was far more comfortable when I held the target level with her mouth than if I held it above her head or down by her knees. She tried to take the whole thing in her mouth a couple of times, which I did not reward her for, instead waiting for her to nuzzle the very tip of the target with the tip of her nose. Two or three points she became overwhelmed and walked away. She'd turn away as though to regain control of herself, yawn a couple of times, and then come back and try again. People have a lot of theories about why animals yawn in contexts like these. My feeling is that the animal is expressing something like frustration, along the lines of, "I know I should, but I don't really want to."All in all, Thyme had a marvelous third session and I am super optimistic about her potential.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Day 3 - Community Clicking
Day 2 passed without any clicking at all, but Thyme did take some apple slices from my hand, which is more than Annie will do. I believe (imagine?) I can already see a more trusting tone in Thyme's manner towards me. Strangely quick response, if true.
This morning, Day 3, I set out to do more clicker/grain-in-cup training. Because of the weather, we had a large audience of ponies and goats -- everybody was inside. I've decided that I can't wait for the ideal conditions, in this case isolation, to get on with Thyme's training. The other ponies will have to watch and I'll just have to take my chances with that. Worst case scenario, it will make it hard for any of the other ponies to ever learn the actual use of the clicker, since they won't get the true first hand, contingent experience of the unconditioned stimulus, the grain, paired with the clicker. Sometimes they'll just hear the clicker paired with nothing. Best case scenario, they learn the same things Thyme learns, only through observation, rather than first hand experience. I may try to mitigate some of the risk by giving any pony who observes Thyme training at least a few trials of whatever training Thyme is getting.
In any case, today Thyme was unconcerned with the clicker itself and dove right into the matter of extracting tiny pieces of grain from the small cup with her big mouth. Tyche got equal time with the grain and clicker. I was pleased that both Thyme and Tyche used only their upper lip to retrieve the bits of grain. Neither tried to use their tongue or teeth. Josie and Shadow both got a few goes. I may have given all the minis (BomBom, Tigerlilly, Jesse, and Chief) a couple trials each as well, though I don't remember now, 12 hours later.
And finally, Annie got a few turns. Annie, who, if anything, was far more reluctant than Thyme. We speculate that in the entire 17 years before she came to us, Annie had never been given treats, never mind by hand. In fact, one of the first times the 11-year-old tried to give Annie an apple, the 11-year-old's entire hand ended up in Annie's mouth. I don't know which one of them was more surprised. Nobody was hurt, but both parties were shaken up.
No such untoward events occurred today with either Annie or Thyme.
This morning, Day 3, I set out to do more clicker/grain-in-cup training. Because of the weather, we had a large audience of ponies and goats -- everybody was inside. I've decided that I can't wait for the ideal conditions, in this case isolation, to get on with Thyme's training. The other ponies will have to watch and I'll just have to take my chances with that. Worst case scenario, it will make it hard for any of the other ponies to ever learn the actual use of the clicker, since they won't get the true first hand, contingent experience of the unconditioned stimulus, the grain, paired with the clicker. Sometimes they'll just hear the clicker paired with nothing. Best case scenario, they learn the same things Thyme learns, only through observation, rather than first hand experience. I may try to mitigate some of the risk by giving any pony who observes Thyme training at least a few trials of whatever training Thyme is getting.
In any case, today Thyme was unconcerned with the clicker itself and dove right into the matter of extracting tiny pieces of grain from the small cup with her big mouth. Tyche got equal time with the grain and clicker. I was pleased that both Thyme and Tyche used only their upper lip to retrieve the bits of grain. Neither tried to use their tongue or teeth. Josie and Shadow both got a few goes. I may have given all the minis (BomBom, Tigerlilly, Jesse, and Chief) a couple trials each as well, though I don't remember now, 12 hours later.
And finally, Annie got a few turns. Annie, who, if anything, was far more reluctant than Thyme. We speculate that in the entire 17 years before she came to us, Annie had never been given treats, never mind by hand. In fact, one of the first times the 11-year-old tried to give Annie an apple, the 11-year-old's entire hand ended up in Annie's mouth. I don't know which one of them was more surprised. Nobody was hurt, but both parties were shaken up.
No such untoward events occurred today with either Annie or Thyme.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Day 1 - Thyme's Debut
Spooky and skittish doesn't even begin to describe this girl. To start with, Thyme was scared of -- wait for it -- the clicker. That's right -- scared of the clicker itself.
But let me begin at the start.
I had envisioned a relaxed afternoon with Thyme inside alone in her stall. I was caught flat-footed when the 11-year-old's afternoon plans got cancelled. Instead, I smuggled the clicker out to the barn at dinner time when I went out to feed. It was not the best scenario, since all the ponies were now in and Thyme was eating anyway, so less interested in treats. And unlike with the dogs, I wasn't keen to delay the ponies' evening meal just so Thyme could get her training. A little hunger may make dogs cooperative and willing, but it just makes horses rude.
I ended up feeding everybody first. I then put a little extra grain in a small cup that I could offer to Thyme with one hand, while I held the clicker in the other. Taking the grain directly out of my hand was too overwhelming for her. I got in maybe 10-12 pairings of the grain and clicker. She was happy to take the extra grain, but also very curious and concerned about the clicker itself.
I wanted to get a picture to document the event, but because it was dinnertime and winter, it was already pretty dark in the barn. I had to use the flash on my iphone to get any image at all. The flash is pretty delayed relative to the button press, which means the subject has to hold still for a good chunk of time in order to get the shot. Which is exactly what this skittish pony was not willing to do. Her style was more 'drive-by and snatch'.
The first couple of photos show only a ghostly image of a horse retreating into the darkness behind the gate. That's Tyche's little nose in the bottom left corner beside her mom.
I got a little better at estimating the delay with this second photo, but Thyme's get away was still too quick for me to capture her taking grain from the orange cup.
The ponies across the aisle were fascinated, so I offered them each some grain from the cup as well. Notice that neither one had a problem holding still long enough to get a shot with the flash. This is Shadow.
And this is Josie (with Shadow peeking around the post.) Both Shadow and Josie are friendly and fairly well-mannered.
On a final attempt I did manage to get a shot of Thyme with her nose in the cup. I don't think she actually slowed down any though. I just got better at timing the picture.
So ended Thyme's clicker debut.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Kids and clickers
Oy. The 11-year-old found the clicker yesterday. Boomer got a heady dose of random clicking before I walked in and took the clicker away. And hid it.
Since today was Saturday, the 11-year-old was home all day, so no training. That means the dogs have been spared since Thursday, though I did manage a quick test with Boomer for 'sit' vs. 'down'. He got them both with no problems and no confusions. Good boy!
The 11-year-old will be out most of the afternoon tomorrow, so I'll pick up then. Barring a drastic drop in the temperature, I'm planning to spend a few minutes out in the barn with Thyme as well. I'll start with the clicker-treat association.
Hmmm. Wonder if clicker training would work with the 11-year-old...
Since today was Saturday, the 11-year-old was home all day, so no training. That means the dogs have been spared since Thursday, though I did manage a quick test with Boomer for 'sit' vs. 'down'. He got them both with no problems and no confusions. Good boy!
The 11-year-old will be out most of the afternoon tomorrow, so I'll pick up then. Barring a drastic drop in the temperature, I'm planning to spend a few minutes out in the barn with Thyme as well. I'll start with the clicker-treat association.
Hmmm. Wonder if clicker training would work with the 11-year-old...
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Pre-training 3
Back on Planet Earth, Boomer and Maisy had their 5 minutes of clicker fun before breakfast today. Hungry dogs make very cooperative dogs!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Pre-training 2
In anticipation of our continuing clicker adventures today, I restocked my treat supply at the store yesterday. I settled on a big bag of honey nuts Cheerios. Um, ok, yes, in truth, they're not actually Cheerios, but a cheap generic brand masquerading as Cheerios. We got aLOT of animals to train here folks. Maisy, in any case, didn't care that I skimped on the brand name. To say she was eager to play the treats game would be an understatement.
Maisy and Boomer both completed (separately) their 5 minutes of practice pairing the clicker with the treat. They also both revealed the same weaknesses in their previous training. Both did exactly what Maisy shows in her glam shot here. When I asked them to sit, each responded by lying all the way down. I think it's fair to say they are willing but a bit confused in their training to date. They both conflate 'down' and 'sit' and respond to either by going low and submissive. If they don't get their reward, they go even lower. Today, Boomer rolled all the way over on his back when the reward wasn't immediately forthcoming, which I don't think I'd seen him do before. Though I hadn't intended to do anything more than pair the treat with the clicker today, I couldn't resist (bad trainer, must resist getting ahead of myself) trying to use the clicker to help them clear up the intended meaning of 'sit'. So they both got an additional 2 minutes or so of 'sit' commands, rewarded by both the clicker and the treat simultaneously. Both succeeded, so I don't think it will matter that I skipped ahead a bit. If they'd failed or I had confused them more, I'd be kicking myself. See this is why I'm not starting with Thyme. I know I'm not as disciplined as I need to be yet.
On a side note, the cats were pretty interested in the treats too, but decided they'd rather play with them than eat them. Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Pre-training 1
Sometimes the shortest way over an obstacle is neither over, nor through. Sometimes it requires indirect routes. Today, the first day of clicker training for Thyme aka the feral pony, I trained a dog. Two dogs actually.
Meet Boomer and Maisy. I'm starting with these two dogs (Angel, our third dog, is conspicuously absent) because they are sweet, good-tempered, and easy to get along with even without alot of training. So if my early attempts are less than stellar, at least I'm unlikely to do them much harm. This gives me room to relax and figure things out in a relatively low-stakes context. Once I truly begin with Thyme, I'd like to know what I'm doing! If the clicker training goes as well as the buzz claims, I'll use it with Angel too.
Boomer (Boomerang) is a 4 or 5-year-old German Shepherd/Golden Retriever cross, found as a stray 2 years ago. Maisy is a 7 or 8-year-old American Eskimo, adopted from a shelter 5 years ago. Both love people. Well, Boomer does. Maisy reserves her love for her family. They are both generally rambunctious and unruly. They've had informal training around a small number of commands, including 'sit', 'stay', and 'leave it'. They are modestly successful at these. One challenge in the dogs' training is that my 11-year-old tends to untrain whatever I teach. For this reason, my 11-year-old will not be privy to the early stages of training logged here. It's going to be a secret for now, conducted in stolen moments and the dark of night. Shhhhhhhhhhhh! No, really, I'll be working on it during the day while the 11-year-old is at school. :)
Today, on Day 1, Boomer and Maisy each separately got 2-3 minutes of training with a clicker. I paired the click with broken bits of frosted mini-wheats. Both thought this was the best game ever. Both sat very attentively and eagerly to receive their treats. Neither paid any particular attention to the clicker. After the 2-3 minutes were up, I put the clicker away in its box on the shelf and left everything for tomorrow. I'll have to go to the store for more treats, 'cause we're out of mini-wheats.
Meet Boomer and Maisy. I'm starting with these two dogs (Angel, our third dog, is conspicuously absent) because they are sweet, good-tempered, and easy to get along with even without alot of training. So if my early attempts are less than stellar, at least I'm unlikely to do them much harm. This gives me room to relax and figure things out in a relatively low-stakes context. Once I truly begin with Thyme, I'd like to know what I'm doing! If the clicker training goes as well as the buzz claims, I'll use it with Angel too.
Boomer (Boomerang) is a 4 or 5-year-old German Shepherd/Golden Retriever cross, found as a stray 2 years ago. Maisy is a 7 or 8-year-old American Eskimo, adopted from a shelter 5 years ago. Both love people. Well, Boomer does. Maisy reserves her love for her family. They are both generally rambunctious and unruly. They've had informal training around a small number of commands, including 'sit', 'stay', and 'leave it'. They are modestly successful at these. One challenge in the dogs' training is that my 11-year-old tends to untrain whatever I teach. For this reason, my 11-year-old will not be privy to the early stages of training logged here. It's going to be a secret for now, conducted in stolen moments and the dark of night. Shhhhhhhhhhhh! No, really, I'll be working on it during the day while the 11-year-old is at school. :)
Today, on Day 1, Boomer and Maisy each separately got 2-3 minutes of training with a clicker. I paired the click with broken bits of frosted mini-wheats. Both thought this was the best game ever. Both sat very attentively and eagerly to receive their treats. Neither paid any particular attention to the clicker. After the 2-3 minutes were up, I put the clicker away in its box on the shelf and left everything for tomorrow. I'll have to go to the store for more treats, 'cause we're out of mini-wheats.
Thyme's Preamble
Time to train Thyme.
Thyme is the mother of Tyche. I generally refer to her as 'the feral pony' when I talk about her to my horse friends. She won't allow anyone to approach or touch her, including me. She needs (must get, can not go another day without) basic training. For a variety of reasons and despite the frowns and glances askance that are bound to greet this news from my more experienced friends, I have decided to go the clicker training route. I will say more about Thyme as I go along, but the main goal of this blog will be to track her training and, just as importantly to me, the evolution of my understanding and use of this method. Wish us good speed and fair winds.
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