According to Bob Bailey, an icon in the training world (look him up), eighty percent of training problems lie with these three things:
* Rate of Reinforcement (RoR) too low
* Criterion too high (see above)
* TimingThe RoR should be around 10-12/minute, or every 5-6 seconds. it would be better to be even higher, around 20/minute. But it will depend on the ease of the behavior and how quickly it can be repeated.
Then there’s also feeding mechanics.
Working in protected contact. Start in protected contact with a fence, stall guard, door, or something between you. Stay far enough back that she cannot mug you. Deliver into a feed pan on the floor or a bucket on the floor or attached to a wall, fence, etc. Start by dropping a few pellets into the pan. When her head comes up even a fraction of an inch, drop more pellets. Lather, rinse, repeat until you’re SURE she understands that her behavior is causing food to rain from the sky.
Now add in the click. Until now, she didn’t care about the click; it was just extraneous noise that had no meaning.
When her head comes up a little bit, click and drop food. Lather, rinse, repeat. When you’re SURE that she understands two things about the marker, that it means:
* Food is coming, and
* Yes, that’s right. Do what you just did again.
When you’re SURE that she understands these things, start feeding by hand randomly, once, then several times into the pan or bucket. Gradually increase the times you feed by hand.
Feed with a closed fist, knuckles up. Then IMMEDIATELY flip your hand over, palm open and up. The horse will figure out soon enough that he contacts knuckles first and he’ll learn to back off and be more gentle.
Do NOT wait for any particular behavior. Flip your hand over IMMEDIATELY.
Food delivery by hand: always, always, always, feed AWAY from your body and the food pouch at arm’s length.
Deliver toward her so that she has to back up a little to get it.
Then there are some horses who need to have food shoveled into their mouths for three to five days until they slow themselves down. It’s actually rather funny to watch them want to take more food but know that their mouth is full. Do be careful that you don’t cause choke.
Train an auto back. When she comes up to you at liberty, click for her being, say, three feet away from. Go to her to feed her.
TRAIN her to do what you want her to do – stand OVER THERE.
You can’t train a Don’t. You can only train a Do. Figure out what you want her to DO and train that.
I hope that helps.
Clicker Chronicles 