2/16/2008 Our first day of clicker training

I'm Jessica, 24yrs old, married, living in DE, have 2 cats, 2 frogs, 1 turtle, misc fish, plus crickets to feed the frogs with. :) I don't own my own horse yet due to a lack of money. I am very blessed to have a dear friend who has horses, but doesn't ride anymore. I get to play around with her Nokota named Leo.

Leo and I had our first clicker training session today. :) We went through LOTS of carrot slices. I chopped up each baby carrot into 3 pieces, so I had bunches. I used a empty 1/2 gallon OJ container for a target. I'm too cheap to buy a 'real' target, so trash sounded like a good idea. :) Sorry guys, but no pictures. I had a hard enough time holding the OJ carton, clicker, and getting the treats there fast enough, clicking at the right time... it was all very confusing.

I tried to work him w/o a lead and halter on, but he kept leaving me at first. lol I don't have a stall or grass free paddock to put him in. I could always work him in the main paddock that he lives in (definitely no grass there, only mud) but then I would have to content with the other 2 horses trying to figure out what we're doing.

We ended up working in the empty barn aisle. 1/2 through I just dropped the lead since he didn't look like he was going to mosey on outside to eat grass again. Leo's usually pretty good about personal space and if he tried to 'mug you' it's not hard to discourage it and your not going to get hurt. His extend of mugging was to flatten his nose against my jean jacket pocket, breathe this HUGE sigh, and wiggle his nose from side to side. I had to try hard not to laugh. I'm sure he was thinking, "Well, your going to give them to me anyway, so lets speed this up!"

When I first started working with him a year ago, he wasn't very good about personal space. All I have to do now is square my shoulders and give him 'the look.' He steps right out, and starts paying more attention :) Leo's a pretty sensitive guy and it's easy to over correct and get him flustered. There's not really any glaring behavior problems I hope to fix with clicker training. I'm hoping it will just be fun for both of us to work on together.

The first, second, third, and probably fourth time he touched the OJ carton with his nose it was by sheer luck. LOL We worked for about 10 minutes before he started to loose his attention span (or maybe that was me, not him...)

Basically I waited for him to touch the OJ carton with his nose, then clicked asap and shoveled a treat into his mouth after the click withmy other hand. I think he's supposed to touch the carton, hear the click, then look to me for a treat.

That's not really what happened. lol I think I either got the treat there too fast or too slow. Then at one point he wanted to try and figure out what was so special with this carton, so he tried to throw it. :)

Then I turned him loose in a small paddock to graze while I groomed him. After our relaxing grooming we worked for another 5 minutes. By then I was frozen and it was time for me to get in my car and blast the heat during my hour drive home.

Overall it was a unique experience. I only accidentally clicked 3 times (I certainly could have screwed up more!) By the end, Leo figured out that I wanted him to touch the carton with his nose, not sure he connected that with the treats I was shoveling in his mouth. I definitely think he missed the connection with the clicker. Oh well we'll keep trying until his light bulb goes off.

I feel a little disappointed, I thought his light bulb would go off really quick, but I'm sure I was hindering his thinking process. Does anyone know when I should give the treat? Should I click and wait for him to look at me? Or click and just shovel it into his mouth where ever his head is?
any help or advice would be very appreciated. :)