“The human isn’t near as interesting to work with as the horse. The horse is always wide open to you. There’s no selfishness, no pride or ego in his way and a lot of times the human has things in his way to hold him back. I think most humans really want to get along with the animals. But what …
Our Presentation Isn’t Right
“The human isn’t near as interesting to work with as the horse. The horse is always wide open to you. There’s no selfishness, no pride or ego in his way and a lot of times the human has things in his way to hold him back. I think most humans really want to get along with the animals. But what …
Timing Your Rewards For Optimal Results
“Rub a horse to reward him”, “Let him rest, release pressure, and he’ll be happy.” or “A horse (or dog) will do anything for a cookie.” While this is true, it’s deceiving. There’s timing involved. Some dogs couldn’t care less about treats (I have two of those at the moment!). If you’re boring your horse half to death, a rest …
Timing Your Rewards For Optimal Results
“Rub a horse to reward him”, “Let him rest, release pressure, and he’ll be happy.” or “A horse (or dog) will do anything for a cookie.” While this is true, it’s deceiving. There’s timing involved. Some dogs couldn’t care less about treats (I have two of those at the moment!). If you’re boring your horse half to death, a rest …
Purely Positive Training Is An Illusion
As wonderful as it would be to say, “I only train with positive reinforcement and it works!”, it’s impossible. Before you get too worked up about that, let me explain. I train my dogs with a clicker (only the guide dogs and advanced trick training, the foundation is not based on treats or clicks). I don’t use prong collars or …
Purely Positive Training Is An Illusion
As wonderful as it would be to say, “I only train with positive reinforcement and it works!”, it’s impossible. Before you get too worked up about that, let me explain. I train my dogs with a clicker (only the guide dogs and advanced trick training, the foundation is not based on treats or clicks). I don’t use prong collars or …
Visualize
“Before you ever start to reach to ask your horse to do something you should have in mind what you are asking and where you are trying to direct.” – Tom Dorrance
Visualize
“Before you ever start to reach to ask your horse to do something you should have in mind what you are asking and where you are trying to direct.” – Tom Dorrance Photo: Image of Tom Dorrance is by Lynn Cox of Landmark Fine Art.
What horses and dogs bring out in us
My passion for horses is just as enormous as it is for dogs. I love them equally but for different reasons. Today I was thinking about how funny it is that I enjoy working with these two species that actually have very little in common. It seems to come down to something basic and true: dogs make us more human …
Effective as a fly…
One fly buzzing around a room and landing in the same spot for longer than even 2 minutes can be the most annoying thing in the world. I could be studying in a library while a marching band with trumpets and drums suddenly marches through and it would definitely surprise me. But they would move on or I would get used …