Equiosity

Observational learning - what does that mean? How many different ways can we interpret that phrase to the benefit of our horses. What kind of an observer/learner are you? Is that fixed for you or do you understand the power of "yet"? Words matter. When you see a horse refusing to move forward over a simple trail class obstacle, what is the "story" you create around that? Is this horse being stubbo...

The basics well done. That’s what training is. When you have that, the basics start looking like very fancy performance. You develop a real back and forth conversation with your horse. That’s when it becomes truly joyful. Your horse not only has a voice, it is a voice that is being listened to. This statement ended the previous podcast. As we continue the conversation, we explore what it means for...

This podcast continues a conversation we began last week. We ended Episode 29: Pre-school with a “save that thought” comment about the importance of building an extensive repertoire of behavior. As Dominique said: “If you don’t have a repertoire - you have nothing. How can we talk? You don’t want me to do - whatever. But you haven’t taught me what I CAN do. Teach me a hundred other things I can do...

This week’s podcast opens with a quote from our recent webinar with Dr. Susan Friedman. We were discussing a twenty year old horse that came to her new owner very shut down by force-based training. Susan ended the webinar with her recommendation for this horse - go back to pre pre-school. "This horse is not ready to learn even simple things such as targeting. How do we know this? The data tells us...

In the previous podcast our guest, Michaela Hempen set the stage for this week’s podcast by describing single-subject design studies. Now she shares with us some research she has been doing on cribbing. Anyone who has had a cribber in their barn knows what an annoying habit this can be. But it is more than an annoyance. Cribbing has been linked to some serious health issues, including a higher ris...

The function of this podcast is to lay the ground work for a discussion of cribbing. Cribbing is a stereotypic behavior that some horses exhibit. The horse takes hold of a fence board or other protruding surface with its front teeth. Then it arches its neck and contract its larynx which creates a rush of air into its stomach. This action produces a grunting sound. Anyone who has been around a crib...

In today’s podcast we focus on the “Hierarchy of Behavior Change Procedures” as described by Dr. Susan Friedman. If that sounds very dry, don’t worry, it’s not. The hierarchy gives us a road map for changing behavior. The measure we are using is the least intrusive, most positive interventions that can create the change we want to see. Before we get to the hierarchy, I share a brief goat training...

In our previous podcast we talked about Ken Ramirez’s suggestion to do it differently. He was referring to the training of husbandry procedures, especially as they relate to medical care. In this podcast we’re going to see how that phrase applies to performance work. We interrupted the conversation just as Dominique was about to talk about patterns. She had been talking one trial quitters. Dr. Jes...

We all know clicker training works great for horses, but what about cows? In Episode 21, A Postcard from Germany, we shared the story of Snickers, the cow. Dominique saw a video of Snickers and wanted to share how amazed she was. She had never seen such a joyful cow. Snickers' enthusiasm was a delight to watch, but her size can certainly be intimidating, especially if you aren’t familiar with cows...

Nancy Kelly and Spybird Productions are doing a documentary on operant conditioning. She recently spent four days at the barn filming the horses. When she was done interviewing me, Dominique and I interviewed her for this podcast. Spybird productions is a small company. It’s Nancy, her videographer, and Bob Bailey. Nancy has known Bob since 2003 so this was a perfect opportunity to learn about the...

Episode 22: A Postcard From Italy Alexandra Kurland’s European adventure continues. In this podcast she is joined by two of her traveling companions, Michaela Hempen and Rebekka Schulze. Together in this "audio postcard” they describe the second half of Anja Beran’s International Workshop. On the drive south to Italy, they take you through the Austrian Alps, share a tour of Verona with archaeologi...

Alexandra Kurland recently traveled to Germany to attend Anja Beran’s annual International Workshop. She is joined in this podcast by Michaela Hempen, one of her Click That Teaches coaches. Together they are sending back an audio postcard describing the workshop and their other adventures in Germany.

Our conversation with Hannah continues with a discussion of reinforcement variety and what do you do when your training goes off the rails? We then head off in a new direction. The focus on good balance seems to help our horses and dogs remain healthy and active into their senior years. What can we learn from this training that we could make use of for ourselves? Hannah’s answer provides clarity f...

Last week in our Equiosity podcast we greeted our first guest, Hannah Brannigan. Our conversation with Hannah continues. In the previous episode we stopped just as Hannah made the very intriguing statement that in the past many of the things that we would have thought were fixed, such as an animal's structure, can be changed through good training. We pick up with a discussion of what that means an...

This week we welcome our first guest to our equiosity podcast. We’re joined by Hannah Brannigan. Many of you will already be familiar with Hannah’s work. She’s a member of the Clicker Expo faculty, and she also has her own, very popular podcast - Drinking from the toilet. Hannah is both a professional dog trainer and a horse owner so it’s easy to make the connections back and forth between trainin...

This week’s podcast begins with an update on the goats. They lead us to an understanding of why we train - and that takes us to a discussion of the "Art of Training". Dominique questions what is meant by that expression. What does it mean? Should we be drawn into the lyricism of this phrase or is it better to look at the science of training?

Heads are spinning in the best way possible after the June 30th webinar with Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz. We taped this podcast the following day so naturally we couldn’t help but begin with a review of some of the key concepts Jesús covered. He gave us a packed webinar which gave us a great launching point for a discussion that began with the use of jargon when describing different training techniques...

One thing leads to another. In this case a discussion of the function that a behavior serves takes us to an examination of “polite" behavior. How can we teach our horses how to safely co-exist in the environments we have chosen? There are obvious constraints limits on the freedom that we give our horses. Fences and closed stall doors limit their movements. But when we teach our horses behaviors th...

​In this week’s episode our long afternoon conversation continues. Last week we focused on cue communication. If cues open up the possibility of a two way conversation, this brings us to the question of how do you respond when your animal says no? You’ve asked for something, and he says: “I’d rather not." How do you respond? Do you let his behavior modify yours? What does it mean to truly listen t...

This episode is part of a long conversation Dominique Day and I were having one afternoon in late May. Dominique had been rewatching the Loopy Training DVD. So our conversation began with a discussion of movement cycles and poisoned cues. Last week we focused in on Loopy Training - what it means and how it brings emotional balance into our training. That discussion brought us to cue communication...

It was Dr. Jesús Rosales Ruiz who gave us the name “Loopy Training”. That’s a name that seems on first glance to be silly and frivolous but it's really grounded in the very sophisticated concept of movement cycles. This week’s podcast is part of a long conversation Dominique Day and I were having one afternoon in late May. In this podcast we continue on with the discussion of poisoned cues. We exp...

Karen Pryor coined the term “poisoned cue”. She commented that behavior analysts can easily set up experiments that look at pure positive or pure negative reinforcement. But Karen said that’s not the real world. The real world is filled with mixed consequences. What happens when a cue can lead to good things happening or to bad things happening but you don’t know which it is going to be? That’s th...

Movement cycles give us the beginning kernel, the beginning small step in our training out of which we can grow great changes. In this podcast movement cycles are first defined, then we describe how they can be used with the foundation lessons to create dramatic changes in a horse’s balance. So how do you learn to recognize good balance? How do you know what you’re clicking for? This leads us to a...

Goblins and Ghosts - Oh My Oh My! What do you do when your horse spooks? That’s the opening question of this podcast. We explore what it means to be a constructional trainer. You want to build the skills you’re going to need BEFORE you need them. A great skill building exercise is the creativity game: “101 Things a Handler Can Do While A Horse Stands on a Mat.” We describe how you can use this to...

It’s spring here in the Northeast which means the Siren’s call of the grass is pulling at our horses. In this podcast we talk about how to turn the grass from a distraction into a reinforcer. That takes us to the general training principle of “Train where you can, not where you can’t.” We define Loopy Training and look at how that teaching strategy can help create clean training. Be sure to listen...