Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a very effective way of training horses, or any animal, really! It has been scientifically proven that positive reinforcement is a more humane way of training animals and has much better results in comparison to pressure and release and punishment. 

A highly preferred method of positive reinforcement is clicker training. Clicker training is a way of rewarding behavior by showing the horse, or animal, exactly when they did something right. It is a much more accurate way of positively reinforcing the horse as opposed to just handing them a treat. It is more accurate because the click noise of the clicker marks the correct behavior right after it was shown. Clicker training was created by B.F Skinner, and the name was created by Karen Pryor. 

It is used with animals such as dolphins, dogs, leopards, wolves, giraffes, rhinos, and is now very popular with horses. This training method makes "aggressive" animals act in loving and kind ways toward humans, and scientists have proven that it is a much more effective way of training. It is slowly changing the way that we work with horses. Instead of sticking to the traditional methods, many people are transferring to clicker training because of the profound results that we have experienced.

I use clicker training with horses because it increases confidence, helps solve behavioral problems, keeps them engaged and willing to participate, and makes everything more fun.

These are box clickers. The box clicker's sound is extremely loud. 

There are many other types of clickers as well.

Using clicker training makes everything more fun for the horse because of the rewards. It makes the horse want to participate in activities instead of being forced to.

This is an example of a horse that is engaged and willing to participate. As you can see, the horse is very excited to follow the woman over the jump because he/she is being positively reinforced.

Clicker training also helps build a horses confidence. When I first got Lilo, he had very low confidence and he was completely broken (mentally). He would never touch an object or have fun because he was afraid that he would get reprimanded for it. But ever since we've began using clicker training, his confidence level went through the roof!

This is Lilo now. He has the confidence to play and have fun with objects, run and buck when he is excited, and to express his feelings all of the time.

The amazing thing about clicker training is that you can teach anything that you want to the horse! It makes the process of training go much smoother than using negative reinforcement because of the horses  willingness to complete the tasks. Negative reinforcement is never used. Instead of punishing the horse for actions that you do not want, you reward what you do want and ignore unwanted behavior. This makes the horse feel more comfortable, and it increases trust.

Clicker training helps solve behavioral problems by showing the horse what you want them to do instead of what you don't want. It is a way of shaping behavior. People now use clicker training for disciplines such as dressage, jumping, western riding, as well as many other fun things like trick training and groundwork. 

I believe that this huge change should be made with all animals that we work with. Positive reinforcement is such a powerful and amazing method of training, and it definitely beats negative reinforcement! Horses are loving and willing, but so many humans treat them with such disrespect and pain. The reason why these animals get labeled as dangerous and aggressive when working with them is because they are simply trying to defend themselves from the pain that they endure. Clicker training makes them want to do things that we ask, and the "danger" of the horses disappears, because they no longer feel the need for defense. I believe that this training method will soon have an incredibly huge impact in all of animal training. 

Sites: http://www.theclickercenter.com/index.html

http://www.clickertraining.com/all-animals

http://www.useyourclicker.com/clicker-training.html