by Sharon Foley

Before you can apply clicker training techniques to your training program your horse must know how to play the "Training Game".  What this means is:

1. He understands that it is his behavior that is controlling the arrival of rewards. 
   
2. Furthermore, he understands that the click of the clicker 'marks' the specific behavior that generated the reward.
   

These are THE most important ideas that the horse needs to have clear in his mind in order to be what we call "clicker savvy".  As the horse becomes more savvy to how the Training Game works he will begin to pay attention to which behaviors are getting "clicked" (marked) and perform those more often.  Once he's offering behaviors that you want it is easy to put them on cue.

Once the horse gets all these connections you have a very powerful tool to help you help your horse learn--anything.

The way that I introduce the Training Game is by teaching the horse one very simple behavior. You could pick anything but the behavior of choice is having the horse touch his nose to a target object. That target object should be something easy for you to handle and easy for the horse to see. One of those small oragne training cones is ideal.

We call this particular behavior "targeting".

Teaching the horse to target is very simple. Simply position a target object close to the horse's nose. Out of curiousity the horse will sniff it. At the precise moment that he does (and he will) click the clicker and then feed a treat.

Timing is critical so the click should come the INSTANT that the nose touches the target.  It is actually better to be a little early than to be late with the click.  Repeat repeat repeat. Keep the target very easy for the horse to find until he is touching with enthusiasm.

Horses vary with respect to the amount of time it takes for any individual to "get" the idea.  It could be as little as 10-15 minutes for the horse to 'get' the connection... the moment that the proverbial 'light bulb' goes off and they know that their behavior is what is leading to clicks and clicks lead to treats. 

You can practically hear the wheels turning..."hmm, I touch this thing then I get a treat." Pretty soon he is very actively touching the target. When that is happening I let the horse 'test' his theory by positioning the target further away so that he has to reach a little. Little by little the horse's understanding is stretched until he will move quite a distance to touch the target. When the horse will move away from you (and the treats) to go touch the target you know the light bulb is glowing brightly. :-)

Now the horse knows the Training Game.

TIPS:

• Always feed the treat with your arm fully extended in front of you. You want the horse to learn right away that he needs to back away from you to get the food. Much better then charging into you before you get it out of your pocket.
• Start in the stall with a stall guard up. Most horses WILL try checking out your pockets and you don't want to have to get into trying to keep him out. So, separate yourself from the horse until you know that he's really got it.
• When the horse knows the rules of the Training Game (behavior = click = treat) then you can start using the clicker to mark other desired behavior.