Question about clicker training

[Bucephalus]

I've always wondered:
what sort of treat do you give to your horse as a reward, and what happens when you stop giving the treats?
Does the horse continue to associate the clicker with a positive experience or will he eventually learn there isn't always a treat to be had?

[Miriam]

I just started off around feed time so that I used her feed as her reward. However I always left her a little bit in for the end to let her know that it was not all associated with work.

As for your last question. I guess it depends on the horse. Rhi will clicker train for certain things and does not need the reward. She knows she has done right when she hears the click and is told how clever she is. When I clicker trained her for the trailer however we started off fine. Even got to the stage where she would follow to the target but then one day she just thought that that was enough and would not do it any more. I had to change to a be nice halter :rolleyes:

[Yann]

You can give them anything they like. I've used bagged treats (expensive!), mix, feed balancer and conditioning cubes. I stick them in a little bag and put it in my pocket.

[ponypinkyp]

Hello everyone!

Can you not reward with comfort and praise,,,, rather than food or treats?

I just have this thought that every time you want yourhorse to obey you,,,you have to feed him something in return?

Hopefully,,,its not just me who thinks this??

[virtuallyhorses]

You want something that is relatively small and not too messy - so you could chop up carrot pieces or use normal 'food' if you feed cubes or pellets.

The clicker is used as a marker to alert the horse to the desired behaviour. At first you must provide food rewards with each click (this is after doing the initial clicker association - bridging it's called) but as the horse learns then you can begin to trail off with the treats. The horse can be taught to perform whole series of behaviours - receiving a click for each but perhaps having to wait till the end for the food treat. But the horse should be well established before taking away the treats otherwise the clicker becomes a little confusing because it's not consistant.

ponypinkyp - Clicker training is based on food rewards, praise and comfort are rewards that can be used for training but that's not what clicker is about.

[Miriam]

Originally posted by ponypinkyp


Can you not reward with comfort and praise,,,, rather than food or treats?

I just have this thought that every time you want yourhorse to obey you,,,you have to feed him something in return?

Hopefully,,,its not just me who thinks this??

The book I read normally starts off with food as a reward just to get their attention and then you work down to just praise.