Friday, October 15, 2010

8. 'Food Zen' (or how not to 'Mug' you) Level 1

One of the first things your horse needs to learn is not to mug you or try to steal food when it's not offered (such as from your treat pouch). This is really about self control and it's an important part of 'playing' the clicker training game.  It is also a useful default behavior for your horse to have, especially if he is going to be around many people who carry food or if there is really yummy new grass growing in a field where you want to exercise or train him.

Here's how to start training it:

First, make sure you are safe. If you have a pushy horse or one that does not respect your personal space, use a barrier between the horse and you. A gate, or fence works well. That way you can remove your self to safety if you need to.  One you are comfortable with the horse and know he is safe, then you can progress to training on the same side of the fence.

Level 1
Your Goal: Food Zen is when the horse is presented with your fist or open palm in his space does not make any effort to sniff, touch or steal the fist or food, until clicked or given the cue to do so for 10 seconds.

1. Place a low level treat in your palm and make a fist. (or hold out your treat pouch with one treat in it.)
2. Extend your arm straight out from your shoulder to just within your horse's personal space. You can stand slightly off to the side as well.
3. Your horse will likely sniff, lip, bop or maybe even bite at your fist trying to get the treat. Ignore it until your horse pulls his head away (or backs up or...) even just for a fraction of a second (an no matter the reason-even if he gets distracted by something else. You don't care WHY your horse moves his head away, just that he DOES at this point.). Click the instant the heads starts moving away and treat with what is in your hand.
4. To start the next trial, refill your hand and stick it out in the same position as before. Wait for any holding himself back or moving away and c/t.
Tip: Avoid clicking a retreat after a nose bop as this creates a little chain of 'bop and pull away' which is not food Zen. Instead, pull your hand back and start another trial by extending your hand. This tells the horse the bop is not what you want.
5. Start asking for more time staying away from the food before clicking and rewarding. An easy way is to use one second increments. Count
“One, one thousand”. Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat. Etc.

If he goes for it before your count is up, start back at the beginning the first few times.
If he went for it at five seconds, practice just below that at four seconds for 10 repetitions to see if he can do it. If he can, the 11th repetition, try 5 seconds.

“One, one thousand”. Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand.” Click/treat.
“One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand.” Click/treat.

Once he attains longer duration such as 10 seconds, you can throw in a shorter one every now and then to keep him interested and guessing as you don’t want it to always get harder or he might stop trying.

6. When he can hold himself away from your closed fist for 10 seconds, try opening your hand and start from the very beginning (step 1 to 5). Your horse will see this as a different behavior and try to mug your hand again.

7. Move your hand to different locations (above, below, to one side, to the other side, above and to the side etc). Repeat above process with each step 1 to 5.

8. Try increasing the value of the food in your hand by a little and start from the beginning. For most horses, training goes faster the second and subsequent times as they start catching onto the idea. Train from the beginning with at least 5 different food items, increasing in value. (so hay, Cheerio, alfalfa cube, apple, carrot, fresh grass). The more he likes the food item, the harder the exercise will be for him.

Keep Training
9. Once your horse is reliably staying off your open hand for 10 seconds on the highest value treat continue to extend the time in 2 second intervals.
10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 (go back to the starting 10 seconds if he mugs your hand.)
When you get to 30 seconds, you can try increasing in 10 second intervals.
30, 40, 50, 60 etc.
After a minute, try increasing in 15-30 second intervals etc as you progress.
60, 75, 90, 105 etc

Here is a video with a horse that has already been trained to have self control on the hand. Now she has switched to generalizing it to her treat pouch. She is obviously comfortable enough with him to be inside the pen with him.

Video from abirdslife channel on youtube.com

10. If you want to add a cue, (such as “leave it”) you can do that once your horse is reliably leaving your open hand alone for 10 seconds or more. Present your hand and as he pulls or looks away, cue “leave it”. C/t for compliance. If he thinks you’ve released him to eat it, pull your hand back and retry.

After several training sessions, come back and try it again. Start cuing "Leave it" just before you present your hand.  After more practice, if you cue “Leave it” and he does the first time, he may understands what it means. Practice more alternating with the verbal cue and just presenting your hand. Then just with the verbal cue.

To test if he really understands it, try asking for it in an everyday familiar setting where you have already trained it such as hanging out at the fence. If he can do it, you know he understands the verbal cue. Don’t forget that your extended hand is also a physical cue (or even considered a hand signal) as well at this point.

How long it takes him to understand this depends on how fast he picks up verbal cues. Some horses ar faster than others. Don't worry if it seems to take many sessions. Horses are more oriented to visual and tactile cues than verbal as they are not a verbal species like humans.

4 comments:

  1. Hi there. Great idea. In the video above, I'm not sure what I would do differently...maybe standing further back so the horse couldn't possible mug me just so I didn't have to 'lump' in targeting and food zen, no mugging? But I don't have a problem with the treat being offered in a position that makes the horse back up. Isn't that just good treat management? Offering the treat well away from the body?

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  2. Great question! This trainer is trying to teach 3 behaviors at once. Why not teach 'no mugging' first, (part of this will get him to stand back and respect her personal space). If he knew the cue for 'back up' it would also make it easier for her to manage the food and move the target around as she wouldn't have to try to avoid him.

    Instead of just training him targeting, which is complicated enough on its own, she's lumping in training two other behaviors.

    I think of it as trying to teach a child to print, do a complex math problem and eating lunch all at once. Really confusing unless you have the pre-requisite foundation behaviors first.

    printing=targeting
    complex math problem=the ability to monitor his space near you and back up as needed
    eating lunch=taking & eating the reward

    I hope that helps!

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  3. I've commented on why I think the big issues in that video are things other than lumping, so I won't go there again.

    However, PLEASE (for the safety of any newbies who read your blog) emphasize protected contact in this post. Horses who don't have solid food manners are dangerous, especially if the owner/trainer plans to deal with unwanted behavior by ignoring it.

    Mary

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  4. Great tip! This caution appears in several places in my blog, but cannot be emphasized enough. Safety first!

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