Hi Cherie
>It's a good way to understand training from the animal's point of view. If >a human who knows someone is trying to train them; already has a basic >understanding of clicker training; and for the most part, has an basic >understanding of human body language (some are clueless), still gets >frustrated during the training session, it really makes you think about how >hard it is for another species Yes, the Dolphin Training game has been around for a long time. Over the years we also made various interesting version of this ‘game’ – one when the pressure stopped only when the ‘horse’(person) did the right thing – we used a ringing bell for the pressure – such as when people run a horse in a round pen – when the person did the right thing the bell stopped. What was interesting, when I was the horse, I actually could not recognize when the bell stopped because I found it so stressful. We also used to do an exercise called 22 – 33 – 44 – one person gets up as the young untrained horse and the ‘trainer’ says 22 – when the person doesn’t respond we did various things like – say it louder, talk about how ‘stupid’ there were that they didn’t know what 22 was – threaten to use stick (not really but just pretending); so then you show the person what 22 is – could be something like turn in a circle – when they did it – give them a penny – repeat a couple of times to be sure they really know way 22 was – with a penny reward each time. Then onto 33 – which is a different, simple task. What is interesting is the various response you get from people – some will just stand there looking dazed, some will try anything, some will repeat 22. So then you show the person what 33 is and reward with money. So on to 44 which is sitting in a chair – go through the same steps and once they know what 44 is, you pause and take a nail and hold it point up on the chair and give the 44 command. Even at this point some people will try and sit around it, others just refuse to do anything – no matter how much you offer – either in punishment or reward. Of course at this point it must be direct disobedience because the ‘know’ what 44 is. The point of the exercise is to then ask – how many people have given their horse a ‘nail’. Most people kind of look around thinking they haven’t. I think most people have – a nail would be – a tight fitting saddle, a tight noseband, giving mixed signals to a horse, sitting out of balance, landing hard in the saddle after a jump or pulling mindlessly on the reins, using a whip or spurs indiscriminately - pretty much anything we do on a daily basis – sometimes without meaning to. And yet horses are supposed to know when we really mean a signal and when it is a mistake. It is an enlightening exercise and I have found that the more exercises people can experience as ‘being the horse’ the more empathetic it makes us as riders and less reactive. Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com ! -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.13/632 - Release Date: 1/16/2007 4:36 PM -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.13/632 - Release Date: 1/16/2007 4:36 PM
