>Remember, I never saw this as long as we were doing what he already
knew how to do...And remember, I've trained and retrained a number of
horses now. I've never seen anything like this before. I saw a lot
of good in Eitill's past clicker training, but I will be very sparing
in how I do it in the future - if I ever use it.
Anyway, this is why I'm SICK of clicker training. (Well, it also
didn't help that Sue's c/t mare, Brenna, bit me the last time we were
together!) I didn't start it with either of these horses - but I got
stuck with dealing with it.
Kind of sad isn't it? I have a great horse with a good mind
but to teach him anything new, I need to teach him that he doesn't
need to think about clickers. Or else, maybe I need to learn a LOT
more about c/t. Either way, it will take time - a waste of time to
me. I think I could have started a totally green horse under saddle,
complete with ground driving in the time I spent undoing the clicker
training of Trausti and Eitill. AND, most importantly, the new, green
horse wouldn't have gone through all this frustration. That's the
real kicker for me. If someone tells you that it's hard to screw up
clicker training, I invite you to come here and ask Eitill to
sidepass. Then we can start a support group for the Clicker Abused
Owners Who Didn't Ask for This.<
Hello list,
I've been away for awhile. But Karen told me Eitill came up on
the list, reassured me that he was "still fine" so not to worry (??)
and of course, that got me curious. . . So I came and checked in.
I had no idea. I had only heard "good reports" on Eitill and how
he and Karen were doing together. Frankly, this whole post has blind-
sighted me. . . and I'm reeling.
First of all, I want to apologize to all the avid clicker trainers
out there. I didn't mean to apparently create the world's worst
poster child for clicker training. I did the best I could, it
worked for me in teaching the basics, cleaning up gait, getting trot
from a very initially pacy horse, etc. etc. and so on. I *thought*
I had success with this method and didn't realize somehow, Eitill
would never be able to learn anything new without this method
incorporated into the process.
Secondly, and perhaps most of all, I am VERY SORRY Karen to have put
you off clicker training with what I did with Eitill and how he
turned out.
Clicker training is a good method -- as good as any other and perhaps
better than many methods. But, apparently I have done it and you a
great dis-service, and I guess maybe Eitill too.
I don't know what else to say.
If anyone wants to e-mail me, please send to my private e-mail as I'm
not reading the list right now, and frankly, I'm too embarrassed and
mortified to join back in at this point. I just wanted to express
apologies to those who have found clicker training to be a wonderful
tool and to Karen who apparently won't ever give it another shot
because of me and Eitill.
--Renee M.
