Free Shaping

Wow, so much to report after my Shaping course with Peggy Hogan.

Mojo has blossomed over the last few weeks but is still touch sensitive and startles easily. I have been doing some systematic desensitisation and counter conditioning. I had a few tips from various behaviourists. Catherine Bell, Jo Hughes to name two.

It is extremely slow progress but so worth while.

So when Peggy offered this free course on Facebook I jumped in, I was nervous as I had no concept of free shaping – that is just waiting and watching what the horse offers and marking and rewarding any little tries in the right direction.

Ours taske were simple – to catch any interaction with a novel object – I used a dog toy – a football with ropes round it.

Mojo very soon got the hang of touching it, then pushing it, stamping on it, kicking it. I rewarded what I wanted more of – pushing with his nose was good and he soon learned that is what I wanted.

This was as much teaching me correct marking and timely rewarding as about helping Mojo seek out answer for himself – so no micro or even macro managing.

This is a little snippet from our sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GilOgGur5rg

I can thoroughly recommend these courses – look on Peggy’s Facebook page or website for more information.

References
Peggy Hogan
Jo Hughes
Catherine Bell