free shaping

I have just finished a shaping course with Jo Hughes and Carolyn Jenkinson of The Academy of Positive Horsemanship

Mojo was much more animated during this course than the last one, he got quite frustrated too when the rewards were not forth coming. I waited for a behaviour I wanted on the 3rd day and Mojo decided that was not a good idea.

I now need (with Jo Hughes help) to improve his impulse control and put the mugging on an extinction program.

Otherwise he is good with following the target and doing the agility obstacles. The umbrella was no problem when I opened and closed it several times. He couldn’t wait to stand on the tarp and his staying still on the mat is better. I now need solid cues for all these behaviours.

Then onwards with the foot lifiting – he did hold it up for a few seconds last time and I need to do this everyday and be consistent and not reward his pawing and stomping.

This is a video of him with the umbrella.

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

Tag: free shaping

Mojo, the barrel and frustration.