I have discovered the key to Rory's mind. Food. He is incredibly food oriented and can be motivated with food. My QH loved his carrots, but couldn't put behaviour and carrot reward together (except for carrot stretches, but of course he had his lips on the carrot). Brat is totally not food oriented, but did figure out clicker training (however at first he would give up on stretching for carrots if he didn't get it on the third try - he's not too bad now). Rory on the other hand figured out that he needed to stand still and keep his nose to himself on the crossties yesterday in order to earn a mouthful of grain. He realized that following the bucket when I set it down gets him nothing but put back in position, nosing me earned a light bop, and fidgeting made the bucket stay away even longer. I was actually quite impressed because I wasn't even using a bridge like a clicker (though I think we will get to that for later training).
Today he had to stand outside his field and wait while I stepped away, or turned my back, or messed with the grain bucket in order to earn a mouthful from that bucket. He was again quite quick to figure it out, although being just two and not on cross ties there were other interesting things around to be distracted by.
Now I must get creative and see how I can harness this awesome power of food!
Today he had to stand outside his field and wait while I stepped away, or turned my back, or messed with the grain bucket in order to earn a mouthful from that bucket. He was again quite quick to figure it out, although being just two and not on cross ties there were other interesting things around to be distracted by.
Now I must get creative and see how I can harness this awesome power of food!
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