clicker training update

We're a couple of weeks into clicker training with our painted pony, Apache Moon, aka the Little Man.

He has been a very quick study with this so instead of working through the various lessons I have found myself having to back off some in order to prevent us going literally straight through the book. I'm tending to do brief lessons once or twice a day, skipping days in between so the pony doesn't get too obsessed with the clicker. I'm also wanting to keep him intrigued. He's so immediately responsive it would be easy to just keep going to see how much he *could* do in a day.

He's targeting and backing and lowering his head and I've been shaping his tendency to test boundaries by clicking when he walks along with ears forward and presents himself as a cheerful companion. There's another path to getting that behavior, and it involves being very solidly "in one's footprints" - using the clicker is I think more fun for him and offers him a way to get to yes without so much angst involved.

I've been speculating lately as to why he has the need to test boundaries so regularly with his herd and with his human herd. It's often a tiny test initially, but if not met with a clear message he will escalate and can quickly become very annoying. If you're ever passing by November Hill and hear a resounding hyena squeal/bellow, that would be Keil Bay telling the pony to CUT IT OUT.

Apache grew up in a herd of painted ponies very similar to himself. His sire was a 10h Shetland who carried the painted gene. He had three girls who played, rode, and hung out with him and was considered by all to be a very good pony. His dam was a 14h grade pony who looked to me like she had some Hackney blood. She was a very reserved mare who was sweet when you gained her trust. (we actually leased her for my son to ride for about 8 months so got to know her well)

I have wondered this week if living in a herd of opinionated, flashy ponies might necessitate learning how to test the herd waters each and every day in order to maintain one's status in that herd. Apache clearly recognizes other painted horses and responds to them differently than he does normally colored equines. I saw him once in a huge pasture spot a painted horse being ridden by - far enough away that I could barely see the painted pattern of the horse - and Apache went into full alert and then trotted briskly to the edge of the pasture to see the horse. The rest of the herd continued to graze.

When we take the pony off the farm he always notices other paints, and he is quite often the cause of big eyes and sometimes spooking on the part of big horses who have never seen such a small painted creature.

Once when we had a clinic here on November Hill, one of the participants pulled up and unloaded her 17h painted warmblood. If ever a pony's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, it was on that day. (Keil Bay's eyes bugged too - his worst nightmare - a gigantic, bigger than him, Apache Moon!)

The main thing I'm noticing about the clicker training, other than his quick mind, is that the pony's overall demeanor is shifting. His usual MO is friendliness and then an immediate testing. Sometimes this is a bossy glance or a tilt of his ears back. He likes to intimidate. I have a method of working through that - usually I step toward him and ask with my hand for him to lower his head. He usually licks and chews to let me know he's submitting and he visibly relaxes. But he'll often test again. And again.

Since the clicker training, he is much more curious and friendly and he is not getting to that testing piece of behavior. He seems to be saying, "Hi! Are we going to play that clicker game now? No? Okay!"

I'm not sure why the absence of the clicker game doesn't elicit a negative response or a testing - maybe he doesn't want to thwart the possibility of the game happening in the near future. Or maybe even thinking about the clicker game puts him into the same mind set as when he's actually playing it. But there is a definite shift in the conversations that happen with him when I don't have the clicker in my pocket and just give him a pat and a cheerful word.

On Tuesday we tried using the clicker to reward acceptance of something he usually hates - being groomed on the inside of his hind legs up near his groin. Within one click he was allowing it on both sides with ears forward and not one sign of displeasure. Pretty amazing.

And I have to add another thing I'm thinking about. I admit that I really don't want a push-button pony. I want him to be happy, to enjoy his interactions with other equines and with people. I don't want a trick pony who has been conditioned to do a series of cute behaviors, or whose cheerfulness seems manipulated by the clicker constantly. So I'm trying to use this tool judiciously, trying to use it to enhance rather than to make all the conversations about click and pellet.

I love what I see so far but I don't want to overdo it.

I'd love to know what anyone else who has used this method thinks about the potential for overuse. Has the core relationship suffered? Does it feel like the clicker intrudes on the relationship at all?

I haven't used it at all with Keil Bay or Salina because I love my interactions with them and I intentionally do NOT want to change them by inserting a device that makes a sound. Am I being silly?