Saturday, July 18, 2015

Chrome's New Trick! Video!


I taught Chrome to give me kisses!! In one session!

I haven't done any clicker training in a couple of years with Chrome, but I've been wanting to get back into it because we both miss it.  Since his ear is healed enough to put a halter on him I decided to work on kisses today (I have to take him out of the pasture for training because of Rocky).  Since I haven't used the clicker with him in so long I asked him to do a couple of old tricks and clicked him for them.  He got so excited he started offering all of his tricks.  I finally had to click him for doing nothing just to get him calmed down enough to learn something new.  I love clicker training!!  Being able to click a dog or horse for doing nothing is so awesome!

I started out having him target my hand and then tried moving my hand closer to my face, but he was confusing it with his cue to smile, so it wasn't working.  After about five or ten minutes I got frustrated and walked away.  After thinking for a few minutes I went back to him, bowed toward him with my hands behind my back and waited.  He tried turning his head away, lowering his head, smiling, etc.  When he finally held his nose still near my face I blew into his nostrils.  His ears popped forward and he reached out to touch my face.  I clicked him for that a couple of times and then started making kissing noises as the cue.  That's where the video starts.


Sorry I didn't get the earlier stuff on video.  I honestly never expected to get such great results in our first session!!  Isn't he so cute??  He was making such great progress with it I was able to increase the criteria in the first session.  By the end he was standing still (except the one time where I accidentally clicked him for moving), with his neck stretched out and his ears forward!  With clicker training you have to be careful with what you're rewarding.  You can be so focused on one thing that you don't notice other things.  So if he'd offered him nose, but had been pawing or had his ears pinned and I clicked then he would learn that I wanted him to do all of those things, not just stick his nose out.  So I have to be careful to only click when he offers his nose while standing still with his ears forward.  :)
That's also how a lot of people end up with geldings that are always dropped (or even have erections, which give us clicker trainers a bad image in my opinion) while clicker training.  They are so focused on the trick they don't notice he's dropped.  When I first started clicker training Chrome if he dropped I would ask him to back up and would only resume training when it was up.  I know being dropped is a sign of relaxation, but I don't want him doing that every time we're training or showing off tricks, so I specifically made it one of my criteria.  Anyway sorry for going off on a tangent!

For those of you who can't watch videos, here are a few more screenshots.


I love my boy!!  I'm going to teach him to give hugs next, then try again to teach him to nod his head yes.  I had trouble with that one years ago, but I'll try again.  Eventually I would love to teach him to bow, but that's going to be hard.  I tried it today just to see what he would do and he's so flexible he can get his head between his legs without leaning back so luring isn't going to work.  I'll probably just have to break it down and shape it with the clicker.  I hope I can find the patience for that haha!!

So what do you think of his new trick??

14 comments:

  1. Ah, Love It!!! I taught Barry and Sherman to do that.

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    1. Awesome! I tried teaching it to Chrome when he was younger (I think a yearling), but he was so mouthy I eventually gave up because I didn't want to get bit in the face. Now that he's older and has learned to keep his mouth to himself it wasn't that hard to teach and it's so cute!!

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  2. Fun-fun-fun! I use the word itself as the cue to avoid confusion (don't want to get bonked in the kisser should lean forward for some other reason and provide an accidental cue - which would be just like something I would do ;o) Bella is our resident "kisser", and she will also target smooch if I hold my hand over a person's head and cue her (she'll do anything for a treat *laugh*).

    You may already know this, but Allen Pogue has some great DVDs on trick training (including the bow).

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    1. My cue is the kissing noises more than the leaning forward. I was doing it so quietly I don't think you could hear it in the video. :)

      I don't think I've ever heard of Allen Pogue! I'll definitely look him up. Thanks!

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  3. I love it! Maybe I will have to teach Jethro that one.

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    1. You should!! It was really easy once I figured out using my hand as a target wasn't going to work hehe. It would be adorable to see Jethro giving kisses. :D

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  4. Adorable.
    Now could you do a video of him doing all of his tricks for us?
    Pretty please.

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    1. Yes I will! Hopefully next weekend. :) I've been wanting to do it for a while now.

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  5. He's doing it! And looking so proud :)

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