December 6, 2009

I worked Jackson just a little bit today. I warmed him up a little, just longing with the cordeo. He was very light on it today. Then I wanted to try the free choice training. So I just stood in front of him and waited. First he offered nodding his head, so I clicked and treat that once. He offered it again, but I wanted to see him come up with something new. So he offered shaking his head. Click, reward once. Then he offered the Ramener. Click, reward once. The he offered a Jambette. Click, reward. Then he just did a mixture of those for a little bit. Although he started pawing the ground rather than doing the Jambette. I just waited. Then he gave me a kiss. Click, reward. Then he gave me several kisses. No reward. So then he started pushing my hand with his nose. I rewarded that. Then he started trying all the previous tricks again. Then, when he was pawing, he pawed the lead rope that was on the ground. I rewarded that too. Then he dropped his nose and touched the rope. Click reward. He then touched it again, but I waited until he lipped the rope a little before rewarding. We stopped the free choice there. I was pretty happy with what he did.

Then we worked just a little on front crunch. I asked him to park out a little and then gently pulled the cordeo back. At first he started to back up, but then I asked him to park out just a little bit more and then when I asked him to lean back he did! I asked for it three times and then waited. I wanted to try waiting to see if he would offer it. And he did! He offered a nice one. Click, reward. He offered it two more times and then we stopped.

I also worked on riding him with just the cordeo. He is pretty good about turning at the walk, but as soon as I ask him to trot, he doesn’t do as well. He actually wants to lope a lot. The nice thing, though, is that he is very good about slowing and stopping. I think we are making a lot of progress. I think that using the clicker is helping Jackson want to listen when I ask him things. I wish I knew about clicker training a year ago!