It's been a busy year and I'm ending it winding down just a little as I'm expecting a baby in February! This means I’m working until Christmas then I'll be back teaching my regular clients as soon as possible in 2013. As soon as Dad and baby can be left I’ll take on new clients again. I'll keep you informed.
Books
In other news I've been busy writing. I’ve a new ebook on how to begin clicker training horses which is available on Amazon, and other books on their way including one on resolving loading problems.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clicker-training-horses-Foundation-ebook/dp/B009Z0S1NE/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1354875718&sr=1-4
Talks
When I've not been writing I've been talking! Dyfed Carriage Club and Carmarthenshire Riders both enjoyed talks about my work this year. I also presented at what was probably the first ever conference dedicated to clicker training horses, and gave a demonstration at Doghill Farm in the Vale of Glamorgan:
CPD with Shawna Karrasch
In April I was fortunate to undertake CPD with Shawna Karrasch. Shawna is a pioneer amongst horse trainers. Formerly a Sea World trainer she took the behaviourist principles from the oceanarium to horse training, beginning at the Maddens’ show jumping yard. After honing her skills there Shawna gave presentations to the United States Equestrian Federation.
Being able to practise with Shawna and my colleagues from across the UK was a real boost. Despite a strong foundation in behavioural science, clicker training is not widely used in horse circles. Finding I was on the same page as a more experienced trainer and picking up new ideas has really added to the quality of my services.
http://on-target-training.com/
Liverpool Vet School
My colleague Dr Helen Spence (http://www.helenspencehorsesense.co.uk/) teaches the optional equine behaviour day and needed some video footage to illustrate her teaching. I was happy to supply some! Unfortunately one of my client's horses had an accident necessitating hospitalisation and dressing for some weeks after. This shocking accident was linked with the filly's first significant separation from her dam and puberty; a significant period of emotional development where fear and frustration dominate. This proved ripe for developing fear associations and defensive behavioural responses related to treating the affected hind leg. The defensive behavioural response of choice kicking since restraint and fear left no other option.
Despite sedation the filly was still a problem to treat. I taught her owner to break down the feared stimuli (bending down to look at, touch and dress the affected hind limb) into much smaller approximations (systematic desensitisation) and to associate them with something the filly liked – food (counter conditioning). Balancing the two simultaneous approaches is a fine art, scared horses do not want to eat, yet eating involves chewing so has a calming effect. The approximations of treatment had to be small enough that the filly wasn’t deterred from working for food, but big enough for her to link them to food!
In the hour I spent coaching the owner there were 12 mini bouts of training entirely at liberty, not more than 3 minutes long to keep arousal levels down. Her owner got from being on the same side as the affected limb to crouching in front of it miming the actions required to treat it while her filly kept still. Over the following two days she continued to advance using the same protocol to progressively remove and replace the dressing by the due date and without further sedation – the only restraint was the filly's own understanding that keeping still was linked to a food reward!
Probably the first ever Equine Clicker Training Conference:
I gave two presentations: First I co-demonstrated 'how to start clicker training' with Dr Helen Spence. We had three very different horses to show delegates what can happen in the beginning and how to proceed; teaching the horses that the clicker noise is associated with food and that they had to perform behaviour incompatible with over excitement and 'mugging' in order to get the reward.
Secondly I presented on applying clicker training to rescue horses. I began my career at the Blue Cross looking after and training horses, including rehabilitating the frightened and abused. This is where I began to develop my clicker training skills. Since clicker training is applied positive reinforcement, aka ‘reward-based training’, it adds positive experience to a horse's life in a way that negative reinforcement, aka ‘pressure and release’ cannot. In reward-based training a pleasurable stimulus is added to the horse, in pressure-release only an aversive stimulus, pressure, is removed. This may reduce the amount of negative experience for the horse since it learns how to escape and/or avoid aversive pressures, but it won't shift its experience towards positive emotional states in the same way that reward-based training does. The cutting edge of animal welfare science and philosophical thinking has moved beyond prevention of unnecessary harms to that plus addition of positive experience (Mellor, in press 2012, Animal Emotions, Behaviour and the Promotion of Positive Welfare States. New Zealand Veterinary Journal) reward-based training is a way forward for horse welfare in this respect.
Positive Loading
This common problem has generated a fair proportion of my work this year, with the latest victim of inappropriate and dangerous attempts to load him coming around to loading himself in just days: Positive Loading 2: Reef Reloaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-JNYPwqKI
I ran a well-attended workshop for the owners of problem loaders back in August. The notes from this workshop form my forthcoming ebook on the subject.
Look forward to seeing you in 2013!
All the best
Jenni
When I've not been writing I've been talking! Dyfed Carriage Club and Carmarthenshire Riders both enjoyed talks about my work this year. I also presented at what was probably the first ever conference dedicated to clicker training horses, and gave a demonstration at Doghill Farm in the Vale of Glamorgan:
"Jenni Nellist's clicker training Demo at Dyffryn was brilliant. She won applause from a large audience who turned up on a very cold day last Saturday to watch. Everyone was fascinated and empowered by Jenni's demo. The two demo horses looked really game and seemed suitably impressed by this very ethical training system – as did some horses in the adjoining field who came to watch!"
Love Horses Magazine Autumn Newsletter
In April I was fortunate to undertake CPD with Shawna Karrasch. Shawna is a pioneer amongst horse trainers. Formerly a Sea World trainer she took the behaviourist principles from the oceanarium to horse training, beginning at the Maddens’ show jumping yard. After honing her skills there Shawna gave presentations to the United States Equestrian Federation.
Being able to practise with Shawna and my colleagues from across the UK was a real boost. Despite a strong foundation in behavioural science, clicker training is not widely used in horse circles. Finding I was on the same page as a more experienced trainer and picking up new ideas has really added to the quality of my services.
http://on-target-training.com/
Liverpool Vet School
My colleague Dr Helen Spence (http://www.helenspencehorsesense.co.uk/) teaches the optional equine behaviour day and needed some video footage to illustrate her teaching. I was happy to supply some! Unfortunately one of my client's horses had an accident necessitating hospitalisation and dressing for some weeks after. This shocking accident was linked with the filly's first significant separation from her dam and puberty; a significant period of emotional development where fear and frustration dominate. This proved ripe for developing fear associations and defensive behavioural responses related to treating the affected hind leg. The defensive behavioural response of choice kicking since restraint and fear left no other option.
Despite sedation the filly was still a problem to treat. I taught her owner to break down the feared stimuli (bending down to look at, touch and dress the affected hind limb) into much smaller approximations (systematic desensitisation) and to associate them with something the filly liked – food (counter conditioning). Balancing the two simultaneous approaches is a fine art, scared horses do not want to eat, yet eating involves chewing so has a calming effect. The approximations of treatment had to be small enough that the filly wasn’t deterred from working for food, but big enough for her to link them to food!
In the hour I spent coaching the owner there were 12 mini bouts of training entirely at liberty, not more than 3 minutes long to keep arousal levels down. Her owner got from being on the same side as the affected limb to crouching in front of it miming the actions required to treat it while her filly kept still. Over the following two days she continued to advance using the same protocol to progressively remove and replace the dressing by the due date and without further sedation – the only restraint was the filly's own understanding that keeping still was linked to a food reward!
Probably the first ever Equine Clicker Training Conference:
I gave two presentations: First I co-demonstrated 'how to start clicker training' with Dr Helen Spence. We had three very different horses to show delegates what can happen in the beginning and how to proceed; teaching the horses that the clicker noise is associated with food and that they had to perform behaviour incompatible with over excitement and 'mugging' in order to get the reward.
Secondly I presented on applying clicker training to rescue horses. I began my career at the Blue Cross looking after and training horses, including rehabilitating the frightened and abused. This is where I began to develop my clicker training skills. Since clicker training is applied positive reinforcement, aka ‘reward-based training’, it adds positive experience to a horse's life in a way that negative reinforcement, aka ‘pressure and release’ cannot. In reward-based training a pleasurable stimulus is added to the horse, in pressure-release only an aversive stimulus, pressure, is removed. This may reduce the amount of negative experience for the horse since it learns how to escape and/or avoid aversive pressures, but it won't shift its experience towards positive emotional states in the same way that reward-based training does. The cutting edge of animal welfare science and philosophical thinking has moved beyond prevention of unnecessary harms to that plus addition of positive experience (Mellor, in press 2012, Animal Emotions, Behaviour and the Promotion of Positive Welfare States. New Zealand Veterinary Journal) reward-based training is a way forward for horse welfare in this respect.
Positive Loading
This common problem has generated a fair proportion of my work this year, with the latest victim of inappropriate and dangerous attempts to load him coming around to loading himself in just days: Positive Loading 2: Reef Reloaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-JNYPwqKILook forward to seeing you in 2013!
All the best
Jenni
