Do Horse Training Techniques Work With Other Animals

I only finished reading a lovely novel, The Hearts of Horses, by Molly Gloss. It'due south almost a young woman who strikes out to make her living "gentling" horses in 1917, when many of the men were off to war. She'southward more than comfortable around animals than she is effectually people (a current topic of postings on my February. 4th '09 blog) and uses methods atypical of the time. Rather than "breaking" horses, Molly uses what people often now call "equus caballus whisperer" techniques to teach horses to work with, rather than against, the people who ride them.

In spite of my lack of fondness for the title "horse whisperer," I will never forget watching horse trainer Pat Parelli piece of work an "uncatchable" horse in an arena in Madison, Wisconsin. The horse was so difficult to catch that the club who brought Parelli to Madison began to despair that they wouldn't be able to become him out of the field and into a trailer to bring him to the seminar. When the horse was let out of the trailer into the loonshit, he pounded around the dirt oval, eyes white and nostrils flaring, always speeding upward whenever Parelli got anywhere almost him. And in 15 or twenty minutes he was following Parelli around similar a puppy, his large equine head heavy on Pat's shoulder, his eyes liquid and his face up relaxed.

The reason I bring it up here is that one of Parelli's (and of many others by the way) techniques was so like to what I do with dogs that I was jumping upwards and down in my seat. Too rewarding the horse for fifty-fifty just stopping and looking at him (by stopping himself), Parelli began after in the seminar to talk nigh what I call "space management." Although his techniques have changed a fleck since I saw him years ago, he illustrated the importance of gently and kindly "owning the space" (my words, not his) around your horse. He encouraged people to be mindful of not letting horses run over them and, in one case they had an established relationship with the horse, to move backward to get the horse to arroyo, and to move frontward to enquire the horse to back up. What I like best in general about this kind of work is that is focuses on understanding how an animate being sees the world, and trying to translate what we desire into signals that they can understand.

That's how I run across what I call "body blocks," in which I teach a domestic dog to 'stay' by at kickoff reinforcing the shortest suspension in their behavior with nutrient, but also by using my torso like a crossing guard to cease them if they starting time to get upwardly before released. I describe it in much more particular in Family Friendly Domestic dog Training, but the idea is simple: ask for the briefest of stays at first and reinforce them as they are staying by underhanding food all the mode to their mouths. Gradually, oh so gradually ask for longer and longer pauses (commencement with 1/ii a second, then one 2d, then two….honest: start with 'stays' that short). If at whatever time the dog starts to get up, just lean forrad to "accept the space" and lean astern instantly when the canis familiaris responds. Information technology'll take some practice (practise on a person first, no kidding!) simply once they get it people are amazed at how easy it tin be to teach stay with a combination of reinforcement and a simple, ethologically relevant consequence.

I've talked about body blocks for many years now in many seminars, and one of the most gratifying moments in my career was when I started hearing people talk about 'body blocks' without mentioning my name. That meant they've become office of the lexicon, and boy does that experience good. The best times take been when seminar participants have come up, earlier I started the relevant demonstration, and told me that I should try using something they learned called "body blocks!" How sugariness it is…

But I digress: all this is only because I was so struck this weekend reading The Hearts of Horses, about the departure between "breaking horses" (what a horrific phrase when yous think about it) and "training" horses. I was reminded of growing up in the 50's and threescore's in Arizona, riding every bit a young girl with crusty former cowboys who talked about '"gentling" horses, about trying to meet the world from their perspective, and being their friend instead of their oppressors. Of course, they were the exception; more common was the attitude that you lot must "show them who is boss" and get them trained up in a matter of a few days no matter what information technology took.

The novel I just read isn't going to teach you how to train a horse using these methods, but it is a lovely examination of a young woman's coming of age at a very unlike time in our country'due south history, and of the topic of the last post–beingness more than comfortable around animals than people.

Meanwhile, information technology was over 40 degrees this weekend! Amazing, totally astonishing. Willie and I worked the flock without lambs (he's learning his right hand flank whistle) although the snow in the hill pasture was still over a foot deep; Jim and I wormed the sheep and I cooked like a maniac. I took braised spinach and carmelized tomatoes out of the freezer and scrambled them with eggs and English cheddar for breakfast. I cooked up broccoli, spinach and parsley for the dog's greens, mixed them with pumpkin and steel cut oats and egg for Lassie and sardines for Willie. I put 8 servings of what Jenna calls Comfort Soup in the freezer: chicken and carrots and leeks and mushrooms, cooked w/ lots of red wine, counterbalanced with dumplings sparked with rosemary and scallions. Yummm. Later on Lord's day I marinated some lamb chops in the remainder of the wine and ate them with fresh greens and wheat berries. So good. Information technology seems that I am obsessed with nutrient lately (the scales confirm this). Is it the conditions? Practise I have any alibi whatsoever? Doubtful.

Hither'southward a photo of my cat Sushi, who deserves a bit of attention herself for heaven's sake, on 1 of her favorite perches: the peak of the truck. (And yeah, I worry a lot about her being injure or driven away unintentionally past a company–she'll walk into your car in a middle vanquish if I don't watch her, so I nourish obsessively to her whereabouts whenever anyone is driving up or driving away.) You'll note that Sushi has concerns about looking directly into the eye of a lens!