Treats at Christmas!
Dec 23rd, 2008 by Carolyn Resnick Method
Hello again. Today I would like to talk a little more about treats as it’s one area that seems to cause a lot of people a lot of confusion. When people are having difficulties with using treats, it is always because they haven’t put in place the right foundations.
Treats work for me because I set a strong bond without treats first and then I develop respect with a horse using treats. In formative training, I do not carry treats on me because it helps to keep the horse’s attention on my direction instead of begging. In short, a horse will then perform what I ask without wanting a treat when I don’t carry them with me. A horse will learn respect quickly if you put food on the ground, explain to him that the food is not his and that he needs to look for your direction when he is allowed to eat and when he isn’t, just like a nursing foal. By not having the treats on me, I notice the horse thinking more about his performance and trying to figure out what it is that I am asking him to accomplish and he loses interest in the treats very quickly.
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Carolyn – Thank you for the ideas on using treats. I played the “Treats are a gift from me not something you take against my will” game. After just two rounds, before I got to the “whoa” part, he came up to me, got a little rub on the face, then took it upon himself to walk away about 15 feet. He stopped, and waited for his gift. I’m pretty sure I heard him say, “Ok, I’m all set up over here and ready for my special gift.” It cracked me up. I had never used treats with him so this was an experiment. Boy, he’s really into it. He’s like my dog trying all different things on his own to see if it’ll result in a treat. Even the next day he would go away from me on his own, stop and wait. On one occasion early on, when the treat didn’t come he started to back because he thinks, “Well she’s always backing me up so maybe it’ll please her if I back up.” So there he is out there 15 – 20 feet away just backing up hoping it’ll pay off. I should add here that I don’t reward him when he does it on his own. I walk away. Although I don’t know if that’s the best response on my part.
The next day I used treats to get him to allow me into his right eye. We had a misunderstanding and he became adamant about keeping me out of his right eye. But after a few treats I walked all around in the paddock and he was going out of his way to get me in his right eye! A short time after we were done (so I thought) I was standing around in the paddock and he put the two games together: He walked 15 feet away from me, stopped, waited, then turned his head to the right to look at me! He did everything but back up! The attention is wonderful I only hope I haven’t created a monster.
Happy New Year! Looking forward to the Saturday teleconference… Darynne, Los Angeles