2 Sep
2010

It's so nice to meet you!

After buying Carole Fletcher’s book Trickonometry, I decided to train Beau to shake hands. But I didn’t follow Carole’s instructions which included tying a lead rope around the horse’s foot. I have a fear of hurting horses with ropes and I prefer to use more positive and less restrictive methods.

Since Beau already knows to lift each foot on command it was an easy trick for him to learn. For anyone wanting to teach ‘shake hands’ I would recommend teaching your horse to lift his feet first rather than using a rope around the leg. Teaching him to lift his feet comes in handy for so many other tricks like Spanish Walk, as well as hoof picking and farrier work.

Beau has a pedestal which he loves, so I decided to do the trick with the pedestal for a couple of reasons. One reason is it is easier to shake his hoof when I don’t have to lean over or bend down. The second reason is that trick trained horses like to spontaneously offer their tricks. Tricks that involve the front legs like shaking hands and Spanish Walk can be dangerous to people on the ground who are not expecting the trick. This way he will associate ‘shake hands’ with the pedestal and hopefully will not offer it from the ground.

All I had to do was teach him the cue. I decided the cue would be walking towards him quickly with my right arm extended while saying “It’s nice to meet you”. I approached, asked him to lift his right foot, caught it with my right hand, clicked and praised. It only took a few times for him to understand the cue. In the following sessions we will work on remembering to only offer his right hoof, and lifting the hoof higher and more forward so I don’t have to reach out to him.

Here is a very good video I found on the Internet of Toby the Percheron learning to shake hands.

More tricks for horses:

Pick up feet on command

Stand on a mat

Pick up a handkerchief

Smile

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Hay Feeder Box

by TricknClick

1 Aug
2010

When we moved from North Carolina to Florida, we disassembled and reassembled our wonderful free-feeder hay box. Three years in July and still going strong! Every month or so I get an email from someone looking for the page of my old site where I described my hay feeder box. I’ve now made a new [...]

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A new hay net

by TricknClick

29 Apr
2010

My home-built Cataloochee hay-feeder box is awesome – it saves me a lot of work and the horses have access to hay all the time which is healthier for them. But now they just stand at or near the box all day and I want them to move around the pasture. Since our recent move to [...]

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Playing with horses

by TricknClick

29 Apr
2010

This past weekend I rode Beau for the first time since we moved to Florida. Actually, it was my first mount since last summer in Waynesville. I admit, I was a little bit nervous. The last time I rode him he bucked, and though I didn’t come off, it hurt my feelings that he would [...]

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28 Apr
2010

I recently posted an article on Examiner.com titled ‘The 10 great contributions of Cesar Millan’. Most of the feedback was positive with one very nice comment coming from Melissa Peltier, an executive producer of ‘The Dog Whisperer’. She wrote Dear Eve, Thank you so much for a positive article about Cesar! I think you really [...]

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New title, same topic

by TricknClick

24 Apr
2010

I’ve got a new title at Examiner.com – Animal Training Examiner. My editors were concerned that I did not mention clicker training in every article. I suggested changing my title to Humane Animal Training Examiner but they opted to drop the humane part. Rest assured, ‘humane’ is the key to the type of training I [...]

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Pups in prison

by TricknClick

12 Nov
2009

I saw a show on Animal Planet Monday night that really made an impact on me. It was about programs that match prison inmates with dogs in need. Beautiful show about how the human-canine connection improves the lives of dogs and the lives of people. Read my latest Examiner article about it.

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1 Nov
2009

The name Lyssa Howells might not be familiar to you, but if you read People magazine you may have seen a story about Lyssa and her extraordinary dog Willow. Willow has learned how to read words! We’ll be talking to Lyssa later this week. On the heels of my last post, I would like to [...]

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1 Nov
2009

Last week I published a 5 part series on different leadership styles and how they affect animal training. I was inspired by ongoing controversy about Cesar Millan. It seems that I am the only animal trainer who does not hate Cesar. On the contrary, like the public, I adore him. One thing I love about Cesar is [...]

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