Do you wish you could communicate better with your horse? 

                     Do you wish you could have fun with your horse?

                                         Or do you just want to lie around with him?

All these things are possible with a clicker trained horse.  With clicker training, you can teach your horse all the skills he needs and have fun at the same time.  With clicker training, your horse learns faster because he is actively trying to learn what you are trying to teach him.  You are truly working together toward a common goal. 

This site is set up as an educational site to help people learn about clicker training. You will find some basic information in the CLICKER BASICS, FAQ and GETTING STARTED sections.   If you are already clicker training, then you will want to visit the articles section for more advanced topics. 

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Monthly News for January 2012

Information on ClickerExpo 2012 has been posted on Karen Pryor's www.clickertraining.com.   It will be held in Portland, Oregon and Nashville, Tennessee.  If you've never been to ClickerExpo and want to read about it,  I write a ClickerExpo report every year and you can find them in the articles section. If you live in or near Texas, you might consider attending the ORCA conference which is hosted by the University of North Texas and has many of the same speakers as ClickerExpo, but is not focused directly on clicker training.  The ORCA website is http://orgs.unt.edu/orca/conference.

If you can't get to ClickerExpo, there are other educational opportunities out there. Many of the ClickerExpo faculty teach at dog training facilities during the year.  You can learn a lot from attending a session as an auditor and I find I learn as much from dog clicker trainers as I do from horse clicker trainers.  There are also lots of on-line courses and programs available.  Facebook is a good place to look up what's happening at the local dog clubs in your area, and many instructors also have facebook pages.

This is a good time of year to start thinking about winter projects. In Pennsyvlania we often have a few months with limited riding so I like to have a few ideas for training projects, things that I didn't have time to do in the better weather.  It's a good time to work on simple jobs like teaching your horse to be better about worming, shots, putting his foot in a bucket, standing ground tied, and other indoor activities.  I often pick a fun trick or two to teach or spend some time improving my free-shaping skills.  I find if I have a list of ideas for things to do, it's easier to motivate myself to go out and do something, even when it's cold.

It's been a while since I updated the suggested reading and with winter coming, it would be fun to add some new titles to the reading list.  Have you read any good books on clicker training, animal behavior or related topics? If you want to share the name of a book you recommend, send it to me and I'll start making a list. 

 Enjoy the rest of the good riding weather and Happy clicking,

  Katie

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NEW ARTICLE:  GROTON CLINIC REPORT

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This site now has a facebook page that is where I will post updates about what's new on the site, share what I am doing with my own horses, and post other items of interest. 

The site is named Equine Clicker Training - Katie Bartlett.  To go to it from here, you can click on the link below.