Part 76 – Entering the Clicker Training World….

It was early 2012… I spent time on line searching for more about clicker training.  Who was out there doing this?  Where had it originated?  Was this the type of training they used on marine mammals?  Why did it seem more common in the dog world?  Why did it seem so ‘hidden’ from the horse world?

I’m not going to go into the history of clicker training here but I will share a link where you can read more about it – clicker training history  

Karen Pryor’s books are very interesting and in particular ‘Dont Shoot The Dog’ and Reaching The Animal Mind.

Read more about Karen here….

I was starting to put the pieces together – it took off in the marine world in the 1960’s, progressed to the dog world in the 1980’s/90’s,……. and the horse world????  Well at that point I was struggling to find out how it entered the horse world.

I googled ‘clicker training horses’ and came up with several people all offering clicker training for horses.  I looked at all the websites  – and one caught my eye.  In fact what caught my eye was the fact that it was so ‘unassuming’ – there was no ‘hard sell’ – no romantic videos with music…. it was ‘quiet’.  Now that seemed exactly what I was looking for – there were books and DVDs to buy…. BOOKS!!!  There was a book on clicker training horses!  And as I looked further I realised Alexandra Kurland  pioneered clicker training for horses – she experimented with her own horses – and before too long she was teaching others her clicker training methods.  This happened in the mid 1990’s and early 2000’s and since then she has been developing and refining her work.

I sent her an email to inquire which DVDs I should start with – she replied with suggestions…. in the end I said I would take one of each – plus the books!!!!  It was nice she was concerned that it was too much information at once and advised me that if I bought all of them, I needed to put some aside for later.

I loved the fact she said that – it just showed where her focus was – it was just the opposite of what I had been through with Kert…. and previously Parelli.

I was so excited I was going to get this bundle of goodies in the mail!!!

It would be a few weeks before it arrived……. and as it turned out I didn’t get to look at it for some time ………

COMING UP – FAMILY CALLS!

IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS STORY, PLEASE START AT THE BEGINNING HERE – Part 1 – An Introduction

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