training talk || v.2 open

[caf.]

TRAINING TALK
A CHATROOM FOR ALL ANIMAL TRAINERS

Taught your dog to sit and roll over? Taking a horse to the Olympics? Worked with marine animals, birds, or another species? Never had an animal but like to watch animal sports? Welcome to Training Talk: a place to discuss techniques with others, share unorthodox methods, and revel in your successes! Whether you're a purely positive reinforcement dog trainer, a natural horsemanship junkie, or a mixed bag of conditioning and behavior, we all can benefit from education. Learn about varying methods, incorporate positive aspects into your work, experiment, learn, and grow. You never know what you could accomplish!

NAVIGATION:
Home (you are here)
Rules
Member List
Training Resources

[caf.]

RULES

1. Respect Chickensmoothie's rules - all discussion must be child-appropriate.

2. Friendly and respectful debate is allowed and encouraged in Training Talk. Arguing is not. Please keep an open mind and respect the viewpoints of others, even if they go against yours.

3. Please stay on topic. There are plenty of other topics in this forum for discussion of animals, so we'd prefer to keep this one specifically about training.

4. Feel free to share pictures of your animals, but be cautious of sharing your location or appearance. When in doubt, blur out faces and avoid locations and, of course, ages.

5. Don't share a photo of another trainer without permission, unless they are reasonably well-known. If I can't google them, ask for permission before sharing.

6. Don't share photos that include gore, blood, or other sensitive content.

7. While we appreciate concern for the topic's well-being, we ask that moderation be left to the moderators themselves.

8. While we do advocate for all animals, we must respect the law. Please do not share content regarding ownership of animals that are illegal in your area.

9. Please respect other users. Name-calling is expressly forbidden. Never insult someone else's animal.

10. Please refrain from double-posting; instead, edit your post to add what you wanted to say.

[caf.]

MEMBERS

Astro,. (dogs)
caf. (dogs & horses)
Mycorrhizae (cats, dogs, raptors & corvids)
Rainbowhorse77 (horses & goats)

BECOME A MEMBER

You don't by any means need to register as a
member to post in this topic; anyone is
welcome to chat here! The member list is
simply a resource for finding others with
similar interests. Please alert caf. to any
username changes.

Code: Select all

[center][b]I'd like to be added as a
member![/b][/center]
[b]Username:[/b]
[b]Species:[/b] (can be multiple)

[caf.]

TRAINING RESOURCES

As a trainer, it is always helpful to browse a variety of ideas on working with animals so you can discover what works for you. This page is meant to be an incomplete collection of various resources on training for any species. If you know of a good resource, please make a post in this thread or send a PM to caf. including the name of the resource, a link if it is online, to which species the resource applies, and a brief summary of what it teaches/what it's useful for.

BOOKS

100 Ways to Improve Your Horse's Schooling by Susan McBane - equine

McBane's guide isn't necessarily a guide to teach your horse any
one specific skill or trick, but it is nonetheless an invaluable
resource for any horseback rider. This text, while geared
towards english riders, provides a variety of tips on improving
the quality and productivity of your training sessions, both by
working with your horse and working on your own abilities.

Dressage for the Not-So-Perfect Horse by Janet Fox - equine

Fox's book on dressage training is chock-full of dissections of the
USEF's rules on dressage, tutorials on working with horses of
all temperaments and attitudes, and charming personal quips
to help any rider apply the foundations of dressage in their
riding. Diagrams throughout the text help the reader to
understand the importance of each movement and aid.
Whether or not you are a dressage rider, Fox explains how
dressage is for every horse, and how important it is for the
horse to be supple, obedient, and happy in his work.

Trick Training for Horses by Bea Borelle (with Gudrun Braun) - equine

This book is a simple step-by-step guide on teaching your horse
a variety of tricks, from ground-tying to lying down to
unrolling a carpet. Borelle's instructions are made easy with
charming photographs of her adorable horses, and several
troubleshooting options are provided for horses who don't
cooperate so easily.

VIDEO CHANNELS/VIDEOS

TheQueerBlackEquestrian (Youtube Channel) - equine

This trainer, who has a tumblr blog under the same name, works
with her 3-year-old filly on the ground and under saddle and
documents much of the training process through vlogs. She
works with numbers schools of thought when it comes to
training, especially positive reinforcement, and has one or two
how-to videos up on skills like self-bridling and self-parking at
the mounting block.

WEBSITES/WEBPAGES

OTHER

[caf.]

we are now open for new members! to start, here's a basic starter question to get the conversation rolling;

What are some accomplishments you've made recently in your training journey? Did you get a new pet? Train yours to do something exciting? Learn something really fascinating?

personally, my most recent exciting moment was with my horse, Jazz. my riding boots have been in the shop lately since one of the heels got torn off, so i've been spending a lot of time riding bareback and working on foot since i can't get any serious dressage work done. Jazz's at-liberty work has markedly improved in the last few months; he'll walk and trot with me and jump over small verticals, but i'd never attempted anything significant. however, my barn recently got in a bunch of new jumps, including this set of mid-sized astroturf half-rolltops about two feet high. since they came in, Jazz has been terrified of them; i fell off him not too long ago because he spooked hard at them unexpectedly while i was doing a no-stirrup lesson. while he was at liberty, i just dragged them to the center of the arena and let him sniff them for awhile and eat an apple off of one of them. out of curiosity, i trotted him over a few small crossrails and took him to the rolltops and, on the second try, he actually jumped them, totally at liberty! i'm very disappointed i didn't get it on film, and he refused to do it afterward since we'd been working for awhile and he was tired, overstimulated, and hungry (it was dinnertime, after all), but i'm nonetheless really proud. i really hope that lesson transfers to his under-saddle work, aha, since i've been worrying about trying to get him to jump them for the first time with me on him.

[Winstalgia]

I'd like to be added as a
member!

Username: An Astrophile,.
Species: Doggos

[caf.]

I'd like to be added as a
member!

Username: An Astrophile,.
Species: Doggos

welcome! or, should i say, welcome back!!

[Winstalgia]

Yup, XD Never going on a hiatus again!

So, I wanted update from the doggos on the last thread, my Grandparents poodles; Marty and Stella. They are now 2 years old and still hyper. Stella now will do sit, lie down, shake, and stay on command, but she is still very stubborn.
Marty is food-motivated but I've been refusing to give him treats when I train him now, he needs to learn that he won't get food every time. He now sits, lays down, stays, and follows, definitely a better listener than his sister. My Grandpa and Grandma are stubborn and blame each other when it comes to the dogs, so I spent 1 hour making training sheets for them with basic info. Stella jumps less and knows not to jump on me, she doesn't even try. They listen to my Grandpa, who taught Stell how to roll over recently. Marty and I have a special connection and he mainly just listens to me though, occasionally Grandpa. c: They also learned down and don't touch!

To sum it up, they are doing way better than the last time I posted-on V.1, I'm proud of them! They are definitely difficult to handle though, way harder than the last family dog. Who I taught to do jump, leave the room (out), stay, follow, conga, roll over, shake, high-paw, and even fetch his leash when he wants to go out.

[caf.]

how exciting! i'm very glad to hear they've made as much progress as they have; always good to have good foundations on youngsters, even if they aren't perfect just yet. that's amazing, what you accomplished with your old dog; what a powerful bond you must have had!

as i've continued reading and working with my own animals, i've found that i don't understand dogs quite as well as i thought. i have basic training theory down with them and still have all my foundations down from dog therapy boot camp, but i've begun to notice that it's markedly easier for me to pick up on subtle cues from my horse than from either of my dogs. granted, both of my dogs have personalities that i'm not a huge fan of, but it still surprises me how little of my work with them is intuitive. but then, i could really afford to put in more time with them; it's easy to work at the barn since i spend so much time there, but all my time at home is spent doing homework and resting from my busy life lol. there's no point to any of this paragraph, really, just something i thought of as i was reading your post!

[Winstalgia]

-snip-

He died around 6 months, he just listened well-surprising since he was a very hyper dog.

Dogs are the only animals I can read well. It varies though with which dog/s you're working with, how well they'll respond and such.
I'm tired + just woke up woke btw, I may not make sense...

All you really need is 10-15 minutes each day with your dogs, at the most. Also depends on age, a younger dog that may have short attention span could be just 5 minutes. I wish I had a dog to teach tricks and stuff, my cat is such a lazy bum! He's also older so...
But, you could also do mini sessions during the day.

I plan on getting a horse eventually, when I move out and get a good job.