Rplus

The Importance of Reading and Understanding Your Horse’s Body Language

Being able to read your horse’s body language and facial expressions are one of the most important aspects of successful positive reinforcement training. Because we are looking for and reinforcing calm and relaxation, it is vital that we know what those emotions look like. Conversely, we need to be able […]

2020-09-20T22:27:09-06:00By |Blog, R+ Training, Training|Comments Off on The Importance of Reading and Understanding Your Horse’s Body Language

Opportunity or Avoidance? Should we, as horse trainers, combine positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement?

Hi Guys, Shawna here! I am often asked about the feasibility of combining positive reinforcement(R+) and negative reinforcement(R-). It is not a simple answer. Some people have referred to this practice as combined reinforcement, but this is not a scientific term or construct. I think the thing we need to […]

One at a time; more on how to be an effective positive reinforcement trainer following shaping guidelines

Last week we started talking about Karen Pryor’s ‘Ten Laws of Shaping’, and what those look like in terms of real-world examples. The second guideline identified by Karen Pryor in her book, ‘Don’t Shoot the Dog’, is as follows:

“Train one aspect of any particular behavior at a time; don’t try […]

What is Shaping?

One of the seminal books on positive reinforcement training with animals (and humans, too!) is ‘Don’t Shoot the Dog’, by Karen Pryor. When I was a zookeeper, this was required reading, and really has been the manual of this method of training for exotic animals since it was published. For […]

2020-09-20T22:50:09-06:00By |Blog, R+ Training|1 Comment

Thank you, Sarah!

One of the participants in our last workshop was Sarah Matlock, an instructor of Applied Equine Behavior at Colorado State University. We originally met Sarah at CHATTcon (Convergence of Human and Animal Training Technologies) in Seattle in July and were lucky enough to have her come learn with us earlier […]

2020-10-09T14:20:52-06:00By |Blog|0 Comments
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