UNDER CONSTRUCTION as of 2/22/2018
Target to Individual Trainers in a Group of Humans (Cue: "Target", extended finger target )
Task Eight helps the animal generalize about humans, and helps them learn to respond to their name being called, and to tolerate multiple people. It can be dangerous in a small pen, so make sure the animal has room to escape and run the fence if it panics. A 30' round pen is a good training environment. The humans should stay quietly in the center of the pen if the animal panics - we drill this behavior into human participants so everyone responds safely.
- Subtask1: Target with low latency to other trainers turning to the right.
- Subtask2: Target with low latency to other trainers turning to the left.
Count-Down Petting (Cue: preparatory "Ready, BP" with countdown on each stroke )
Task Nine is about making the horse comfortable with petting. It should be very pleasant for the horse, with a bit of scritching the itchy parts. It is not about obedience. Everything but the legs is touched.
- Subtask1: Stand for Count Down Petting.
Count-Down Petting with "Easy" Initiator Signal (Cue: "Easy, BP" )
Task Ten ups the game from Task 9, by requiring the animal to initiate the petting by offering the "easy" posture, and also requiring the animal to maintain that posture for the count-down.
- Subtask1: Stand for Count Down Petting while staying at "Easy".
Count-Down Grooming with "Easy" (Cue: "Easy, BP")
Task Eleven extends Task Ten by having a grooming tool on the animal. Some animals don't like certain tools. Adapt to keep your animal trying.
- Subtask1: Stand for Count Down scratching(5) with Mustang Tamer Stick.
- Subtask2: Stand for Count Down brushing(5).
- Subtask1: Stand for Count Down rubbing(5) with guider stick on legs.
Standing to be Flysprayed (Cue: preparatory "Ready")
Task Twelve is only taught in the summer at Mustang Camp. We use respondent conditioning to get the animal to actually work to earn a squirt. As always, it is very important to maximize control and predictability for the animal.
- Subtask1: Respondent Conditioning : food=spray sound (no OMGs <4).
- Subtask2: Do easy while trainer sprays around horse (no OMGs <4).
- Subtask3: Do easy to earn flyspray on L and R side (no OMGs >4).
Head in a Rope Loop (Cue: "Target rope", rope extended toward animal )
Task Thirteen gets the horse to interact with the rope in a positive way. This sets horses up to be very easy to catch.
- Subtask1: Target face to rope 10/min.
- Subtask2: Accept rope above eyes for duration (5)
- Subtask3: Push head through rope loop to neck with latency <3sec
Stick Head into Halter (Cue: "Target halter", halter extended towards animal)
Task Fourteen makes haltering a fun game. They learn to wear it and feel so smart! We have a video showing how to halter in various ways. The main thing to remember is to always give them a choice and to never let it go flying if they toss their head.
- Subtask1: Target buckle spot to two hands for duration (5).
- Subtask2: Push head into breakaway halter with latency <3sec
- Subtask3: Allow throat strap to be snapped 5x
- Subtask4: Stand for halter to be removed 5x *
- Subtask5: Stand for mustang hug 5x
- Subtask6: Stand for halter strap over poll 5x *
- Subtask7: Stand for halter to be buckled 5x *
- Subtask8: Stand for halter to be put on 3 ways and removed with no evasions