Be Generous!

Be Generous!

Why are you giving sooo many treats?

We get this question alot, often phrased in less kind ways ???? with our training videos. Well for one thing, we aren’t using treats, we are using hay pellets. We feed large handfuls of low value food to satiate and relax the horse while we do things with them. We often use a high rate of reinforcement (clicking and feeding often) and often higher than we really need to, especially when we are working on changing the way a horse FEELS about something.

When we train behaviors we mark and reinforce the specific behavior. But when we are trying to change a horse’s feelings about something, being extra generous, asking for short duration with a high rate of reinforcement helps add more and more value to the difficult task (emotionally). This speeds up how quickly their feelings begin to change by being more generous and making it a better experience as a whole. So while we can easily get compliance with a lower rate, we are being generous to make it great for the horse too!

Also, why not be generous? It makes everyone happy