Discover Top Posts Tagged with #training theory

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Source Paper: Social Referencing in the Domestic Horse

Transcript of the top 2 Images in this post:

"It’s Science Says Sunday!

Previous studies have shown that dogs and cats use social referencing. In other words, they use human emotional information in an unfamiliar situation to guide their behavior. This study looked at whether horses can also use human emotional information to adjust their behavior to a novel object.

To test this, an experimenter positioned in the middle of an arena directed their gaze and voice towards the novel object using either a positive or a negative emotional expression. The researchers measured the duration of the horse's position to the experimenter and the object, frequency of gazing behavior, and physical interactions with either the object or experimenter.

Horses in the “positive condition” showed less avoidance behavior towards the novel object compared to horses in the “negative condition”. Horses in the “negative condition” showed an increase in vigilant behavior, suggesting that horses do use emotional cues from humans to guide their behavior towards novel objects.

There were also differences in breed types — thoroughbreds showed less human-directed behavior than warmbloods and ponies."

#equine science #equine health #equine welfare #equine behavior #equine cognition #equine training #training talk #training theory

The ferrets I’ve had over the years have taught me a fun training game I’ll call “where’s the reinforcement”.

Ferrets do what they want to do, and will do anything to reach that goal; so you essentially have to Premack them into doing any task predictably and reliably. If you want the ferret to high five you for a treat while there’s a potted plant on the table, there’s a good chance they’re “ignoring” you because they’re planning how to play in the forbidden-dig-box. Then you add unto that how easily bored ferrets are, and you’ll find that the highest reinforcer in the environment changes after one or two reps. To train a ferret well, you’ll end up constantly checking the environment for reinforcement and finding ways to control and use naturally occurring reinforcers like the bunny in the yard they’d like to chase or access to the bathtub. The only way ferrets are usually even potty trained beyond 90% reliability is by turning litter box use into currency for freedoms. If you want a good recall, you better hope you’re able to be the fastest route to digging a good hole if that’s what you’re calling them away from.

If you’re a dog trainer who has other species, I urge you to train them. Even just fun stuff. You’ll learn so so much.

#ferret #dog training #behavior theory #training theory #i can’t remember my tag foot that

Learn more. Be better.

Welcome to my new blog!!!

I’ve decided to start a blog where I can start writing more in-depth posts on my training escapades and have better organized discussion! I will still be on tumblr and nothing will change here, but I have wanted to get back into writing and journalism for a while now and I figured it’s about time to start a real blog! I plan on having weekly posts, the first one is already up!!

#equine #equestrian #horseblr #blog #clicker training #animal training #training theory #discussion

This is a paper I did for an Equine Behaviour class through Guelph University, hope you enjoy! Imprinting is the idea that there is a special category of learning during a very sensitive period early on in an animal’s development, most commonly thought of in reference to birds when they learn to fol

Heres an article I did on Imprint Training.

#training theory #imprint training #foals

Researchers investigated how horses interact with and view riding arenas as spaces. Here’s what they found.

TheHorse.com | 3 April 2020

For you, it’s a work area. But have you ever thought of what an arena space is in the eyes of a horse? A grassless void, a place of separation from a herd, a place that has a “home base” and other areas worthy of careful exploration. Even if they’re used to “working” in that space, horses view arenas in the context of their own natural environment. Ethical training should take the horse’s point of view into consideration and allow the horse to express natural exploratory behavior in arenas, according to Canadian researchers.

Their study design and full details are described in their paper, “Sniff, look and loop excursions as the unit of “exploration” in the horse (Equus ferus caballis) when free or under saddle in an equestrian arena,” published in a recent issue of Behavioural Processes.

“We have demonstrated that the horse has a unique viewpoint of the (arena) area, revolving around a home base, and a specific behavior pattern, looping, that it uses to explore the arena,” said Candace Burke, BSc, MSc, of the Department of Neuroscience in the Canadian Centre for Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, in Alberta, Canada.

“If we let the horses exhibit this behavior, then I think both riders and horses will have a better experience,” Burke said.

Read the rest of the article at the link above.

#equine science #equine health #equine welfare #training theory #training talk #equine behavior

Current evidence of how human sex-related differences in riders and handlers may influence horse behaviour is limited. The Equine Behaviour

The Impact of the Sex of Handlers and Riders on the Reported Social Confidence, Compliance and Touch Sensitivity of Horses in Their Care

Simple Summary

Any influence of the sex of the human partner in human–horse interactions on the behaviour of horses is currently largely anecdotal. Associations between the sex of humans and equine behaviour may have welfare implications. Our study investigates observations of ridden and non-ridden horse behaviour, as reported by respondents (n = 1420) to the Equine Behaviour and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ). Results reveal some human sex-related differences between horses handled and ridden by male and female humans. Horses ridden or handled by male humans were more likely to be difficult to catch and defensive when approached, but less likely to pull on the reins/brace the neck or toss their head. The study revealed the importance of considering the sex of the rider or handler when investigating equine behaviour.

#equine science #equine welfare #training theory #equine behavior #equine husbandry #training talk

Four factors significantly increase the odds of injury among Thoroughbred racehorses, Australian researchers found.

22 January, 2021

The authors noted that the risk factors for injuries among two-year-old horses in the study were equivalent to those for older horses, with the exception of dam parity and the length of the training preparation.

“The maturity of a racehorse and the ideal starting time for training is strongly debated, with limited supporting literature.

They continued: “While the lack of significant findings supports the possibility that there is no long-term harm in racing horses at two years of age, it does not confirm that early exercise is beneficial either.

“Furthermore, there is the issue of survival bias, whereby those individuals that are injured early are removed and those remaining are at a reduced risk of injury.”

#equine science #equine health #equine welfare #lameness #musculoskeletal #training theory

The mechanisms underlying individual variation in learning are key to understanding the development of cognitive abilities. In humans and pr

14 January, 2021

Abstract

The mechanisms underlying individual variation in learning are key to understanding the development of cognitive abilities. In humans and primates, curiosity has been suggested as an important intrinsic factor that enhances learning, whereas in domesticated species research has primarily identified factors with a negative effect on cognitive abilities, such as stress and fearfulness. This study presents the first evidence of a link between object-directed curiosity and learning performance in young horses in two very different learning tasks (visual discrimination and pressure-release). We exposed young horses (n = 44) to standardised novel object tests at 5 months and 1 year of age and found consistency in responses. Standard indicators of fearfulness (e.g. heart rate and alertness) were unrelated to learning performance, whereas exploratory behaviour towards the novel objects correlated to performance in both learning tasks. Exploratory behaviour was unreinforced in the novel object tests and likely reflects the animal’s intrinsic motivation (i.e. curiosity), suggesting that this trait is favourable for learning performance. In addition to the insights that these results provide into cognition in a domesticated species, they also raise questions in relation to fostering of curiosity in animals and the impact that such manipulation may have on cognitive abilities.

#equine science #equine health #equine welfare #training theory #equine behavior #equine learning