14 Reasons why horses get nippy using R+ Training
Nippy, grumpy, ears back frustration is sometimes seen in R+ horses. Here are 14 reasons why:
1. A previous history of undisciplined hand feeding is likely to cause nipping. This can be resolved.
2. Never try to train a hungry/hangry horse. If more than 30 minutes has passed since the horse ate roughage, the stomach is already getting emptier.
3. Always use the lowest value reinforcer possible. Apples and carrots are often so desirable for the horse that the horse becomes over excited by their presence. Use wither scratches, handfuls of hay or grass nuggets as lower value reinforcers but be very generous with scratches or handfuls.
4. Training can be a form of enrichment and bored horses can become over eager while training. Make the daily living environment more interesting and enriched to reduce boredom.
5. Inexperienced R+ trainers are often too slow with marker timing and use an incorrect reward delivery style, which can cause frustration, ears back or nipping. The bridging sound must be made exactly while the horse performs the behaviour asked for. Rewards are Classically Conditioned to be linked with the bridging sound to enable there to be more delay with delivery after this sound. The horses’ nose must remain away from your body during delivery of food rewards.
6. Use a high Rate of Reinforcement, with constant reinforcement to maintain engagement in the lesson for new learners, or when teaching a difficult or new behaviour. Novice R+ trainers often don’t use a high enough Rate of Reinforcement and this causes frustration, ears back and nipping.
7. Give the horse visual cues to know when training session starts if you are using food rewards (the food bag) and when it ends (the jackpot “end of session” pile of food).
8. Don’t reward behaviour that you don’t want to see again.
9. Do reward the horse for being quiet, calm and relaxed around you and food.
10. Allow horses to say “no thanks, not now” to avoids coercion and avoid “Rock and a Hard” place type choices, handing control back to the horse, with no bad consequences for failure to comply, and so help to build the relationship.
11. If the horse is confused, doesn’t understand, or is unable to do as you ask, they will fail to perform behaviour and therefore not earn the reward, leading to frustration, ears back, nipping and reduced enthusiasm. Ask for something simpler to re-engage. Reward for all tries.
12. Learning by “trial and error” is not the best way to train, as it leads to frustration. Set up the training environment to assist desired training outcome by creating a likelihood that the horse will do what you have in mind. Try to set up the environment to create “errorless learning”.
13. Reward well for approximations at first, to maintain engagement and SEEKING but increase your criteria gradually to refine and shape the approximations towards the goal behaviour. Reward for saying “no thanks not now” too to give control back to the horse and provide true choice to reduce risk of coercion.
14. If you lose behaviour, reduce the criteria to a simpler level to reduce frustration related to failures, and reward well to restore confidence. Continuing to ask for a raised criteria of a behaviour not yet fluently understood can result in frustration, ears back and nipping.
R+ is simple, but it isn’t easy to do well.
Spend time Well
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944661/
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/21/2904/htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181986/