Foundation Lessons

This episode is packed!  It's as though we used an over-sized suitcase and had three people sitting on it to get the lid to close!  It is stuffed full of good things.  In this episode we talk about each of the six foundation lessons of clicker training.  I won’t list them here. You’ll be learning about each one in the podcast.
 
 The foundation lessons let us respond to the emotional needs of our animals.  They always tell us what they need to work on.  They let us know when they’re confused or frustrated. And they tell us when they’ve GOT IT!!   
 Getting behavior is the easy part of training.  It’s fun.  It’s exciting.  Managing the enthusiasm is another whole layer:  •   What do you do with the animal that is just throwing behavior at you hoping you’ll reinforce something?  
 •   How do you manage the food when it’s still a distraction?  
 •   How do you teach the basic manners that let horses and humans work safely and cooperatively together?  
 •   Why are the first behaviors you teach with the clicker so precious?  
 These are just a few of the general themes we’ll be discussing as we go through the foundation lessons.   Always the conversation is wrapped around stories and our own enthusiasm for training.  At the end of the podcast I share with Dominique a fun video of the goats. Laughter is such a great reinforcer, and these goats will definitely make you smile! Their joy is so very clear.