Thursday, February 4, 2016

How to Teach Your Pony Tricks Like "Wave" & "Shake Hands"

The PonyPros show you how to teach your pony fun tricks like waving hello and shaking hands.

Francesca is 7 years old. Both she and Molly are new to clicker training.

I had spent about 3, three minute sessions shaping Molly to hold her leg up and wave instead of pawing and had recently begun tapping her behind the elbow to cue the wave. Today, Francesca starting waving her hand and saying, "Molly, say hello!" Now Molly waves back.

We decided to ad a second trick to Molly's repertoire so she would not constantly offer the wave. Francesca tapped her on the neck with a pen and said, "Molly, are you a bad pony?" Molly shook her head, "No." Because Molly is starting to understand what a click means, it only took 3 shakes of the head before Molly figured out that tap with the pen on the wither means "shake head."

Molly is a very fun pony to train because she offers lots of behaviors. Hopefully we'll be teaching her to smile soon as she loves to roll her lip up at the scent of an apple or special treats.

Great job, Francesca!

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