Pony Learns Tricks "Wave" and "Shake Hands"

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

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!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• horse
• pony
• tricks
• clicker+training
• equine
• shaping
• pawing
• waving
• say+hello
• Molly
• Francesca
• pony+pros
• bend
• oregon
• pony+pro
• ponypros
• shaking+head
• saying+no
• shake+head+no

[azponygirl]

Great job on the video. Very easy to follow as it was very well done!

[welcometopemberley]

Thanks! She really retained the tricks well. We have a whole skit now:)

[wolfydan121]

aww, this must be the cutest vid ever! well done Francesca! you will grow up to be a kind trainer!

[welcometopemberley]

She will, won't she? :) She's just as much of a sweetheart when she's riding. Thanks for your comment!

[highflyingdom]

just shows that when you know what you are doing, training an animal can be fun and rewarding. good job! both the trainer and her horse great partners!