Positive Reinforcement Examples

by Elaine Polny
(Palgrave, Ontario, Canada)

I needed to get 2 out of 7 horses into individual stalls in the barn (once a day for a short while at the end of this winter) because they needed some extra food and attention. Cash suffering from allergies and Candy??well she?s just really really old and loosing muscle tone and fat! Being that I like to be very efficient at what I do, my goal was to be able to call them individually, have them come to the gate and walk into the barn without the need for a rope around their neck let alone a halter. The biggest challenge was they needed to do this while passing the lush green grass without stopping or getting distracted.

First thing to do is set this up when the grass is not there to begin with which eliminates that challenge right there. Then I can accomplish this task and create a conditioned response from the horses. That way when the grass does grow I have a much better chance of having them repeat the behavior. But if by chance they were to stop and eat the grass instead, I would look at this as a strong indication that they are missing something in their diets.

Through consistent methods of simply allowing them to hear me in the barn making up the goodies created anticipation. Oh yes, they love their food! Since they all have access to hay, this was something special (beet pulp & vitamins mostly).

Now if I needed to use a rope around their neck at first for guidance no problem. But I never needed to. I was also teaching the other horses that only these two were invited.

Doing this consistently allowed me to go to a gate, call the individual horse, have then walk through and straight into the barn. I would merely follow and close the barn door behind them.

The positive reinforcement was the food in the stall and the behavior for them was to just go get it!