I just finished reading a lovely novel, The Hearts of Horses, by Molly Gloss. It’s about a young woman who strikes out to make her living “gentling” horses in 1917, when many of the men were off to war. She’s more comfortable around animals than she is around people (a current topic of postings on my Feb. 4th ’09 blog) and uses methods atypical of the time. Rather than “breaking” horses, Molly uses what people often now call “horse whisperer” techniques to teach horses to work with, rather than against, the people who ride them.
In spite of my lack of fondness for the title “horse whisperer,” I will never forget watching horse trainer Pat Parelli work an “uncatchable” horse in an arena in Madison, Wisconsin. The horse was so difficult to catch that the club who brought Parelli to Madison began to despair that they wouldn’t be able to get him out of the field and into a trailer to bring him to the seminar. When the horse was let out of the trailer into the arena, he pounded around the dirt oval, eyes white and nostrils flaring, always speeding up whenever Parelli got anywhere near him. And in 15 or 20 minutes he was following Parelli around like a puppy, his big equine head heavy on Pat’s shoulder, his eyes liquid and his face relaxed.
The reason I bring it up here is that one of Parelli’s (and of many others by the way) techniques was so similar to what I do with dogs that I was jumping up and down in my seat. Besides rewarding the horse for even just stopping and looking at him (by stopping himself), Parelli began later in the seminar to talk about what I call “space management.” Although his techniques have changed a bit since I saw him years ago, he illustrated the importance of gently and kindly “owning the space” (my words, not his) around your horse. He encouraged people to be mindful of not letting horses run over them and, once they had an established relationship with the horse, to move backward to get the horse to approach, and to move forward to ask the horse to back up. What I like best in general about this kind of work is that is focuses on understanding how an animal sees the world, and trying to translate what we want into signals that they can understand.
That’s how I see what I call “body blocks,” in which I teach a dog to ‘stay’ by at first reinforcing the shortest pause in their behavior with food, but also by using my body like a crossing guard to stop them if they start to get up before released. I describe it in much more detail in Family Friendly Dog Training, but the idea is simple: ask for the briefest of stays at first and reinforce them as they are staying by underhanding food all the way to their mouths. Gradually, oh so gradually ask for longer and longer pauses (start with 1/2 a second, then one second, then two….honest: start with ‘stays’ that short). If at any time the dog starts to get up, just lean forward to “take the space” and lean backward instantly when the dog responds. It’ll take some practice (practice on a person first, no kidding!) but once they get it people are amazed at how easy it can be to teach stay with a combination of reinforcement and a simple, ethologically relevant consequence.
I’ve talked about body blocks for many years now in many seminars, and one of the most gratifying moments in my career was when I started hearing people talk about ‘body blocks’ without mentioning my name. That meant they’ve become part of the lexicon, and boy does that feel good. The best times have been when seminar participants have come up, before I started the relevant demonstration, and told me that I should try using something they learned called “body blocks!” How sweet it is…
But I digress: all this is only because I was so struck this weekend reading The Hearts of Horses, about the difference between “breaking horses” (what a horrific phrase when you think about it) and “training” horses. I was reminded of growing up in the 50’s and 60’s in Arizona, riding as a young girl with crusty old cowboys who talked about ‘”gentling” horses, about trying to see the world from their perspective, and being their friend instead of their oppressors. Of course, they were the exception; more common was the attitude that you must “show them who is boss” and get them trained up in a matter of a few days no matter what it took.
The novel I just read isn’t going to teach you how to train a horse using these methods, but it is a lovely examination of a young woman’s coming of age at a very different time in our country’s history, and of the topic of the last post–being more comfortable around animals than people.
Meanwhile, it was over 40 degrees this weekend! Amazing, totally amazing. Willie and I worked the flock without lambs (he’s learning his right hand flank whistle) although the snow in the hill pasture was still over a foot deep; Jim and I wormed the sheep and I cooked like a maniac. I took braised spinach and carmelized tomatoes out of the freezer and scrambled them with eggs and English cheddar for breakfast. I cooked up broccoli, spinach and parsley for the dog’s greens, mixed them with pumpkin and steel cut oats and egg for Lassie and sardines for Willie. I put 8 servings of what Jenna calls Comfort Soup in the freezer: chicken and carrots and leeks and mushrooms, cooked w/ lots of red wine, balanced with dumplings sparked with rosemary and scallions. Yummm. Later on Sunday I marinated some lamb chops in the rest of the wine and ate them with fresh greens and wheat berries. So good. It seems that I am obsessed with food lately (the scales confirm this). Is it the weather? Do I have any excuse whatsoever? Doubtful.
Here’s a photo of my cat Sushi, who deserves a bit of attention herself for heaven’s sake, on one of her favorite perches: the top of the truck. (And yes, I worry a lot about her being hurt or driven away unintentionally by a visitor–she’ll walk into your car in a heart beat if I don’t watch her, so I attend obsessively to her whereabouts whenever anyone is driving up or driving away.) You’ll note that Sushi has concerns about looking straight into the eye of a lens!
patti says
Patricia, Back in 1996 or 1997 you treated our Dalmatian, who you described as a 10 out of 10 in reactivity to sight, sound and movement with what at the time you described as ‘horse’ techniques. The dog was afraid of men with beards (like my husband), and just about everything else, so I couldn’t attend the sessions, including one at your farm where you had to use Luke and Lassie (I think) to try to catch our dog after the session. My husband said it was quite difficult to catch him and took around 45 minutes. I’ve always wondered exactly what ‘horse techniques’ you used that day. Was this the beginning of your learning to control space? If so, all of the suggestions you made to my husband on how to handle Bishop where brilliant, it took time, and he never became ‘normal’ (as you predicted), but he lived a happy life and he learned to trust my husband. We humans in the pack learned to control the space around our dogs and have used the concept frequently with all the dogs we’ve had since. With 3 dogs I’m constantly doing body blocks to control situations, it’s easy and it works. Thanks!
Don Warren says
Trisha, I just discovered your blog and I think it’s great, as is your book by the same title. I really like your notion of “gentling” in training, and I will have to practice body blocks with our year-old keeshond. He has learned well how to heel from a front position (around my right and behind, ending up facing forward to my left), but I am trying to also have him respond to a “swing” command so that he will enter a heel position from the front directly to my left. This is necessary to perform for rally. He’s not quite catching on to the distinction between “swing” and “heel” (he’s heeling when I ask him to swing!). I think that some kind of body block, or using an object or wall to block his access around me from the incorrect direction, might work. Thanks.
Liz says
I went to a training seminar last October and the trainer placed a huge emphasis on using body language instead of verbal language. What an amazing difference it has made! I wish I had known all this stuff when I got my dog at 8 weeks old.
Holly says
Pat Parelli, John Lyons, and the other Natural Horsemanship trainers are continually being crucified on horse boards. The board member arguments are as old as time, and they tend to use rank (you must be the herd leader) as a platform to justify their use of punishment. I use +R and clicker training for our horses, it works just as well for horses as it does for dogs, but as with any training method you must understand it. The problem with most people who don’t understand it throughly is that a dog who mugs you for food is one thing, a horse who does that is another altogether, the horse being far more dangerous when limits are not set.
I subscribe to John Lyons Perfect Horse, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he has incorporated a marker word with his training now. He has .always. been a trainer who breaks tasks down to very small increments and is the only horse trainer that I’d hand my mare over to and walk away. He still doesn’t use food rewards, but a pressure/release as a reward, however he is so consistent about when and how he uses it that I don’t find it nearly as offensive as I do most training methods.
I think that sooner or later, there will be the same surge in understanding and change in training methods with horses that you see in the dog training community. You will begin to see horses working in the ring at high levels that are trained with marker/reward methods. You will see that the “old ways” (which truth be told are going away anyhow) disappear and kinder methods take their place.
I bought that book for my daughter for Christmas, usually I read the books I get her ahead of time just so we can discuss them, but this one I didn’t get to finish. I’m itching to get my hands on it now!
Holly says
PS, Sushi is beautiful!
Brenda in Mechanicsburg OH says
I’m not sure where I learned about body blocks and controlling space. I know my herding instructor stresses it, but I’ve also been doing a lot of reading to learn how to help two of my five dogs get along better. It’s amazing how quickly and effectively a body block tells my slightly anxious dog that I’m in control and he needs to back off — now. It’s reduced the tension level drastically while I work on implementing Leslie McDevitt’s CU techniques.
By the way, space management can also be very effective around aggressive roosters!
Kelly Ladouceur says
Sushi is GORGEOUS!
I’m currently reading Linda Tellington-Jones’ book “The Tellington TTouch” which describes how she formed her TTouch theory and practice that is so widely used now. In it, she talks of “gentling” horses rather than “breaking” them, and her accomplishments with a wide variety of species are amazing! I’m sure you’ve read it, but when I started reading your post today, the similarities struck me.
I learned about body blocks in my puppy kindergarten class some time ago, and it’s now a concept I teach in conjunction with a number of exercises. Your words are far-reaching Patricia . . . you have influenced a great many up and coming trainers, as well as some folks that have been training for years.
Susan Mann says
I’ve been hearing about body blocks for years, and I think they especially make sense to BCs and other herding breeds, who use space themselves. I took Brodie for a visit to the woman who rescued him and placed him with me, and he was out with another dog in her yard- and her comment to me was “my, he takes up a lot of space” and she wasn’t just talking about the physical space. I’m sure other dogs do this as well, but I’ve seen more herding breeds exhibit this than other dogs.
One of my dog training instructors has studied the Parelli methods, and adapted the Horsanality profiling to dogs. This was really fascinating to me, basically breaking personality into 4 quadrants, of introvert vs extrovert, and right brain vs left brain. One of the reasons I think Leslie McDevitt’s techniques are so popular is that the vast majority of training techniques and what most instructors are comfortable with, are designed for the left brain extrovert, whereas CU (Control Unleashed) techniques are helpful with more right brained and introverted dogs.
Mary says
This is not exactly on the subject but after reading “For the love of a dog” and some entries on this blog I thought that you might like to watch this amazing video of a dog who’s trying to pull another one to safety after a highway accident:
http://whippetlinks.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/hund-rettet-artgenossen-vom-highway/
I wonder if anybody knows more about these two dogs?
Cindy says
Thanks for addressing horse training issues in this discussion.
When I got my puppy last spring, I thought that, since I had been working with my horses and retraining them using whatever non-violent menthods I could learn about, it would be a snap with the puppy. What a surprise to find out that dog minds and horse minds are different! For one thing, the dog is more predisposed to want to please us than the horses–he lives in the house after all. For another, they play differenty and, as Holly points out, horses can hurt us without knowing or intending it, so we have to be fully aware around them.
Still, after taking a clicker traiining class with the dog this fall, I’ve decided to use it with the horses to work on some annoying behavior quirks that otherwise might be dealt with as dominance.
Still hovering between 20 below and zero here in Fairbanks! And, sadly, they’ve finally run the last Calling All Pets on our local station.
Katie Ringo says
I cried the first time I attended a Pat Parelli seminar and saw what his methods were and the amazing things he did with horses without pressuring or “breaking” them. It amazes me that people tried anything different on a large animal.
I find it interesting that the folks I meet and immediately feel a connection with believe strongly in +R training and have been involved with Pat Parelli’s natural horsemanship system in some fashion. I’m hoping these ideas gain popularity as the years go on.
I love your blog and the photos you share! We don’t have snow down here in Florida. 🙂
Sabine says
Hi there,
I have a master’s degree from the “Deutsche Reitschule” in Germany (Losely translated that is the National Riding Academy. It’s an eight year program to finish) and I have about 30 years of professional experience as far as horse training goes.
I had the privilege to have studied under some of the most competent and known riding masters of our time and we learned from the beginning to gently train young horses. I NEVER ever in my thirty years of training horses to the highest levels had an incident, where the horse was “broken”.
Where I come from, it takes 8 years to complete a horse from basic training all the way to Grand Prix. This concept is still found today in the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria.
I was always appalled about the rodeo way of horse breaking. All in a sudden these “gurus” popped up and discovered a market for their “gentleing” of horses. I personally can see nothing gentle about chasing a prey animal around in circles for hours until it’s too exhausted to run away. (Just to give you an example) Every first year riding student learns about the body language of horses and how to approach them.
I will never forget the first dressage clinic I taught in the Northwoods of MN, where people would show up with their TWO YEAR OLD horses to take lessons ! (Needless to say: I sent them back home ) Ignorance is not always bliss and the horses are the ones suffering for it.
One has to be familiar with the developmental stages of a horse to know, that you do not back/ride a two year old. I am talking mainly warmbloods now, even though the TB-industry isn’t on my most favorite people list either.
I may sound a bit arrogant now, but horses are near and dear to me and I always trained my horses in such way, that they would trust me and rely on me as much as I would rely on them. This is the much more time consuming way of training, but at the end the more lasting one. A well-trained horse is at his prime at the age of 12-16 !!! Look at the statistics how many horses nowadays even get to such age and are sound !
Now the question arises: Can we really compare carnivores and herbivores when it comes to the methods of training them ? One is the hunter and the other is the prey and their instincts and behavior patterns are somewhat different from each other. 😉 What is your opinion on that ?
My observation is that once the brain is ‘wired’ for learning there is not much difference in the way of teaching, but often there is a difference in reaction to certain outside influences and interpretation of body language, as well as the time it takes to teach something new. I think I trained at least over a hundred different horses and always had dogs by my side during that time. Dogs would accompany me on trailrides and it was sometimes hard to get the horses used to the dog and vice versa. (Especially the herding dogs were challenging at times) I also think that dogs are a bit more intelligent than horses – no pun intended. :)))
….and yes – Sushi is a gorgeous kitty !
Angie says
What is a body block??
Peggy Hutchings says
Patricia – Please check out Mark Rashid (1st book Considering the Horse). He is truly amazing.
I am enjoying your blog and have shared it with several friends. Thank you!
Anne says
The picture of Sushi next to the part about humans being more comfortable with animals made me think of my cat Butterscotch (guess what color!) who has a preference for sheep. He lives with my sheep, goes out to pasture with them and lies with them, or on them, or in their hay most of the day. Even when I moved the sheep over to my neighbor’s field to graze he went along with them. He doesn’t guard them, or do much but enjoy their company.
julie says
dogs are better than horses
Stewie says
Dogs are just easier to train than horses.