Goat Diaries Blog by Alexandra Kurland

[Sanhestar]

well done!

A short note on the moving target vs. stationary target.

Often - in horses - you will see frustration and the beginning of "chasing" behaviour when you switch fron a stationary to a moving target and use the same target/same behaviour (touch the target) for these different behaviours.

To avoid that you can either use a different target (size, shape, colour) for the moving bevhaviour - were the touching which prompts the click and treat will be delayed for quite while.

Or you teach "follow but do not touch when target is moving but touch when target is stationary" with the same target.

In both cases a teaching process to make the difference clear to the animal: which behaviour is wanted and will be reinforced is necessary. The best way is to teach that a moving target is to be followed with a fixed distance to the target but not touched.

Did I explain that good enough? I'm not quite awake, yet.