Bright Animal Training

18/08/2024

18/08/2024

Poor Tez is still waiting for his new home 🏡

He’s a lovely boy and very clever 🐶

Please follow the link for more information https://www.rspca-westmorland.org.uk/meet-our-animals/tez-ready-for-homing.html

18/08/2024

18/08/2024

A retirement full livery space is still available at my field.

Service includes:

- Constant equine companionship
- 24/7 turnout
- Mud mats
- Excellent natural shelter
- Forage as/when needed
- Twice daily checks
- Regular poo-picking (3 x week minimum)
- Regular foraged enrichment
- All daily care inc. regular feet picking out, grooming, scratches, feed, rug changes as needed (I can provide feed at extra cost)
- Salt lick
- Washing & reproofing of rugs
- To join herd worm count programme (price inc.)
- Secure storage for rugs, feed etc
- Padlocked field gate
- Field maintenance (fencing, harrowing etc)
- Holding for farrier, dentist, vet etc (vet, dentist & farrier fees not included)

Suit good doer. Strip grazing or a shared track available. Must be able to live with mares.

Training (groundwork to fears & phobias) also available - message for info.

Location LA8

Pop me a message or message 07414228837 if interested.

14/08/2024

14/08/2024

Just because we can doesn’t mean we should 🐴

A common theme with the horses I go out to see is that they have been given the “all clear” by vets/bodyworkers/various other professionals. Therefore the owner logically assumes they are definitely dealing with a behavioural issue as they have done all of the things they’re supposed to do as a caring owner.

Unfortunately diagnostics can be very limited and people seem to have trouble seeing the whole horse. Just because you haven’t found a solid cause yet doesn’t mean the horse isn’t in pain. Horses don’t lie and if they are behaving like they’re in pain I believe them. There is more to pain than hocks, kissing spine and ulcers.

With permission, I’m going to tell you a story which is unfortunately not an unusual one. I was called out to this horse as he had a “fear” of being mounted, but they said he was fine once they were on and they were jumping him competitively up to 1.20m. They had done x-rays of his back, stifles and hocks and scoped him for ulcers. A physio had also seen him and said they found no issues. The owner had tried every training method under the sun to fix this behaviour, pressure/release, chasing him around with a flag, clicker training, putting him against the wall, having someone hold a lick in front of his face etc. The horse was still biting, swinging away and becoming really agitated. I observed him being ridden and he was showing several conflict behaviours, tail swishing, unhappy in the mouth, head tossing etc. I didn’t do any training with the horse, to my eye the horse was definitely in pain and I referred them onto a recommended specialist vet. Upon investigation this horse had extensive arthritis in his neck and issues in his spine that had not been picked up by the first vet.

Horses are so, so stoic and we are also rubbish as an industry at seeing discomfort in them because it is so normalised. We see them as “fine” to ride as long as they aren’t actively decking us. We ignore them until they’re screaming and even then many do not listen because it is justified away as “quirky” or “sassy” behaviour.

Imaging is only useful if the person reading it has the skill to do so well and I have experience of one vet saying x-rays are fine then a second-opinion specialist vet making a pretty devastating diagnosis from the same images.

Now I am not saying we all need to spend thousands at the vet immediately, a huge part of what I do is gently, quietly improving posture and emotional health to see if we can start to help the horse feel and move better over time, but a hill I absolutely will die on is if the horse is unhappy with any part of tacking up/mounting then we do not ride the horse that day.

There are so many things we can do beyond just medicating and cracking on, if we can all learn a bit more about recognising postural issues and behavioural indicators we can potentially avoid a lot of heartache and frustration.

The industry as a whole is blind to postural issues, I’m still seeing horses regularly who have been “cleared” by several professionals who I find with saddle shaped dips in their back and incredibly poor hoof balance which is going to make their body really uncomfortable. Yet the poor owner has been told again and again the horse is fine and they need to crack on and get a trainer out, and then the training methods make the posture even worse…I will be writing in more detail about this soon and doing a live with Yasmin on the topic.

If your horse goes to the back of the stable when you arrive with your tack, you need to restrain him in cross ties or he repeatedly moves away from the mounting block, I encourage you to think about why that is. There is a reason he doesn’t want to, be it physical or emotional discomfort with the situation. Making him move his feet and harassing him until his only option is to stand still isn’t going to change those feelings. A horse complying once you’re in the saddle does not mean they’re fine with it, they just know they have no choice once you’re on because nobody has ever listened to the no. 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

09/08/2024

INDUSTRY STANDARD PREMATURE WEANING PRACTICES

Weaning is naturally gradual, whereby the physical and psychological bond between mother and offspring is ended. To date, there are numerous studies, across a wide range of species, showing the physical and mental harm that is done when animals are prematurely and forcibly weaned. The act compromises an animal's welfare and goes against best-practices for raising a physically and behaviourally healthy animal. Therefore, it should be avoided.

Premature weaning of horses (~4-7 months of age) is sadly still a common practice in the horse world. While young horses can physically be kept alive when weaned at this age, the practice is harmful in the short-term. It can also result in the creation of unwanted behaviour problems in the long-term.

While we have selectively bred horses to perform a wide range of activities for us, we have not been able to breed out the basic needs which they still share with their wilder relatives. Studying how horses behave under natural conditions gives us valuable information on how best we can provide for our domestic horses. For example, horses have evolved to need fulltime access to what I call the 3 F's of Friends, Forage, and Freedom: living in direct contact with other horses, having continual access to forage so that they can trickle feed, and having the ability to freely engage in a wide range of normal behaviours in their environment. When horses are denied access to one or more of these three F's, or when we interfere with their ability to engage in normal behaviours it results in stress, decreased welfare, and can result in the creation of unwanted behaviours.

To better understand the effects of weaning practices, researchers in France and Iceland examined how and when foals wean themselves when living under natural conditions. Of the 16 mare-foal pairs they observed, they found that all of the foals spontaneously weaned themselves at around 9-10 months of age. Two weeks prior to self-weaning, the mares and foals remained closer to one another than they did to others in the group, usually within 1-5 horse lengths of one another. Suckling bouts also didn't decrease in the two weeks prior to weaning, and the foals made no attempts to suckle once weaned. This self-directed weaning also caused no signs of stress to either party.

A frequent rationale for premature weaning is to preserve the physical condition of the mare. Interestingly, none of the mares in this study lost physical condition, despite the length of time mares and foals were together.

In summary, to quote the authors:

"Modern breeding practices generally impose strong constraints as compared to the conditions of development of foals in a more natural environment. One major aspect is the early artificial weaning, which is not just a stage of diet transition but also a stage of social separation. There is increasing evidence that such a practice, although carried out on a routine basis by horse breeders, leads to short- and in some cases to long-term severe negative outcomes.

There is therefore a clear need to better understand the factors at stake (e.g., cessation of milk intake, immature digestive system, maternal deprivation, absence of adult models, additional changes in feeding or housing…), to improve the domestic management of weaning and animal welfare."

You can read the full paper, 'Domestic Foal Weaning: Need for Re-Thinking Breeding Practices?' by accessing it at this link: https://tinyurl.com/PrematureWeaningHorses

Image by Hans Benn from Pixabay

27/07/2024

27/07/2024

I am very excited to be speaking at Edition Dog Live with Edition Dog Magazine again this year on 25th August!

I will be giving a talk on confidence-building for nervous dogs, dogs with behavioural problems & newly acquired dogs. I'll also be at the Training & Behaviour Hub all day to answer everyone's questions.

Hope to see some of you there!

📢 Exciting News! 📢

Edition Dog Live is thrilled to announce that we are now a CPD accredited event! 🎉 Attendees can claim 7 CPD hours, making this an invaluable opportunity for professional development. While at the event, simply scan our QR code to download your certificate instantly. Don't miss out on this chance to enhance your skills and knowledge! 🐾✨

23/07/2024

Put far, far better than I ever could.

NB - Charlotte Dujardin has pulled out of the 2024 Olympics whilst the FEI investigate a video of her allegedly abusing a horse in a video filmed 4 years ago during a student's lesson.

Interestingly, there has been no comment or statement from British Dressage who have some culpability in these many abuses going on in top level (and lower level) dressage industry ...

Edited to add - CD has now been suspended from competing pending investigation.

16/07/2024

Researching and writing about the role of genetics (specifically polygenes) on dog temperament and personality for Edition Dog Magazine!

16/07/2024

Horrendous. This isn't training.

16/07/2024

Nova is still looking for a home, she hasn't had any enquiries.

**Experienced foster home needed**

Nova is 16 months old Shar-Pei cross Staffie and came into us with her sister via an inspector, they have lived most of their life in a back yard with little education or socialisation. Once Nova gains your trust she is a very sweet girl.

She is not coping well in the kennels so we are looking for a child free foster who has the time and patience to see if they can help Nova have the life she deserves.
Nova could possibly live with a steady neutered male dog but no cats. She will also need a secure garden.

Please follow the link for more information....https://www.rspca-westmorland.org.uk/.../nova-foster-home...

14/07/2024

I'll share a bit about my horsey background.

I've been riding horses for 22 years & shared & loaned a number of ponies - including my current World Horse Welfare Edna & Clio.

I was always fascinated by equine behaviour & training growing up - even more than I was in dogs, to be honest. I always ended up riding the tricky ponies, the anxious ponies, the rearer, the bolter, the nappy pony, the newly backed pony ... I might not have been competing (pretty sure I was eliminated at my last show jumping event) but I could (mostly) stay on, & developed a real love for the horses that struggled.

Fast forward several years, & I have trained with & learned a lot from Melanie S. Watson - celebrating 40 years in this business & Connection Training.

I started clicker training horses over 4 years ago after starting with dogs, & it was an 'aha!' moment. This was what I had been looking for, for all these years, but had never known it existed.

Since starting my training business, I have taught a number of people (inc young adults) how to understand equine behaviour & body language, & how to use clicker training to communciate with horses & achieve their goals.

The areas I can help horse owners with include:

- Backing
- Phobias & fears (traffic, spooking, water etc)
- Confidence building
- All groundwork (leading, tying up, reverse roundpen, standing still, barging, etc)
- Improving ridden work for the established horse (forwardsness, brakes, standing at the mounting block, improving paces, etc)
- Behavioural problems (aggression, trauma, the unhandled horse, fearfulness, resource guarding, separation anxiety etc)
- Young horses pre-backing
- Veterinary & healthcare handling (vaccinations, worming, farriery etc)

If you have hit a wall with your horse's training or behaviour, are curious about how clicker training can improve your relationship & handling with your horse, or don't own a horse but would love to learn clicker training on my horses, then get in touch.

08/07/2024

This post is for every reward-based horse rider/owner out there.

It is impossible to never use negative reinforcement with your horse.

If your horse spooks & shoots forward on a ride, your automatic instinct may be to use pressure on the reins.

If your horse doesn't stop out on a ride/walk before a road junction, you may have to use pressure.

I'll give my own examples: my horses cannot pull me. There's a time & a place when I let the rein/leadrope go to avoid pulling them if they walk off/spook. However, if one of the spooks into traffic, or (yes Clio I'm talking about you!) loves exploring so much they get to the end of the rope & pull to get somewhere interesting, I will not let them pull me. I will use my cues & if they fail, I use minimal pressure - but I keep the pressure they put on the rope. This is partly because me letting them drag me will be reinforcing that behaviour, & secondly for safety reasons: I would rather my ponies took a pull than they walked or spooked into traffic.

Example number 2: a while ago I was walking the ponies & Eddie went lame. I had to use pressure & release (as gently as possible) to get her home, as being in pain meant she could not take food. I wasn't going to leave her on the fell, so I did what I had to to get her home & safe.

Example number 3: when Edna was recovering from laminitis & had 0 tolerance of any grass, I had to exercise her but she couldn't have a single blade of grass. She had her grazing muzzle on under her headcollar, but when she put her head down to graze I had to use pressure to prevent this. I would have rather she was bothered by feeling pressure on her face than she ate grass & died of laminitis.

These are one-off instances that are not everyday occurrences. What I DO do is take away what I can do differently & train using positive reinforcement for as many situations as I can. But noone can train for every possible eventuality.

It's not about being perfect about reward-based training, but about doing our best & always working on it.

07/07/2024

Noise sensitivity has a strong relationship with underlying pain in dogs.

And to follow up on yesterday’s post about sound sensitivity, this is 15-month old Meg, who came to me two months ago struggling with extreme sound sensitivity (terrified of road works and very anxious about aircraft), and barking/lunging at traffic. Although there were no physical signs of anything physically being wrong, when anxiety medication didn't help, it became highly likely from a behaivoural point of view that something was hurting her. She was X-rayed this week and it was found that she has hip dysplasia in both hips and had been in a lot of pain. 😢
She’s now on pain relief and already she is so much happier, but she is on 4 types of medication which makes it a costly, upsetting and worrying time for her owners. ❤️
ALWAYS buy a pup from breeders who hip score their dogs. This is a test that X-rays the hips of potential breeding dogs or bi***es to make sure that they don’t have hip dysplasia as it is often an inherited condition - most farms don’t bother. Ask to see the hip score results of both parents of puppies you are considering buying. However, some collies that have really good breeding can still develop issues.

06/07/2024

👀

05/07/2024

'When do I stop training?'

You don't.

I think it's probably a bit like a diet. Diets are temporary - you might lose weight but they are not sustainable, not maintained, & always fail. What does work is a lifestyle change (continued for life) - healthier food & being reasonably active. Right?

Stopping training means going back to how you did things before that could not have been working for you to have felt the need to start training at all.

Your dog/horse is learning whether you mean to be teaching them or not. You don't teach a puppy to sit/stay/walk on a loose lead/recall ... & that's it. Having a puppy/young horse is bringing up a living being. Not unlike bringing up a child. It's less about what your dog/horse can 'do' & more about how they see the world, setting them up for good life experiences, their coping skills, their personality, meeting their (many) needs, your relationship with them, giving them joy.

It doesn't stop there. As your dog/horse ogrows through adolescence & adulthood, you are always reinforcing behaviours & meeting their (many & changing) needs, their personality, building your relationship, setting them up for good life experiences, giving them joy ... the 'sit/stay/loose lead walking/recall' are bonuses - only part of the picture, not the whole picture.

All of my dogs' walks are training walks. All of our interactions throughout the day - every day - are training. Because they affect your dog's behaviour in the future. Every interaction I have with my horses is reinforcing the behaviours I want - such as waiting for them to step back before I open the field gate.

For me, this could mean giving my 'wait' cue every time my dogs & I meet a gate on a wall. Giving my 'up' cue every time my dogs climb over a style. Sending my ponies to their stationary target every time I get to the field with their feed. Reinforcing the behaviours I want to be solid, to be automatic, to be default behaviours.

Training never ends, for the entirety of your dog/horse's life.

01/07/2024

Tez has been with us for 86 days so far and has not had one enquiry.

He's 8 years old and looking for an active owner with no children.

Please follow the link for more information...https://www.rspca-westmorland.org.uk/meet-our-animals/tez-ready-for-homing.html

29/06/2024

What is the longest a horse can safely go without food?

More and more I see horses and ponies stood for long periods of time with no hay or haylage. Usually under the guise of a “weight control diet”. So how long can a horse be without food before damage is done? And what damage is done?

For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the answer to begin with - 4 hours, maximum.

Why?

Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines.

A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers.

So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern?

No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally.

Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation (we all have that Hangry friend to explain this reaction). Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different.

But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway?

Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours (jealous? I am!). They may spend a further hour or so dozing but up to 22-23 hours a day are spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally.

Now I know the cob owners are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen “if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!!”

I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved. They don’t eat in a frenzy, reducing the chance of colic from both ulcers and over eating. Cobs included.

However I’m not suggesting you sit your cob in front of a bale of haylage and say have at it! There is a difference between ad lib and a constant supply. There is much we can do to reduce calorie intake and control weight whilst feeding a constant supply.

The easiest is small holes nets. There are many. Trickle nets, greedy feeders, nibbleze, trawler nets etc. My personal favourite is the Shires Soft Mesh 1”. They don’t cost the Earth, they are easy to fill and they don’t have knots so are much gentler to the teeth. Now often I suggest these types of nets to owners and the owner tells me “Oh no, *** won’t eat out of those” 🙄 this is nonsense. If he was left it, he would. Remember, you can give a normal net and one of these for them to nibble at after. Better than leaving them with nothing at all.

A few other tricks, hang the net from the ceiling/rafters, it’s harder to eat out of a net that swings. Soak the hay, a minimum of 4 hours to be effective. Mix with straw but be sure to introduce the straw slowly and make sure it’s top quality and a palatable type eg Barley or Oat, otherwise they won’t eat it.

Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want!

And lay off the bucket feed and treats! Horses on a diet require a vit/min supplement in the form of a balancer but that’s it. The odd slice of carrot or swede won’t do any harm but no licks, treats, treacle, molasses, cereal based rubbish. Even if it says low sugar or the marvellously misleading “No added sugar”! Your horse would rather have a constant supply of hay, I promise.

Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

A few edits for the critics-

Firstly, feeding a constant supply does not mean ad lib feeding. It means use some ingenuity and spread the recommended amount of daily forage so the horse is never stood with out food for more than 4 hours. I am not promoting obesity, quite the opposite, feeding like this reduces obesity and IR. This can be done whilst feeding your horse twice a day as most horse owners do. Just think outside the box for your own situation.

Secondly I am in the UK and this post is UK specific, use some common sense when reading. Yes in warmer climates, soaking hay for 4 hours is dangerous and studies show 1 hour is plenty in hot weather but in the UK’s arctic climate, a minimum of 4 hours is required. Equally the UK feed exclusively grass hay. I can not comment on other types.

Thirdly, yes every horse/pony and situation is different, but this is a law of nature and all horses have this anatomy and metabolism. How you achieve this constant supply is individual, the need for it is not.

Fourthly, the use of hay nets in the UK is very very high. I’d estimate 95% of horses I see are fed this way and very very few have incisor wear or neck/back issues as a result. Yes, feeding from the ground is ideal, but a constant supply, I feel trumps this. Again with ingenuity both can be safely achieved.

Finally, straw can be fed to horses safely, introduced very slowly, with fresh water always available, plus a palatable and digestible type of straw which will depend on your area. Again many horses in the UK are bedded on straw and most of them eat it. This is not a new concept to us.

Final finally 🤦‍♀️ and I feel I must add this due to the sheer number of people contacting me to ask, feed your horses during transport!!! I am astonished this is not normal in other countries! Again in the UK, we give our horses hay nets to transport. We don’t go 10 mins up the road without a haynet and a spare in case they finish! Considering we are a tiny island and we rarely transport even 4 hours, we never transport without hay available. I have never seen an episode of choke due to travelling with hay available. If you are concerned, use a slow feeder net so they can’t take too much in at once.

If you get to the end of this post and your first thought is “I can’t do this with my horse/pony, they’d be morbidly obese”, you haven’t read the advice in this post thoroughly.

29/06/2024

A note on the idea of using tools and/or physical restraint to be 'in control' of an animal.

Firstly, horses (and some dogs) will always be physically stronger than us. Eddie & Clio are both about 8 times my weight. Even trying to use physical restraint during handling, veterinary visits, pulling the bit hard when a horse is mid-gallop etc, is always going to fail at some point.

Secondly, the more physical restraint/pressure we use, the greater the animal's level of physical discomfort, arousal and stress levels. When any (or all of) these 3 increase, risk also increases: bigger and more dangerous behaviours in the animal, greater risk of a bite or kick to the handler, and greater strength and use of it in the animal (due to increased adrenaline levels). So ironically, the greater the physical restraint/pressure, the less control the handler has, and the greater the danger.

Thirdly, often the best thing we can do in a sticky situation is less. Taking a step back, easing the emotional pressure and expectation on the animal, giving them a break. This diffuses tension and conflict, and gives everyone a chance to calm down - which helps to address point 2 above^^.

Finally, teaching an animal in a systematic way to willingly cooperate during ridden work, groundwork, handling and veterinary care tasks genuinely creates an animal who feels in control of the situation, and who in turn you feel in control of. This then creates much safer situations, reduces the risk of 'big'/risky behaviours, because both the animal and you feel SAFE.

FEELING in control and BEING in control are very different things. People often use restraint and pressure to FEEL in control (and thus feel safer) rather than because they ARE actually in control and therefore safer.

Pics of a recent training session with Clio, where we worked on a) her separation anxiety from Eddie, and b) helping her to self-regulate when her arousal/anxiety level is up - some of which was done with her loose outside of the field & inside with the field gate open.

23/06/2024

20/06/2024

Nervous girl Nova is the sweetest, most loving & fun dog - loving a mooch & sniff on the walk, and most definitely lots of cuddles. I would have her in a moment if I could. Please consider fostering her.

**Experienced foster home needed**

Nova is 16 months old Shar-Pei cross Staffie and came into us with her sister via an inspector, they have lived most of their life in a back yard with little education or socialisation.

She is not coping well in the kennels so we are looking for a child free foster who has the time and patience to see if they can help Nova have the life she deserves.

Nova could possibly live with a steady neutered male dog but no cats. She will also need a secure garden.

Please follow the link for more information....https://www.rspca-westmorland.org.uk/meet-our-animals/nova-foster-home-needed.html