Dog's Mark Horses Pedestal
by Allen Pogue and Suzanne De Laurentis, all rights reserved, 2005
Training any species of animal includes hallmarks such as drawing the animal to the handler, asking the animal to remain or stay at a particular spot, and then to execute other taught behaviors. Of course, prior to teaching each particular behavior the handler must have the attention and also respect of the animal. Perhaps the most important taught behavior in animal training is the stay command. When an animal can be taught to stay in a particular spot or position it can then be asked to proceed to the next task/command.
We have a close friend, Bobbi Colorado, who has been an animal trainer for all of her adult life. Bobbi and her husband train and provide every type of animal imaginable for movies, commercials, and still photography. Their students include marine mammals, exotic birds, dogs, cats, lions, giraffe’s pigs, camels, monkeys, snakes chickens and even flies and roaches. Bobbi has featured our Imagine A Horse horses several times on her local television segments.
We recently asked Bobbi if she could see similarities between pedestal training for horses and any of the species that she trains. Here are her words, “When I train my dogs it is usually for movie work. They are rewarded for placing their paws on a set place or mark. I then move the mark around and they are taught to go to that mark and stay. That insures me that the dog goes and stays to any place where he is supposed to for a shot. A lot of dog trainers use place. This can be a bed or something a little off the ground. That is their safe spot to go and stay and relax until the trainer wants t hem to work at something else like agility”.
It is interesting that in this day of enlightened training we still have folks ask why our Trick Training method for horses revolves around pedestal training. The reason is simple, the pedestal serves as a place or mark for the horse.