Why Train Voluntary Cooperation in Horses?
by Robin Foster, PhD
The basic goal of animal training is to control another individual’s behavior. Cooperation is the ideal outcome, but when aversive training methods are used the animal’s cooperation is compulsory, not voluntary. Worse yet, aversive control can evoke unwanted resistance and oppositional responses. As a horse behaviorist, the severe behavior problems I’m called in to see surprise me less than how readily horses give in to aversive control.
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