Clearly something got lost in translation somewhere, as OH came to me and said, "FP's doing really well at the hoop, he puts his foot in at least half the time without touching the hoop. But I think I've taught him the hokey cokey"...... Fat Pony's "putting his foot in, but he won't wait, he puts it in and then takes it out, puts it in and takes it out"........ LMAO!
It didn't take long to work out what happened. In all training, timing is critical. In order for learning to take place, there needs to be a release or a reward (we work on reward) and if the timing is wrong there's a good chance you not only don't teach the desired action but you may inadvertently teach an undesired action!
Whilst the OH has grasped some of the principles of breaking a movement down in order to teach it, he doesn't always see all of the components. In this instance, the 3 components are 1. step cleanly into the hoop (when asked); 2. wait until further instruction; 3. step cleanly out of the hoop (when asked). In the teaching phase, all 3 of those components get rewarded. Once firmly established, you can then move on to combine all 3 elements into one movement, without having to reward each one (increasing reward intervals). The OH had realised only 2 of the 3 components, namely 1. step cleanly into the hoop and be rewarded; then OH was asking Fat Pony to step out of the hoop and be rewarded. It didn't take many goes before Fat Pony had "learned" that you step in the hoop, get a reward and then step out of the hoop and get a reward. In Fat Pony's mind there was no "wait" element. In Fat Pony's mind, you put your foot in, you put your foot out, you put your foot in, you put your foot out.....
And that..... is how you teach your pony the hokey cokey :-D