Embrace the Dirt

Sometimes, you have to ask the question: why do we do the things that we do? With the answer can come renewed energy and focus or new ideas. With that in mind, I made two changes today; the first of which I believe will be particularly significant.

1) Why do we train our animals? There are many answers to that question. The one that helped me out today: so that we can enjoy them and increase their presence in every facet of our lives.

I mentioned before that I was trying to do 2-3 short sessions and leaving Matilda in between to do other things. After my somewhat frustrating day yesterday, as I was planning for today, it occurred to me that this was not a good pattern.

In the few days we have worked together, the second session always seemed weird. Matilda and I sort of lose our mojo in the time apart. I don't think I want to do one long session, but why not stay with her during our break? All I'm doing with her now is trying to teach and create boundaries, but I'm not really spending any time with her, not being a part of her life.

When I work with a dog, we take lots of little breaks. I don't send the dog out of the room at that point. We play together or love on each other, while I talk to the owner, always re-enforcing whatever boundaries have been established in a relaxed, easy-going way. I think an argument can be made that the true bond between animal and people happens during these times. Respect is built through teaching boundaries and discipline, but a true bond is built during the times between teaching.

2) The other change is the introduction of the target stick. Now that I have seen Matilda work with it, I sort of wish that I had started with target training. That's what the experts seem to prefer, but I'm a novice and therefore thought I knew better. There are advantages to her understanding how to back up out of my space, which I will explain later.

In its most basic form, target training is very simple. You just wait for the animal to touch the target (in this case it is a rubber ball on the end of a 4' stick). The trick is to not force the target on your animal. It's tempting, but I want her to engage her noggin, think and figure it out for herself.

I wish I had had a video camera when I first walked into the paddock. She was not happy about that stick. She left her morning hay to approach, but stayed a long ways off, pacing back and forth, checking me out with both eyes and snorting all the while. Signs of discontent, even I know that. She eventually went back to the hay.

This was my moment of temptation. Do I run behind her waving my stick, trying to tap her on the nose? That may be counterproductive. I decided to walk around the paddock, hanging back, waiting for her to come to me. I had carrots, so it was just a matter of time. She came and the first thing she did was check out the target (Click!), well after stepping backwards and forwards a half dozen times. That tickled me to watch her back up so much and so well. BUT you can't go back after that first click. I had to firmly establish in my own mind that the only thing she would get a click for today was touching the target.

Matilda was real mouthy today and had some new tricks up her own sleeve. She is getting very good at turning my little carrot pail upside down. They just don't fall out, thanks to my clever lid engineering. She also thought that nipping at my clicker hand might make something happen. She tried that a lot today. That's not fun, by the way. She was touching the target in between the nipping and pail turning, although not picking up on it as quickly as I would have liked.

I took things very slowly today, especially when I saw that she was having a little trouble shifting gears to the new task. Matilda wanted to be close to me, so the target stayed no more than 2 feet away from my person, always about waist high. She seemed uncomfortable with anything more than that.

When it was time for our break, the target stick and carrot pail went outside of the fence. Just her and me now. I walked back to her hay stack and she joined me as soon as she figured out that she couldn't reach the carrots. As she munched on her hay, my hands were all over her. I was tentative at first, the recent snow and ice and mud have left her in quite a mess and I didn't want to start into a formal grooming yet. At some point I just had to embrace the dirt, it's not like I'm in my good clothes and I might as well enjoy the moment of quiet between us. So I knocked the loose dirt off of her sides and face and scratched all the places that I don't think she can reach on her own. I massaged her shoulders and leaned against her, inhaling that good horsey smell. I believe this was the most important part of our day, truly.

We went back to work and were able to push on until she was touching the target a full 4' away from me. She could touch it all the way down on the ground (a precursor to teaching her to stretch) and about 6-7 feet in the air. I tried to get her to follow it (the beginnings of "walk with me") but she lost sight of the target after a couple of steps and couldn't quite make the connection. So that is where we will pick up on Monday.

One last thing, before I left Matilda, I walked her back to her hay stack to give her one last pat down. She walked right behind me with her nose on the back of my neck and stepping on my heels, even though the carrot pail and target stick were back outside the fence. I thought I would just have to put up with it since I was focused on not doing anything but target training today. Then I remembered that she knows how to back up! I'm allowed to re-enforce what she already knows. I stopped short and turned to face her. You know what that stinker did?? She backed up! I then turned again and walked toward the hay stack, this time I had to encourage her to follow. Which she also did. Makes a girl think that this might work after all.