The Plan

The Plan? What Plan? I haven't even started and I am already behind. Those who know me are already thinking "typical" with rolled eyeballs. Ah well.

Seriously, though, the plan is to play it by ear and see how far I can take this. I have a "to do list" for Matilda and I, with things like: respect my space, target training, stand still for grooming and walk with me. I have loftier goals such as performing walk and trot circles off the line. Wouldn't that be cool? I would love to get to the point where I would feel comfortable getting up on her again, but one thing at a time.

Ultimately there are more important, necessary and immediate goals: have patience, start small, let Matilda learn at her own pace, etc. These are the most difficult. I have a habit of seeing what I want with the mind's eye and skipping steps 1-100, going straight to 101. I can't do that here. Matilda deserves my time, attention and patience. Besides, when one does that, one gets frustrated and quits. Kim said she will bug me if I try to back out and I trust her to do that.

So to start, Matilda must understand the clicker and what it means: "Click" means treat, it also means you are doing something right. I am debating starting out with "respect my space" or "target training" (touching some sort of target at the end of a stick). I think I will let her decide.