Little Man was in the pen, watching the neighbor. I walked in, moving to the side so he could get to the gate, and he walked right out. He stopped outside the pen, so I walked out and went up to him. He was a little shy, and moved off when I reached to pet him.
I talked to him, and moved towards him and was able to pet him. We worked on targeting the brush, and I rubbed his head and touched his shoulder a few time. I stroked the brush down his face, but he moved back and pie eyed me when I touched it to his forehead. I stroked it on his neck a few times (I have brushed him before, but he has never consistently let me do so). He shied away and pie eyed me again, but he got a bite of cookie for his trouble.
I ended with resting my hand on his shoulder and leaning my head in towards his. He looked me right in the eye, but I could tell he was ready to flee. I clicked and gave him a peppermint treat to end the session. I walked off and he just stayed where he was, grazing.
Session #2 - around 7:00
Little Man was pretty close to the fence, and saw me come out to give some vegetables to the rabbit. When I finished, I looked up and Little Man was standing with his head over the fence, waiting for me. I went out, and walked out at an angle, and he walked away diagonally. He went on the far side of me, so I just passed him and went over to the fence to see the goats. Little Man came right up behind me. I turned and rubbed his forehead, then held up the brush for him to target, and we started work!
I held the brush to one side, then the other, I had it in front of him, I held it below him . . . he touched it. When I held it up high in front of him, he blew and pie eyed me. He moved towards the brush, away, pie eyed it some more, moved towards it, bobbed his muzzle, then finally touched it! He got a bite of cookie for that one! We worked some more, and I worked in a few more high level touches. He hesitated less with each time. I ended with a pretty high touch, and praised and praised him, along with his cookie!
Then I stood and stroked and petted him and talked to him for at least a minute, and possibly more. I rubbed his forehead, stroked his face, rubbed and stroked his neck (not too far up or back). He just gazed at me steadily, and made no move to leave. I then gave him another bite of cookie (without clicking), just because he had done so well.
When I walked off, he walked right behind me. I walked fairly close to the door of the pen, then said "whoa" and stopped. He stopped too, so I clicked and gave him a bit of feed. He looked at me like he expected it to be a cookie!
I walked on air back to the yard, and he went into the pen to get a drink. I am so happy and excited at how well things are going!
Blessings on you,
Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment