Only about five minutes or so. I noticed Little Man was fairly close to the back yard fence, so I grabbed my gear and went out. He walked off when I got close, so I turned and walked elsewhere. I started poking around in my fanny pack and he came right over.
I worked with moving and jiggling the halter. Once he pulled his head away and pie eyed me, and took a couple of steps sideways. Perhaps I held it too long? Or maybe that was when I lifted it straight up to see what would happen. I didn't click, and he moved back where I could touch him again. I could almost see him thinking about what he needed to do to get that click and treat.
He went through his wormer very quickly, and I used the feed to continue just a bit more. When he moves his head away from my hand, I try to follow with my hand, and click before I remove it.
He didn't offer to follow me when I left.
Session #2 - a little after 6:00 p.m.
Little Man was not too far from the fence, so out I went. He walked off again, so I went over to pet the neighbor's goats. Little Man moved closer, but not too close. I zigzagged my way over to him, and when his muzzle touched my hand, I clicked and treated. He was pretty good about letting me hold and move his halter, so I decided to see if I could even work the buckle with one hand. I have been having trouble with the tendon (or something) from my thumb to my elbow, and today is my first day without a thumb brace.
I wasn't able to manipulate the buckle, and he became a little antsy, so I went back to just grasping and holding the halter, or moving it around.
He didn't seem quite as engaged this evening, so I finished up and went on out to see Kong. Little Man came out our direction, but didn't come up to us until I started clicking and treating Kong. I worked with Little Man a bit more, then finished up our session with a peanut butter cracker (I brought one for Kong too). When I left, Little Man was right behind me! I held out my right hand, and he moved over and walked right behind my hand. I wasn't sure if I should click or not, but decided against it because we weren't working on that. I said "whoooooaaa" and stopped, and he stopped too. I rubbed his forehead, grasped the halter and moved it, clicked and gave him the last peanut butter cracker. I rubbed his forehead, he turned around to chew, and I left. He went back out to hang out with Kong, and probably to rub it in that HE got TWO crackers!
I know I am not doing this perfectly, but I figure Little Man doesn't know how to do it either, so we can just learn together. Every day I learn more from this list, too!
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