Learning to Be Brave

It has been almost a year since I began an ongoing project with Percy.  This was actually phase two of something I had worked on in 2017, which I wrote about in a post called Desensitization Continues. But this year I am taking Percy out into the world more. His world has been limited to the barn, the arena, and the turnout fields.  With the rotational grazing, the turnout changed regularly but did not go beyond consistent boundaries.  Last year when my daughter visited, she took a pony and I took Percy (in hand) and we went for a little walk beyond the fringes.  We all survived, he stayed with me, but neither he nor I were relaxed. Having the new horse Walter has reminded me how nice it is to have a horse who is blasé about things. Of course the ponies are but one expects ponies to be.  Walter is a big TB and he can get high headed and spook…but it’s rare. He’s given me something to shoot for. 

Many years ago I developed my own theory comparing working with dogs and horses. I differentiated between horse distractions and dog distractions by saying that with dogs, one usually just needs to be more interesting than the distraction because so often the distraction is something they want to get TO.  They want to chase the cat, eat what just landed on the floor, run to go meet that person or dog, etc.  So we can increase the value of the reinforcers to show them that staying with us and focusing on us is even better than a given distraction. But for horses, the distraction is so often something they fear. As prey animals who evolved as horizon scanners, with long legs for fleeing, horses see things in the far distance and immediately begin assessing whether they should run in the other direction. They want the safety of a herd to hide in the middle of, which means if they are given the chance, they are going to run away from the handler and back to the barn, field, or wherever they feel safe.  I fully admit that this is generalizing and that there are dogs who are fearful and horses who pull toward grass, but overall, I feel this is a significant generalization to work with.

What is the point of this? When horses are fearful of distractions, no higher level of reinforcement is going to make them focus on me. Which brings me to my underlying principal

Horses need to trust the person more than they fear the environment.

Thinking about this, I wanted to know just what more I could do with Percy so that he didn’t feel like he needed to be on alert if we went anywhere new. I felt that a 10 year old who’d been clicker trained all his life should have resulted in more trust. I did a lot of thinking. And then some more. I listened to Hannah Branigan’s interview with Susan Friedman where Hannah refers to one of her dogs needing to “file a lot of papers” in a new environment or something like that.  And I thought what a great analogy.  Look at EVERYTHING and figure out where to file it. And in my mind Percy’s files have different colors for different levels of dangers and many are flagged and many are cross filed in multiple places! 

As I listened to that interview, a plan started to form in my head. The thing that always blows my mind about Susan is that I listen to her and nod along, agreeing with everything and then I get hit with something that makes me come to full attention.  It’s not a sentence or an idea but somehow all of a sudden I get an aha! that I would have said I should have already known but…now I see it more clearly. 

What I decided to try was to be more predictable and reliable. Because Percy is so busy, and easily responds to any cue from me while still filing papers, I always tried to keep him focused and moving, both physically and mentally. I did this in an effort to keep things interesting and new and fresh in hopes that would serve to keep his focus on me. He never knew what to expect from me…but maybe that was hurting a lot more than helping.

My new plan would be to start from a place of success (success in this situation defined as relaxed) and we would build from there. I took into consideration the environment, activities and me. I drew out “zones” on the farm (the environment); a progression of activities that he was comfortable with; and decided on some rules of behavior for myself.

The procession of activities were as follows:

Day 1 was exploration day- he was on halter and lead but I followed, rather than directing. I did this because he loves to explore and I know that hand grazing is a good activity for allowing a horse to settle in.  I realized this as he “grazed” scraps of hay in the aisle (the first zone) while walking around. Now I started this project in February. Living in northern Vermont, there were no hand grazing possibilities mid-winter. 

In the following zones I filled a hay pillow on exploration day and that became a cue that he was the leader and could do whatever he wanted…as long as he stayed in that zone. In future zones, he was not allowed to retreat to an easier zone…we had just spent a full five days in the previous zone during which he could certainly see, hear and smell the next one so I thought that was a fair rule. Interestingly, he never ate from the hay pillow! The first time I put it outside, he used it as a mat. haha!!!  After that, he just wandered around with his nose to the ground or head up looking around. 

February- Percy using the hay pillow as a mat

Once grass came, he grazed! But I still used the (empty) hay pillow as his cue that he’s the leader on this exploration day. The amount of time I spent depended a lot on how cold it was those first months. I tried to do a minimum of 10-15 minutes.  Once we got to grazing weather, it often extended to 20. 

March- stationing at a boat bumper while I walk away

I also developed a weather rule.  If the weather was such that I didn’t want to be out in it, we skipped that day. Those were the cold, raw, or rainy days. But if I found myself hesitating because I didn’t think HE would like the weather, we went anyway.  Because those were days involving wind which made for scary noises. We live in a windy, breezy place and if we didn’t venture out in the breezes, we’d be severely limited. He needed to learn to trust me through the wind. 

On exploration day there were no treats. I asked for no behaviors. This was HIS day. He got to just explore.

Day 2 in each zone was Alexandra Kurland’s Foundation Lessons. I did 10 reps of each foundation lesson with half of them facing away from the barn…and the other half of them with his butt to the scary world. Anything which could involve duration, I went up by 5 seconds each rep. So the first head down was clicked and treated for just nose to the ground, the next was a count of 5 seconds, then 10, etc, so that by the end of mats, grownups and head down, he was up to 20-30 seconds (if his head came up a bit or he moved a foot, I’d restart the count even though he re-set the behavior on his own). 

Day three I chained Foundation Lesson behaviors. I asked for one to four behaviors before a click/treat. I varied what and how many so this was less prescribed, but I stuck to Foundation Lessons only and ignored any environmental input.  Just because his head shot up did not mean I asked for head down.  I just asked for a variety of things.

Day four I called “new” behaviors. These were not brand new things but things I knew he liked to do (step over rails) or I felt were important (my stepping onto a mounting block stool). I had a list of about 6 things that I pulled from but only did one in a given day.  I felt like that made me more reliable. "Rails are out, we’re doing rails today” etc.

Day 5 I used Foundation Behaviors to reinforce a “new” (as above) behavior. Not necessarily (in fact rarely) the one I’d worked on the previous day. They were just two unit chains followed by c/t. 

one day this area was all grass, and the next day my husband had created this scary diversion

note- even though I was consistent spending five days in each zone before moving on, the world was not always consistent. The weather changed day to day which not only was a different feel, but sometimes meant the world looked different- from snow to mud and back to snow again, or leaves busting out on the trees. In some zones, our sheep were pastured nearby one day when they hadn't been the day before. When we got to the road, there was sometimes traffic that went by (something which surprised me in that it fazed him not at all). But I didn't change my plan. That was part of this process.  We are going to proceed regardless of what the world throws at us but we are going to proceed in a manner that is predictable and you can count on me not to throw something unexpected at you. 

the quonset hut door was open, ready to eat horses

After going through the five days in one zone, I moved further from the barn to a new zone and started over again with exploration day. My zones were small. I wanted to increase incrementally.  I'd say most zones averaged about 20 yards in length. We all know horses who willingly march forward to investigate, only to wheel and tear off in retreat. Wheeling and retreating was not part of my plan.  Staying under threshold was. 

February, March and April were slow going.  The cold and snow and wind kept coming, the driveway was icy and I skipped many days but we made progress. I never repeated a day and never backed up in the progression. I wanted slow and steady progress toward the rest of the world. Finally grass came and his exploration days were something he really looked forward to. I'd go out early in the morning and we'd go exploring before chores. The weather varied but there was always grass. 

As we progressed, I developed some rules for him and this was really important as in the past I always let him be who he is. If that meant he wanted to move, we moved. If that meant he wanted to retreat, we retreated.  I felt I was respecting his concerns and giving him choices. But we seemed to be stuck in that routine and I started wondering just how much I was enabling his reactivity, rather than helping him through it. Sometimes I tried to help him through his worries by asking him to put his head down or reinforcing low. He never knew how I’d respond and I wanted to change that so that my response would be one less unknown. I traded interesting for reliable.

One rule is that when we are going to the zone of the day, we maintain a casual but steady pace. I do not break my gait. If he's dragging his feet from worry, I don't creep along slowly, I just walk casually. As soon as the slack is out of the rope, he comes along (it’s a short rope). Some days that happened several times; some days not at all. My pace was part of my predictability. If he gets nervous and gets ahead of me, I do not speed up. Only a couple times did I need a Tai Chi wall to prevent him from circling when he got out in front of me. Circling is not allowed. I am aiming for a horse who walks along with me rather than a whirling dervish. He can look at whatever he wants but he must keep walking at a steady pace. Initially I tried to keep him on one side of me but there are places where he really feels safer on one side than the other so he may lag behind and swap sides if he wants as long as we don’t break pace.

As far as rules for ME: in addition to what I ask for, I feed predictably.  It’s been hard! I feed in the same place every time.  I do not lower my hand to keep him quiet or feed where he is just to get the food in. I do not ask him to back.  I had a very reliable food delivery protocol. I clicked, turned to be perpendicular, and my outside hand went full arm’s length slightly lower than shoulder height. 

And I stuck to the plan of the day. No creative problem solving.  No surprises.  We just did what was on the plan. I like to think he knows the plan as well as I do by now.

May- grass to graze but keep an eye on what might come out of the quonset hut

June 5- he is concerned on our first day on the road about what might come up behind him

June 9- progress. Curious, but not worried in this zone. He has chosen to graze, lifting his head occasionally to look into the woods. 

Once we reached the road, I chose to make a big leap in our zones. There's 100 yard stretch where the woods and ditches made it impossible for us to get off the road if a car came. We don't get a lot of traffic on our road but there's a blind corner near the driveway and what traffic does come, comes far too fast for my liking. I didn't have anywhere to place a mat other than in the road. Instead, I decided to continue walking until we got to where the trees ended and opened to fields so I could step off the road for grazing and had room to do our Foundation lessons. By this time, Percy was familiar with the routine and content near the road. His head was high and ears swiveling as we walked down the road, but he maintained a steady pace with no spooking. When we stepped off the road to graze, just look at the grass he found.

June 13- just days after reaching comfort on the road, we were able to get this far from the barn and other horses.

In describing this to others, people always wanted to know, “but what are you going to do when (insert problem, lack of response, here)”.  Miraculously, problems did not arise. He never had a meltdown- he never yanked the rope. He never got so worked up that I was worried for our safety. I never wondered how I was going to get back to the barn with a nervous horse jigging alongside.  I guess instead of saying miraculously, I should say the training worked.  The reliability served its purpose. That is not to say he always remained under threshold.  This horse LIVES on his threshold.  He'll spook out at pasture and spin in his stall if the moment calls for it. My goal was keep pushing the threshold he lives with further out, rather than tipping him over it.

Successes?  

I ALWAYS have a calmer horse walking back than going out. Every single day. And significantly.  Even when we were in uncharted (incompletely filed?) territory.

Sniffing along the roadside as we return from a session far from the barn

Places he would previously have been alert in, he is now able to walk through calmly. We kept pushing the envelope and the safe environment is expanding. 

I kept track of body language. I logged looks, startles and spooks and defined them as:

a “look” is head high and ears forward, a “startle” is one of those spooks in place- muscles tense but the feet don’t move…or at least land where they left the ground! and a “spook” is movement of feet or change of gait).  I did not see an increase in any of these over time and they decreased within each new zone from day to day, and rarely happened in a previous zone.

Once the arena dried out in late Spring, I began working Percy in there every other day so our outings were less frequent. One day we'd be in the arena, the next day we went for a walk. Sometime in mid-summer, I had to change my route. Our sheep were now grazing the zones Percy and I were headed for. My goal had been to continue on around the perimeter of the fields and back to the barn.  Instead, we began in the other direction. This meant going down below the house which now blocked the view of his buddies at the barn. It was fascinating to see that he was more relaxed further from the barn when he could see the others, than closer to the barn if they were out of sight.

At this time I also had to add another strategy. When we went below the house, we were near the woods where real life predators lived. Ever since we moved here 5 years ago, we were often alerted to wildlife coming out of the woods when we saw Percy in his paddock standing on high alert, nostrils flaring, body stiff and you could almost see his heart pounding at a distance. Bear, deer, moose and coyote lived in those woods and came out to graze or hunt. And now I was asking him to leave his buddies behind and approach those dangerous woods. What I found was that he was willing and able to maintain our progress closer and closer, but when we turned to go back to the barn, he would suddenly leap forward at some point. Having the woods behind him was too much. I have no idea what he'd hear that would suddenly cause him to leap (still never pulling on the rope but a definite over threshold situation). I decided to try grazing our way back to the barn.  With so much grass available, it seemed silly not to take advantage of it.  So regardless of what we were working on that day, when we turned for home, I'd stop frequently to let him graze.  I started with stopping every 5 steps and letting him have 20 bites of grass. That seemed to help immensely and the spooking stopped. I progressed to going 10 steps between grazing, then 15, and so on, until we could go all the way back to the barn, only stopping once. Again, the routine, the permission to look but progressing to fewer breaks, all served my long term purpose.

August- lifting his head from grazing to look into the woods on our return

One day I tried taking a buddy out with him when I had a working student at the farm to help. Surprisingly, he was more nervous that day than he'd been in a long time. He felt he had to keep an eye on the surroundings AND the pony (you know, so he could warn him if a bear was sneaking up behind him).  So much for the quiet pony being a calming influence.

September- taking Stowaway along for company

At some point, the grazing sheep got in our way again and we had to turn around and go back to our original travels.  Happily, I was able to start where I'd left off. Then, in October, it snowed.  A lot.  Winter came way too early and I was not acclimated and unwilling to wade through deep snow to our current zone. Then came the holidays and in January I told myself I had to get back to work. I wasn't exactly sure what to do for our adventures. Last year we were still working close to the barn and were able to stay in the plowed driveway. Now what will I do? Just to see what a couple months off had done, I took Percy out down the driveway. No treats and we hadn't been out there in months.  His head was high and watching but he never stopped. He passed the quonset hut, doing his usual swapping of sides as we went around the corner in the driveway. It was getting dark and below zero degrees but he walked along with me without so much as a startle. We didn't go out on the icy road in the half dark, but turned around before I froze. He quickened a little, but slowed when he felt the slack go out of the rope. I was probably walking more slowly than usual due to the footing but he accommodated me. 

I am looking forward to using this technique with Percy going forward. There is no doubt that keeping things interesting is an important part of working with him.  But so is being predictable and reliable in both my requests and my responses.  It's like balancing on the edge of a knife with this boy sometimes. He continues to teach me so very much. 

Bonus!  A couple weeks ago, I had a conversation about this project with Alexandra Kurland and Dominique Day on their Equiosity podcast. It was a long conversation and so Alex broke it up into several parts.  The first part is more of my personal history and how I came clicker training.  The second part is Percy's history and the "why" behind this project.  Part three we finally get to this, and in part four, we talk about the desensitization project I did in 2017.  To hear our conversation, go to Equiosity. 

To listen to Hannah Branigan's interview with Dr Friedman which inspired this project: https://wonderpupstraining.com/podcast/39/

Daily Planning and Journaling

I've thought about this post since I published the previous post about big picture planning and logging. Several people commented, on Facebook or Instagram, that what they really needed was the daily format.  I think I posted the other one first, because until you know what your big goals are, how do you know what to do each day? I guess this is a warning that if you haven't read the previous one, or didn't think it was important, it's worth considering.

Assuming you have done that, and you know what your big picture is and where you are going to start, then you need to think about planning vs logging. In other words, how much planning do you do ahead of time, compared to just writing down what happened. For me, the bulk of what I write, I write ahead of time. I like to have a detailed plan of what I am going to do, and if I know my learner well, then what comes afterward is just an acknowledgement.

I have a specific acronym I use. Whether or not to share it here is what took me a while to think about. I am opting not to share it for two reasons.  One is that I think it takes a lot of explaining, and that will make it seem like a complicated system when it isn't.  The other reason is that I think everyone needs to come up with an approach that works for them. I do share my template with people in person and will probably be opening that up for internet sharing as well in the near future, but it will be an interactive session as opposed to just a blog post. 

I realized in my musing, that I could boil my own template into the commonly known, 5 Ws and an H: who, what, where, when, why, and how. More specifically:

• WHO are you training- this may only be pertinent if you have more than one learner and maybe additionally if multiple learners share a journal. If you have specific journals for specific animals, then this is self explanatory.
• WHAT are you going to train- in my own template, this means what am I going to work on in this session? If I want to train a horse to load into a trailer, then while that may be the overall goal, for a daily plan, I'm going to write down what I hope to accomplish that day.  This is why I have to know my learner and have to be able to break things down and know when to stop. A horse who has had problems in the past is going to require a very different one session training goal than just refreshing the comfort level of a horse who hasn't trucked recently. My goal for the former could be walking up to the bottom of the ramp on a loose lead. That would be enough for the first session. The goal as refresher might be to actually get into the trailer and just hang out for a few minutes.
• sometimes my "what" is simply an exploratory session or an assessment. If I am starting something new, and don't really know how the horse is going to respond, I write "assess comfort level of....", etc

• WHY- I'm going out of order from the traditional because I think WHY is a worthwhile question to ask early on and will greatly affect the approach.  Do I want to get the  horse to load because I have somewhere to take him next week? Or because I want to teach him to self load as opposed to leading him on? Or because I have a new trailer that he's never been on?  Why am I undertaking this lesson at this moment? This will greatly help decide the next Ws and the H.
• WHEN- what time of day am I training? If you always train at the same time of day and then one day you switch, that may very well affect how the session goes. Things like daylight, temperature, bugs, and feeding times all affect how our horses react to us and to the environment. Again using the trailer as an example, where will the sun be at the time I plan to train?  Will it make a glare inside the trailer or make it look like a black cave?
• WHERE- This can be as simple as stall vs aisle vs arena. Sometimes when we have a behavior that we want in the arena, it makes sense to start it in the barn. Thinking about it ahead of time can help me to consider this.We also want to consider who and what else is around.  Are other horses turned out nearby? Is there activity happening near the area I want to work and will that affect my success?
• HOW- one could write the how as a beforehand plan. How will I approach this goal?  Will I use targets or mats or rope cues to advance my trailer loading? This is a useful question to ask if the previous session didn't go as hoped.  Maybe a different approach would work better. You could also write the how afterward as in "how did it go?".  This is a dangerous question because too often people write "good" or some other nondescript answer. Stick to quantifiable data! Figure out a time or a distance to measure.  Describe the horse's response with visuals such as ear position, breathing, head height. 

Yesterday I did a training session with my Stowaway pony on accepting an oral syringe. He can look like the world is going to end in such situations but he freezes rather than fleeing or  fighting. If I was to write the session up using the 5 Ws and an H, it would look like this:

WHO- Stowaway

WHAT- begin improving comfort level with oral syringe. Assess good starting point

WHY- Stow is never a problem with worming, but it would be nice if he didn't stress about it

WHEN- 4:30 pm after coming in to eat

WHERE- stall

HOW- plan- no halter or lead. Present syringe, click for any reaction toward it. Increase as able in 10 reps

           after- initially: head high, eyes wide, stiff neck leaning back, backed a step first three times. Head gradually lowered with each rep.  Then I tried putting a hand on his head as I would with a real worming syringe and he backed into the corner. By the 10th rep, I could touch the syringe to the corner of his mouth without him backing or raising head.

I hope this helps show how I can quickly write a plan which nonetheless helps me design a carefully thought out process. Normally what I write afterward isn't even that long but this was an assessment session. Next time my "what" might be "touch syringe to lip corners 10 times". Considering where I ended the above session, that seems like an achievable goal for the next session.  Assuming that goal is met, I might write down his body language but that would be all that's necessary.

Training Goals and Planning for the New Year

Yesterday was a miserable day to be outside, making it a good day to be indoors with a hot cup of tea (or several). I chose to do some reflecting on 2018 and planning for 2019.

Training plans and logs or journals come in many forms and I've tried several: from digital spreadsheets to long hand journaling. I've had the benefit to work under some amazing trainers who shared their approaches and I played with those options. Over time, I've developed a template I really like for daily training of complex behaviors but am still fine tuning my big picture approach. 

This post is going to focus on the big picture stuff since that was my focus in looking back and looking ahead yesterday. I've gotten a lot of ideas from the Bullet Journal community.  If you are unfamiliar with bullet journaling, I recommend looking at the website of its originator, Ryder Carroll. If you look up Bullet Journal on google or social media, do not be dismayed by what has become an obsession with making pretty pages. Diagnosed with learning disabilities early in life, Ryder was forced to figure out alternate ways to be focused and productive. Isn't focus and productivity what we want from training journals?

I started yesterday by reviewing my daily logs from 2018.  I will freely admit to falling off the wagon with this on occasion, but my training is better when I do keep up with it, so those are worthwhile reviewing.  Doing so, I was reminded of things I tried which didn't work and how I resolved them. I was reminded of projects I worked on and dropped for one reason or another. Some were dropped for good reason (certain things make lovely noises when chomped on and therefore are not good subjects for being fetched). On the other hand, one thing I was reminded of was that I did some (very minor) TTouch work with Percy for a while and he really liked it.  I asked myself why I had stopped and saw that it was when I went away to meet a new baby granddaughter for a week.  When I returned, I got right back into training, but forgot all about the TTouch. That brought me to another realization which is that I don't look back often enough. I tend to plan and record, but I was missing a big advantage by not reviewing my records often enough. I hope to make a change in that in the coming year. Yesterday was certainly a good start. 

While reviewing my journals, I did something known as a brain dump. I made a different section for the different individuals (horses and dogs) and just wrote things down as I thought of them. They ranged from skills such as training a new way to deliver reinforcers, to wanting to try the TTouch some more, to books I wanted to read (in a section I added at the bottom for me) to long term goals. In a brain dump, you just try to get all the things that are swirling in your head out and down onto paper. 

Once I had done that, I picked one individual at a time and studied the list.  What could I work on in January? What did I want to work on in January? While trail riding more with Walter was on the big list, it was not something that we could do in January. But here's where I could miss out if I don't look back on this list.  Just because I can't work on it now doesn't mean I want to forget about it when the weather and footing improve. I could get so wrapped up in other things that I neglect to make the time in future months for that. This is something that my personal Bullet Journal can help with. Ryder recommends a Future Log where you set aside a page and section it out for the next six months. I now have a note for April which reads "make a plan for trail riding". On April 1st, when I look at the future log, I will be reminded of that.

Percy's and Walter's lists look very different.  I have several different things to work on with Percy. Winter is a good time to experiment so in addition to doing some more TTouch with him, I am going to see if that functions better as a warmup to other mental work, as a calm down afterward, or as something that is better to do all by itself in a day just as a way to spend time together.  I can use the findings to my benefit when warmer weather and more focused arena work returns. 

Walter's got one main theme which is to keep him physically flexible. He arrived with various stiffnesses and habit patterns in his body. He's made good progress in warmer months with regular work, but this time of year his body and mine react the same way. We move less, tense up from cold, take tiny steps on questionable footing, and our physical structures get tight and stiff. I have developed a pattern of movement for him using the barn aisle and the stalls. The footing is solid and I can click and treat for lateral steps turning through the stalls and big steps down the aisle. He also benefits from stepping over raised rails which I can set in the aisle. Finally, I have some new things to play with such as a pedestal and Sure Foot pads to add to our work with hoof placement. I will be confirming all this with his chiropractor. 

Once I had things which I wanted to work on in January, I had to make a plan. I have found I work well without having to think about "what to do today". So for Walter and Percy, I set out a list of five things to rotate through. For Percy I varied active thinking days with more relaxing days. I like winter to be a time that we practice our down time. Not every minute together needs to be on his Type AAA mentality. We'll do husbandry skills one day, explore the Sure Foot pads together another day, and try to keep things interesting but relaxing. 

For Walter, I set up a rotation that involved working his legs and back in different directions, at his intention and at mine.  Some days we'd use props to help him explore different ways to move and stretch and other days we'd use behavior. 

I don't get to work with the horses every day due to temperatures and my behavior consulting work schedule with other people. I set out a five day rotation for each horse, thinking that if I got five days per week with each, that would be great. If not, the rotation would continue in order, even if it was only every other day or I skipped several days in a cold snap. I have yet to find gloves that I can extract and feed treats with (that are at all useful for keeping fingers warm) so my training is done in snippets when I remove gloves of the feeding hand. 

To track what I have actually done, in the winter I use a calendar layout. In the summer I tend to use more detailed training plans and write them up in individual training journals for each horse. This time of year, it's less about creating and developing complex behaviors and more about mental and physical maintenance so with the plan I outlined for each horse above, I mostly just need to log what I've done.  If I want to add more detail, I make a note referring to the journals and I have room to write as much as I want in there. 

So what about the ponies? They, alas, do not get the training focus that the others do.  They  get out in haphazard fashion when other people come to train with me. They work on what the people need to work on, usually the Foundation Lessons in some form. I always have, as a goal, to work with them somehow and what I find is most successful is to choose one of them each day to focus on. Sometimes there is a particular project to work with. Kizzy is learning to ring a bell to ask to be let out when she is through eating her breakfast. She gets that almost every morning right now so that's nice for her. 

In order to keep the ponies in rotation and keep skills in rotation, I have used another Bullet Journal technique called a habit tracker. In order to track all the aspects that I want to, I have even incorporated color. This may seem over the top to some people but it works. It's an inexact system, without the detail I am using for the horses, but functions on the basic level I need. I make a chart, listing the days of the month across the top and the horses listed vertically on the left. I have assigned a color to various training topics and I fill in the corresponding block(s) each evening. By looking at this, it's easy for me to be sure that each pony is getting some attention, and that I am varying what we work on, even though it's in sporadic bits. 

If I only had one animal to work with, it would be a lot simpler.  With six equines and two dogs to keep busy, it has taken me years to work out this system. I am glad to be reminded to look back as well as forward.

Training for the Holiday Card Photo

Trying to get photos of animals for holiday cards is not as easy as it might seem. I am always impressed when I see well-posed photos with happy looking animals. I never start preparing for the photo as soon as I should and this year was no different. With some luck from Mother Nature which extended my training period, I squeaked out another. 

I started with an idea my head of what I wanted the picture to be. I was struck with this idea watching Wilder wagging his tail. In the winter, I use a sled to drag a bale of hay out to pasture to feed the horses. The dogs come with me and one day Wilder put his front feet up on the sled, looked up at me and wagged his tail rapidly.  He is the first Jack Russell I’ve had who has a full tail and it’s such different look that it gets my attention frequently. He reminded me of the Grinch’s dog, Max, when he is riding on the back of the Grinch’s sled as it races down the hill: the happy version of Max.

Back in the house, I googled to see if I could find some antlers that Wilder could wear. Lo and behold, Barkbox was including them in their December subscription box and I ordered it. Googling brought up many photos of dogs wearing antlers and sadly, many of them were not the happy version of Max. I’m sure people thought they were adorable but those of us who work with dogs and have been taught what stress looks like see it a lot more easily than others.  I did not want that sad stressed look on his face when I put antlers on him.  I knew I would need to do some conditioning so that he’d be able to show a happy face when he wore them. 

I felt I needed to have a “Grinch” in the photo as well.  I often try to have both dogs and horses represented on my card, as my training business includes both.  Who better than Kizzy to be the Grinch?  She too, would be the happy version, Grinch with a full grown heart. 

When Kizzy came to Bookends Farm, she’d had a nickname which sort of rhymes with Grinch but is worse. Obviously I renamed her (which is another story). She was hard to catch in the early days, and not easy to work with, but over the years she has become such a big hearted pony that she is a great example of a heart which has expanded many times over. She, I decided, would wear a big red heart. I wasn’t too concerned about her comfort level as she’s worn many things on her neck from halters and lead ropes to a bridle and reins, to a winter blanket with a neck attachment. 

It was December already and luckily I have a friend who was willing to take pictures for me.  I have always taken my own in the past and it is very challenging to set the scene, get the picture, and click and treat the right behaviors!  This year, I told myself, I’d remove that photography duty. I set a date for the photoshoot which gave me about 10 days to prepare.  I knew it would be tight but also that it would light a fire under me to work on it with dedication. 

I started my preparations. First I needed to think about all the component parts, as we call them.  What different things would be required for my mental image to become reality? I made a list:

• Wilder wearing antlers
• Wilder standing with front feet on sled 
• for duration long enough to photograph
• Wilder and Kizzy comfortable together
• Distraction of some sort of Santa’s sack
• Kizzy wearing hat
• Kizzy wearing heart

Two other components I needed but that I thought were well established already were:

• Kizzy standing on mat
• Kizzy staying on mat long enough to photograph

Three things which came up that I hadn’t foreseen were

• distraction of new person as photographer
• unexpected wobbling of things I asked Wilder to put his feet on.  I’m glad this came up as during the actual photo shoot, the sled slid. It hadn’t during any of our practices but because I’d practiced with putting front feet on many things which did wobble or slightly collapse, or moved, this did not bother him for more than a couple seconds. 
• Wilder’s concern with Kizzy’s proximity. He has spent a lot of time in the barn and around the horses and until recently showed no concern about them.  But one day he was in the wrong place at the wrong time (I take complete responsibility) and although the horses were not chasing him, they were just going where they wanted to go, he happened to be in front and so he thought he was being chased. I was glad he’d had a previous comfort level for me to regain. I would not have tried to get a generally fearful dog through that in 10 days which is all I had.

So, how to do all this? 

Antlers- Wilder had “worn” other things on his head and neck.  He knew how to poke his

munching down a treat while wearing his antlers

nose into the head hole of his harness or collar. He’d practiced putting his nose in a muzzle. So he already had that behavioral skill.  Wearing something that wiggled above his head would be new though, so I’d need to start with less than a second and work my way up. 

I began by refreshing the behavior of poking his head into anything which I held in front of him: collar, harness, and muzzle. (to see a video, go to my Instagram page) In the same session, I introduced the antlers.  The neck piece was nice soft fabric and adjustable with velcro.  I wasn’t sure exactly how it would sit or stay in place but I waited a few days before worrying about that.  To start with, I just wanted him comfortable poking his head into it. Each day, I wait another second before clicking and removing it so he got used to the feel of it, even if I was still holding onto it.  

I needed to prevent him from being frightened by it at any stage (“augh, I’ve got something stuck on my head!”) which could cause him to panic and/or try and possibly succeed in getting it off. Again, I needed to PREVENT that. That meant going very slowly so that he never had reason to worry. 

Once he was holding his head still for several seconds as I held on to the antlers (so that I could whip them off quickly if needed), I removed my hands for just a second, clicked and removed them before giving him his treat. He was fine with that and over time, I then could leave them on for longer periods, increasing the time by only seconds each session. 

Once he was comfortable with that, I tried backing away from him, as he’d need to remain still while wearing them, again, not trying to get them off.  At this point, he was on the Klimb platform as we practiced this and he has history staying on it when I walk away so that’s how I introduced that piece.  I would not ask him to stand with his front feet up while wearing the antlers until we had worked on that component separately.

anticipating his treat for "toes up" on a stool

“Toes up”- that became my eventual verbal cue to ask him to put his front feet up on something. I started with a rolled up yoga mat. I thought this would be easy for him to grip with his toes so no worry about slipping.  I didn’t have it rolled tight though and so it gave a little under his weight which he found initially worrying.  Of course he had no idea what I wanted at first. I used hand targeting to encourage him to put his feet on the roll. Initially he did everything BUT put his front feet up.  He jumped straight up, went around it, and stepped over it. But all that got clicked and treated.  Why? Because I asked for a hand target and he touched my hand each of those times. Over time he realized it was easier to touch down on the mat for a moment, which led to resting there longer, which resulted in a rapid succession of clicks and treats, and then we had what I was after. 

After this, I asked him to do the same on several different things.  Things which he could get onto were most difficult because he wanted to jump on them completely.  I thought this was an important phase for him to learn that it was distinctly different for him to put his front feet onto an object, rather than all of him.  Pretty soon he was offering to put his feet on things I approached so I knew he had the behavior solidly. At this point, I started working on duration (the amount of time he remained there before the click) and distractions (I needed to be able to walk away from him to get out of the picture.  This was distracting to him as he wanted to follow me as I stepped away). We made steady progress in both these steps, by only asking him for tiny approximations toward our goal, and repeating the easy steps frequently to keep him confident. 

Adding a little distance between us

Eloise in the background for moral support. 

In order to have Wilder be comfortable with Kizzy, I started by spending time with them both together. Kizzy gets hot mashes three times a day which she loves and which take time for her to eat.  This was a good opportunity for me to take Wilder in the stall with her.  She was busy eating so paid no attention to him and he could get used to being near her without being approached.  Since Kizzy was eating, I needed to make sure she wasn’t at all threatened by Wilder’s approach. Dogs do like to eat grain and if he had started to clean up any spilled grain near her tub, she could have wanted to resource guard it.  To avoid this, I made sure that Kizzy got extra treats dropped in her tub as Wilder and I were in there.  This taught her that having us around while she ate was even better than eating alone. 

Once Wilder’s body language told me he was relaxed in her presence, I asked him for some simple behaviors in her presence to see if he could focus and respond to me.  He could and did: sits, downs, and hand touches. He was so focused on me that I began to put some distance between us until he and Kizzy were closer to each other than either one was to me.  Kizzy was still busily eating and every time I returned to treat Wilder, Kizzy got treats in her tub too. This would eventually allow us to have them in the frame without me. 

Now it was time to start working with them together. Here I made a mistake in when I chose to work with them.  First thing in the morning, I turn everyone out except for Kizzy.  She stays in to get her first hot mash of the day and is perfectly happy being left in the barn for this.  I assumed (always a mistake) that she’d also be happy to stay in for a very brief training session when she was through eating.  It worked conveniently into my schedule as I was cleaning stalls so as soon as she was done, I could let her into the aisle and work with them together.  I should have spent a couple sessions with just Kizzy to get her into that routine.  She was pretty convinced that after eating, it was time to go OUT.  If I’d been training her alone, I think the rate of reinforcement and general rate of training would have been high enough to keep her happy.  Instead, I assumed she would stand on her mat for short durations since she had a long history of doing that.  Instead, she showed me that she'd rather go to the door and when she stepped off the mat making mistakes, Wilder immediately left too.  

working together was a blur! 

By this time, we were within a day or two of the photo shoot date and I caught a break when the weather turned very cold so that my friend said her camera wouldn’t even work (down around zero).  So we delayed one day at a time until the weather warmed up and I got an extra two and a half days training which I needed! During that time I also found a hat for Kizzy to wear and so had a couple days to be sure she wasn't upset by that.

It was only on the day my friend was due to arrive that I thought about how excited Wilder gets when people visit and how he loves to leap and solicit attention.  I did not know how I was going to address that if he wanted to spend all this time checking her out. Luckily, having had an opportunity to wrestle with her for a few minutes when she arrived, he was able to focus on the task at hand.

Because of the cold and scheduling, the final thing which I should have done but hadn’t, was to practice in the spot I actually wanted the photo.  All our practice had been inside the barn where it was warmer!  So the distractions of being out in the open added to the challenge and my friend got a LOT of pictures of me feeding and just a couple without me in the picture. Luckily, one of those was good enough to choose for the card. 

Next year I'll start earlier.