Soloman Elvis's Turn

Yesterday was one of those days where the sun is almost shining and the wind is blowing the snow sidewards into drifts. I am so glad that the groundhog saw its shadow, though I doubt that it will have any effect. So, with the horrid weather, I thought I would bring Soloman Elvis into the building and try some target training.

I have been neglecting the burros, because burros are so stubborn about not doing stuff if they don't want to. My plan has been to give them one chance and then NOT GIVE THEM TREATS when they don't at least try to please me. At this point, they are pretty well tuned into the fact that they better keep trying if they want a treat. Soloman is especially keen on it. His preferred command is "back-up", which sends him shuffling backwards even as his neck stretches out to get the treat.

I put a tin can with 3 cups of sweetfeed in my pocket and called Soloman out of the paddock. He will try to kill dogs, so I could only pray that the puppies stayed over with their mom in the dog pen, luckily, the puppies seem to know what evil lurks in the heart of the burro.

Now Soloman has been in the house several times. Long-time readers will remember how I tried to take him in to carry my saddle out without ever considering the fact that he had never worn a saddle. The living room is not a recommended location for a first saddling!!! He didn't buck, he just ran out the front door (on the other side of the building) braying, with me following along with the saddle calling "Come back, Soloman, come back!". Last year, I had a definite program to get the equines in the house calmly in case of severely cold weather (like -30°F) because their shelter had no walls at that time.

We got to the porch door, and Soloman wasn't sure about it.... it smelled like a puppy den, as the puppy room is the first door to the right. I am sure all his anti-coyote instincts went into first gear. Still, brave donkey he is, he put his front feet in and sniffed around before stepping in. I could see it was a bit overwhelming to him, so we stepped back onto the porch. The porch is pretty much out of the wind, so we moved to it's sunniest side and started our targeting project.

I was using a wooden back-scratcher as the target. "Target nose" took five trials to be pretty consistent. "Target ears" didn't take long to elicit the response, though it was given quite tentatively. "Target knee" was surprisingly easy considering Soloman and I had never discussed knees at all. Then since there was still a cup of grain, we decided to try "Target shoulder"... that's a bit harder since it involves some degree of lateral movement with the front legs, so first we accepted stepping forward as a try, then it had to involve some degree of lateral shift, then finally it was just turn on the haunches. He knows Nose, Knee, Ears, and Shoulder and he had a good time.

Total time to teach a stubborn little burro to target four places on his body: 20 minutes. Will he remember much of it today??? Does he understand the words as much as he understands what part of him the back-scratcher is pointing to? We'll test him today after lunch.

I personally believe that ANY POSITIVE personal interaction you have with an equine builds the relationship. You could be doing anything with them and if you get them to want to obey you, you've got them thinking about the relationship in a very positive way. It's all good.