Training Journal Balthazar #1

Training. Liberty. 10 Minutes in yard. Due to Balthazar getting overwhelmed with c/t, a rather puzzling aspect to his nature as all he's getting is good things, I now ask for a few things, perhaps 3, and then walk away before he disengages. This was advice given me by Claire from ClickRyder. It works. He is more engaged, interested and happy. I suspect that with time he will lose his anxiousness about c/t and our sessions can be longer without me having to walk away. B is less inclined to mug. It's quite amusing to watch him start to mug, think 'Oh, I don't get a treat that way' and move his nose down the end of the carrot stick to the leather at the end. Voila! A carrot appears. So he's getting much better at that. What we started working on was his looking at me with both eyes before I ask him to back. I clicked a few times for that nano-second when he was straight on to me but he's learned well that swinging his head away (when he was really mugging and I just wanted him off me) so it will take awhile. Another thing we worked on was halting when he was coming straight toward me. I would say Whoa! in a firm voice and raise my arms. When he stopped I clicked. He is following the target better, to the ground and in a semi-semi circle around me. In our next session I want to work on that a bit more until he's stopping immediately and then when he is, to delay the treat so that he stays halted and calm for longer periods. Because he is following the target to the ground I think our next step will be to start learning the head down exercise. To put it on cue. Not sure how but we'll figure something out. That and learning to put his head down and shift his weight back onto his hind quarters. "When the horse takes a step forward to catch his balance as he drops his head, the handler counters with a request for backing. Only once the horse has reset his weight back, does she ask for or allow her horse to drop his head. As the process evolves, the horse figures out how to rock his weight back into his hindquarters so he can stretch his neck out and down to the ground - without taking that rebalancing step forward." Alexandra Kurland, 2006.