Session 6. Undeterred, I return the very next day. This time, Gus cooperates throughout. Why?? I can discern nothing about the vagaries of location or animal biology to explain his mercurial moods. Sometimes he’s mellow when it’s brisk and breezy or feisty when it’s hot and humid. Being an independent agent, the sole proprietor and CEO of his autonomy, he plays the precocious enfant terrible to the hilt.
Today, I withhold any clicking for touching the toy traffic cone on the ground. He touches; I wait. He knows from his previous training that if you don’t get a click as expected, you need to do something more or different. He wiggles his ever-so-nimble muzzle against the cone and it falls over. Click! Within a minute, he’s consistently nudging the cone. Now I wait again. Trying to earn a treat, he wibbles his lips with extra energy, until they open a bit — click! Soon he’s pretty consistently opening his mouth on the cone. That’s enough for today, and we switch to heeling along like a dog, standing on the wooden mat, and other games. Good session.
Today, I withhold any clicking for touching the toy traffic cone on the ground. He touches; I wait. He knows from his previous training that if you don’t get a click as expected, you need to do something more or different. He wiggles his ever-so-nimble muzzle against the cone and it falls over. Click! Within a minute, he’s consistently nudging the cone. Now I wait again. Trying to earn a treat, he wibbles his lips with extra energy, until they open a bit — click! Soon he’s pretty consistently opening his mouth on the cone. That’s enough for today, and we switch to heeling along like a dog, standing on the wooden mat, and other games. Good session.
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It’s been ten visits. How’s it going so far? I’d say “adorable” and “abominable” are still the operative descriptors, in approximately equal proportions. I think Gus has accepted that I’ll be there regularly and that I’ll be decent to him. When I bring him in from the paddock and a horse comes too near us, he does emit a stifled little squeal and pin his ears at him: “My Pez dispenser!” But that may be as far as the loyalty goes. Will he warm up to me? Do donkeys warm up to anybody? I’m getting enough fun and fascination from the work that I don’t much care for now. Anyway, it’s early days yet.
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