Olaf kehrt zurück
Olaf returned Tuesday for another two weeks. This time focusing on his hindquarter defensiveness. He did pretty fantastic yesterday. Quieter moving the false shafts around, much better with both the lines and the rope traces touching his haunches, and we even pulled the tire walk, trot, and direction changes with zero kicks just a half-second brace.
Today I moved the false shafts around again and he stayed standing after just a couple passes. I then swapped positions and pulled it the oppisite direction with me coming towards him first instead of the roller and that was a lot less okay. He did eventually stand and then I took him for a walk with a pvc pipe. I started with it on my outside. He eyeballed the pole pretty hard, especially moving towards him. He settled somewhat and Chris asked if he could try something so I was leading Olaf and Chris randomly touched Olaf with a whip between his gaskin and cannons. Olaf was not pleased. He scootched and had some thoughts of kicking out, but more stomping. I told Chris the goal is if we can shape the kicking response into a mild forward scootch that would be good.
From there I took the whip and did a mix of lungeing and leading while randomly touching his hindquarters. He couldn't care less about his upper hips and croup, which I noted yesterday as I used the whip, but he was concerned about anything below his stifle. If he reacted I kept the whip on and asked him to yield his hip through the line and my body language until he slowed down. When he slowed the whip came off. He progressed from offended stamping to quick steps, to eventually an ear twitch and called it a day.
Tomorrow I'll do some driving with the tire and start rubbing him down with the pvc pipes both stationary and while he is moving.
I have plenty of other things to write about but perhaps tomorrow!
Today I moved the false shafts around again and he stayed standing after just a couple passes. I then swapped positions and pulled it the oppisite direction with me coming towards him first instead of the roller and that was a lot less okay. He did eventually stand and then I took him for a walk with a pvc pipe. I started with it on my outside. He eyeballed the pole pretty hard, especially moving towards him. He settled somewhat and Chris asked if he could try something so I was leading Olaf and Chris randomly touched Olaf with a whip between his gaskin and cannons. Olaf was not pleased. He scootched and had some thoughts of kicking out, but more stomping. I told Chris the goal is if we can shape the kicking response into a mild forward scootch that would be good.
From there I took the whip and did a mix of lungeing and leading while randomly touching his hindquarters. He couldn't care less about his upper hips and croup, which I noted yesterday as I used the whip, but he was concerned about anything below his stifle. If he reacted I kept the whip on and asked him to yield his hip through the line and my body language until he slowed down. When he slowed the whip came off. He progressed from offended stamping to quick steps, to eventually an ear twitch and called it a day.
Tomorrow I'll do some driving with the tire and start rubbing him down with the pvc pipes both stationary and while he is moving.
I have plenty of other things to write about but perhaps tomorrow!