Twosox: Gaining that mental connection.

July 16 2010

This morning I only got to play with Twosox because my mom, two little brothers and myself were had to go somewhere but we had a really good playtime, most likely one of our best ones in a while!

Right from the start I noticed that Twosox was doing what I asked, we were doing traveling circles, but he wasn't really connected. I would ask him to either slow down or speed up and he would not do it, his mind was else where. So we stopped the traveling circles and we did transitions, which were in great need of being played with. At first I just asked Twosox to trot faster, walk for a little bit then trot etc then I asked him to walk and I wanted him to walk one full circle. So I asked him to come down from the trot, which he did but he could only walk a little ways before he started trotting again. I would let him trot a couple strides and then ask for the walk again. This went of for a couple minutes so I decided to try something a little bit different. Every time Twosox went into the trot again I would ask him to walk again and then after he walked one or two steps, I would ask him to stop but stay on the circle. This way he was completely shut down, then I would ask him to walk. This really improved it. Twosox was able to walk for about 3/4 of a circle but there was one place where he had a harder time because the ground was uneven and so he would trot on the downward part.

I kept doing the same pattern though and pretty soon he was able to walk the full circle and so I brought him in. It was really interesting to see his whole body language change. He got more interested, tried harder and was asking questions. It was a huge difference from the beginning when he wasn't asking questions, he wasn't interested and he wasn't trying very hard. 

After that we did Figure eights. He did really well. We didn't have to do nearly as many as last time. This time he was still walking around the ends and trotting through the middle but he wasn't stopping on the ends. So that was good. 

We didn't play long but I think that it is better if our play sessions are shorter. Twosox is challenging for me especially when I want to get his feet moving more and get his mind involved so that means that progressing is hard. So right now keeping the sessions short but purposeful is important, that way I can be prepared and be the leader he needs. If we play to long I am not as good of a leader. 

I waited for Twosox to lick and chew and maybe start yawning before I took the halter off. He did and was really relaxed when I let him go. He stayed with me though and went with me down the hill. This was definitely a good playtime for us and hopefully we can build on it in our future sessions :)

Naturally,

~Keri