April 12, 2011
Twosox came over to me this morning when I went out to play with Prince so I decided to play with him first seeing as he wasn't going to leave me anytime soon. He practically put his head in the halter... I guess he wanted to be played with :)
So off we went! We started with traveling circles on the 12ft line. I was looking for him to find the rhythm, relaxation and connection. He didn't have any of them. It didn't take long before he was searching for the answer to the puzzle and when he maintained gait, relaxed, and connected I brought him in for a rest.
Figure eights were much better today. The first three times Twosox came around the right barrel he wanted to go the opposite direction so we went in that direction but made it my idea. Ruffian was lying down again but we just played around him. I have learned to treat him like a obstacle such as a barrel or pedestal, and just go around him. A couple times we literally did circles around him, Twosox was on one side trotting around and I was on the other. Ruffian just slept on.
On the forth time coming to the right hand barrel Twosox was light and connected and softly came around the barrel and we continued on with the Figure eight pattern. Once Twosox was able to walk around the end without stopping and then trot through the middle we stopped. It took way less time this time and it was really amazing to see the change!!
We played with the ball next. At first Twosox did exactly what he did last day and just walked right past it, so I did exactly the same thing as I did last day and allowed him to go past it, then I asked for a change of direction, tagged behind him and each time he got to the ball I would relax, offering to him the chance to stop. If he went right past it I would to the same thing as before. This took some time before Twosox started to play the game and search the the answer but pretty soon he would trot up to the ball and stop, look at me and then I would ask him to push it forward.
He picked up on it really quickly and pretty soon he followed the ball where ever it went and then I asked him to bring it to me, and he did!!! It was amazing!!! We had a long rest and lick and chew over that and then I un-haltered him but he stayed with me for a long time, yawning, licking and chewing and then I scratched some itchy spots and then Twosox moseyed over to some hay and I went to play with Prince!
Naturally,
~Keri
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