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Monday, 16 July 2012

Tedious Training...

Cast - Me (Mum), Daughter
Starring - Hamish & Sherman
Kayjay, Sherman and Hamish sharing the treat bucket

We are relentless!  Despite cold weather, Daughter and I haltered up the boys today. Sherman is maintaining his kneeling behaviours, but we did get a couple of steps out of him (we kept trying to finish on a positive note but then he would kneel!  It took us ages to catch him being 'good' long enough to un-leash him!).

Sherman - I really don't like this!


Hamish wasn't as compliant today, he really resents wearing the halter, and this is when his spitting and rubbing his face against the ground behaviour kicks in.  I just let him get it all out of his system, which took about 10 minutes.  If we had appropriate behaviour yesterday, I wasn't going to stop until it was displayed again today.  He kept cushing, so I would say 'up', and then if he didn't I touched his back near his tail saying 'up', and if that didn't work, I grabbed his fleece and pulled him saying 'up'.  After a few times he stood on either the verbal command alone, or the verbal with the touch.  When he finally stood still, we were able to walk a few steps like yesterday.  What a good boy!

Maybe our difficulty is that the boys haven't been handled previous to our purchase of them, and I have read that halter training can start at 5 weeks!  If this is the case, then we have a long way ahead of us! :)
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2 comments:

  1. Alison20 July 2012 at 03:52

    I was relieved to see the size of Hamish and Sherman in relation to an adult - I was thinking they were much bigger and had visions of you wrestling an animal the size of a small horse! ( I am from the city!!) However, I guess size isn't the main issue (I couldn't train a Shi Tzu puppy). It is good to hear you are making progress and well done for your perseverance.

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  2. A Country Chicken20 July 2012 at 20:50

    Hamish and Sherman only small, but when they rear they are hard to hold on to. To capture them (ideally they allow you too, and Hamish is doing this more often and just stands there looking resigned) we have to corner them and I put my body weight over them, hooking a hand down their side and the other arm low around their neck with my shoulder protecting my face. They are pretty compliant now, but at first they would buck and rear, and throw themselves down! All my Team Teach training went out the window LOL, the little buggers weren't going to be talked down! Today though, we are haltering Kayjay for the first time, she is nearly three and she is about 'pony' size. I have to domit with Husband, if she kicks off, it will take two of us to manage her. I will let you know :)...

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