Gingy and I had a lot of fun today. I tried to use what I've been learning this week and it went really well.
I really had to laugh at silly Gingy is and all the subtle little games he plays. Sometimes he would start ignoring me for awhile, but I knew he was just playing so I waited until he got interested again. A couple of times he got a little treat crazy, I guess we are still working out the mechanics of using treats as bonuses not bribes.
I decided not to do the figure eight today and I think that was a good thing. Instead we did lots of little things just more as an assement of where we are today. I had him go on the circle and there happened to be a feed bucket on his path! I wanted to see if he would put his back feet in it from ten feet away, he did once but after that he was pretty confused about what I wanted. He's getting so light that it's hard be clear LOL. When he made some progress with the feedbucket then I turned my attention to a pole-like log. I wanted him to circle over to the log at the walk and straddle it, then go sideways away and back to me. He did that pretty well once, so we moved on.
I thought it might be good to brush up on our porcupine, however that was when he got pretty treat crazy. I did porcupine by the leg, but that didn't work very well since he wasn't paying much attention at that point LOL. Thinking back now I wish I had of gotten him out and away from me so he didn't get a chance to start pushing and shoving, I guess that's something to try next time. I also getting him to understand holding his front leg up when I tapped it and we had better luck there because he was interested enough to forget about the treat business. I did have to hold on to his halter at his chin so that he would start going backwards or sideways(which he tried to do at first). He did eventually hold his leg up for a little while, so I let it go at that.
To end an awesome session I did a little find the treat game and that was the best part! I had him stand with his front feet in the feed bucket while I went around the corral hiding treats. I was so proud of him because he never left the feedbucket(yay!). When I stopped him at the first treat location he got impulsive and tried to decide what I wanted before I told him LOL. The treat ended up on the ground and it sure took some serious communication to get him to put his nose down when I was 12 feet away! He got it! After that he pretty much went crazy for treats and I had some trouble getting him to listen to me. He never really did start paying attention to what I was asking, but we both had a lot of fun; maybe next time I'll have a better way to approach his treat craziness!
After I let him go he started playing the ignoring game with me, which was fine b/c I was just sitting in the corral to enjoy the fresh air. He is so funny when he ignores me b/c it's like he tries to make it as obvious as possible LOL. After awhile he settle down to eat a scattering of hay about 10 feet away from me. I had my carrot stick with me and I thought it would be interesting to see if he would notice if I asked him something. When he happened to be glancing my way I threw the slightest look at his hqs. It took three or four glances before he got interested and one or two more before he understood then he came right over. Wow! He actually knew I was asking him a question and he even figured out what I wanted! All I did was look at him!
Today the big theme was how soft can p1 for Gingy be?! I guess it was pretty soft!
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