Useful Cues

Wendy wanted to know whether I always lead Emma or switch off when we go walking....

If we are on the road, I keep both donkeys on the lead.  Ramsey stays at my right side and Emma stays at his.  In the woods, I usually lead Emma and let Ramsey loose.  I can always count on Ramsey, Momma's boy that he is, to never stray far.  He always wants to be with Emma or me so he certainly won't leave the pair of us.  If Tessa is with us, then I always keep Emma on the lead and sometimes, Tessa as well if she is a bit too wound up.  

I do like to let let Emma run loose when I can because she has such fun, but she is much more independent minded and will wander much farther afield.  I really don't think she would run away, but I do worry that she might get in trouble wandering too far.  Because of that, I only let her be loose when we are deep in the woods and nowhere near the road, houses or old barbed wire.

I know there are several folks out there who are interested in walking with their donkeys and I thought I'd share a couple of cues that I have found to be very helpful if you ever find yourself in a position to go donkey trekking.

The first is a kind of "OK" cue.  It is inevitable that you will encounter things along the way that the donkeys will be frightened or wary of.  While working at home to desensitize them to scary stuff is invaluable, it is impossible to desensitize an animal to everything the world has to offer.  I have also found that too much desensitizing work without a positive outlet, is a good way to cause burnout in a horse.  If they are constantly bombarded with stuff they have to "get used to", they will get very sick of work very fast.  I find it much more useful to teach a cue that lets them know that whatever monster they are facing isn't really all that scary.  You can then use that cue as needed while getting on with more fun stuff, like hiking in the woods.

I like to teach this to my horses as well, although it is not as easy as it has been with my donkeys.  A horse's gut-instinct reaction to scary things is to run away.  Before you can give them an OK cue, you have to get them to stop moving.  Donkeys, on the other hand, excel at this.  Their gut-instinct reaction to scary things is to freeze and asses.  While they are assessing is the perfect moment to step in with an "it's OK" cue.  If you have done your homework correctly, they will relax and think, "hey, this is a never-seen-before-monster, but Ma has just given the all-clear cue so it must be OK."  It is a way to teach them how to manage their fear rather that trying to teach them not to fear at all, which is bound to fail at some point no matter how much effort you put into it.

The way I do this is, I believe, a variation of clicker training.  I confess, I am not great at clicker training.  I get tangled up with the clicker and my habits of verbally praising are too ingrained.  Instead of a clicker, I use a voice cue and a treat. 

I start with basic target training combined with a verbal "it's OK".  Once they have that down, I start introducing scary objects and using them as targets.  If I have gotten it right, as soon as they hear, "it's OK", they stop seeing the scary thing as a monster and see it as a target instead.  They go from wary to looking for their goody almost immediately.  After a while, they start to accept that if I say, "it's OK",  then it is OK.  If I use that when they are in their freeze-and-asses mode, I can usually talk them out of being afraid of things.  Very useful.

The other cue that I find invaluable is: "be careful".  This is something Tanner taught me a long time ago.  I tend to talk to my animals quite a lot and, from the time he was a puppy, I would tell Tanner to "be careful" anytime we encountered something that was potentially hazardous.  At some point, I realized that Tanner immediately responded to my unconscious, reflexive warnings.  He had learned to heed my command even though I had been totally unaware of giving one.  Once I realized what was happening, I tried to be a little more purposeful about it, but it is still largely something I do subconsciously.  If I see a threat (such as a porcupine on the trail) before tanner does, I say Be Careful and he will stop, look, examine then ask me for direction.  In the case of porcupines, it's "let's go the other way shall we."

When I started taking the donkeys out in the woods, I made a point of doing the same with them.  If we come to a spot with iffy footing, I infuse my voice with the genuine concern that Tanner ALWAYS responds to and give them the same kind of "be careful" command.  It did not take the donkeys long at all to respond just the way Tanner does, by slowing down, looking hard, smelling hard and looking to me for instruction.  Very, very useful.

Driving Practice

OK Ian H., we're almost ready for those volunteers!

The knot in the sled rope is just propped inside the neck rope.  If anything goes bad, it all just falls apart.

My hi-tech harness making...a length of flat-braided nylon rope with a ring in one end and the other coarsely tied off.  It will come apart if it got caught or in case of panic.  On the other hand, if the tied end is folded up on itself and tied off, you could probably tow a car with it.  Lets you do a variety of things for about $2.00....

and it can be made to fit little brown pipsqueaks too.

Donkey Training 101

I've been meaning to write something about my experiences in training Ramsey and Emma.  He is growing and learning so fast that it is hard to keep up though.  This is sort of a catch up post since I feel like I am starting late (with the writing anyway, I have been working with Ramsey right from the start).  I am learning as much or more from Emma and Ramsey as they are from me and I would like to try and keep track of some of it.  Perhaps it can be useful to some other donkey owners so I will try to post updates as we go. 

So, some thoughts on donkey training...

Ramsey's "training" started the moment I first laid hands on him.  Animals learn something from us every time we interact with them in any way, whether we mean them to or not.  I try to always keep this in mind when I am with them.  Ramsey has been handled extensively from birth and he has already learned a great deal.  He leads fairly well, picks up all of his feet, is learning to stand tied and is very easy to handle. 

He craves attention and considers me to be a natural part of his herd. This is a good thing, but also means that he has to learn how to be a good "human" as well as being a good donkey.  Too often, I meet animals who have been handled from birth and they are dangerously spoiled and obnoxious because they haven't been taught this.

Working with Emma is a bit different since she was not handled at all until she was about a year old.  She is naturally cautious and wary of new things.  She is also calmer, steadier and has the patience of a saint.  Ramsey is almost frighteningly fearless.  In a few years, he will likely be calm and steady as well, but he is too young for that now.  Emma often needs reassurance and convincing while Ramsey can be pushy and demanding.  They are both intelligent, lively, affectionate and are constantly pushing me to come up with new "games".  They don't like repeating the same things over and over and they get bored easily if not challenged.

I don't have any big expectations of Ramsey at this age other then learning basic skills and exposing him to as much as I can.  Mostly, he is learning about boundaries and what is and is not acceptable behavior.  When dealing with behaviors that I don't want (especially things that will be dangerous for him or me), I try to teach Ramsey the way Emma teaches him.  When he does something she does not like, she turns away from him and ignores him the first time.  If he repeats the same behavior, she gives him a glare and a small shove with her nose.  If he repeats again, she may grab the top of his leg or hock with her teeth, shove him with her shoulder or hip, glare and threaten to bite, etc.  He seldom repeats after this point.

When Ramsey does things to me that I don't want him to, I try to copy these methods in my clumsy, human way.  For example, a month or so ago, Ramsey tried to jump up on me the way he does to Emma.  I stepped away with a stern NO and walked away from him.  The second time he tried it, he got a stern NO with a solid swat and a push away from me.  He thought about it a third time, but a glare and a NO changed his mind.  He has not repeated it since.  This all happened in three swift, random encounters during the course of a single day.  This is totally normal baby behavior and I was expecting it to happen at some point.  I was, in fact, glad he tried it as early as he did as it was very easy to correct then. 

There is no one method or training system I use.  I have a lot of experience with horses, but donkeys are so different that I often feel it gets in the way rather then helps.  Mostly, I try to watch how Emma trains Ramsey and copy her methods.  Some of the training guidelines I have come up with and try to follow go something like this:  

• Ask for very small things.
• Set him up for success, don't ask for something unless I am fairly sure he can do it.
• Reward every effort, ignore mistakes.
• Praise the behaviors I want, even if I didn't ask for or expect it. 
• If he is wound up in play mode, save training for later.  Forcing the issue at this stage causes more trouble then it's worth.
• Be flexible and adaptable.  Plans are good, but they never survive long.  Don't get hung up on them.
• Don't get in a fight.  If something isn't working, go back to what does work and start over. 
• There is time, don't rush.  If he doesn't get something today, he will tomorrow or the next day. 
• There is no such thing as "training time" and "non-training time".  He is learning from me every time we are in contact. 
• Keep in mind that he is also learning when I am not around, pay attention and observe the changes. 
• Keep it short.
• Make it fun

I love working with Ramsey and Emma, they have so much personality and lively intelligence.  They are such a joy, "work" isn't really the right word.

Clicker Training and Foal Rejection

For a while now, Emma and I have been playing around with clicker training.  I have toyed with it in the past and I think it is an incredibly powerful training aid.  However, I always found it somewhat awkward, having to juggle clicker, treats, signals, etc. Mostly, my own brain is the biggest impediment.  The way I have always worked with my horses is very similar to clicker training, I just don't use a clicker or treats.  Because of this, I find it difficult to keep everything straight, to restrain myself from saying "Good Girl!" when I should be clicking.   My methods aren't as precise as clicker trainig but, they do work for me.  It's a lot easier to train my horse than to re-train myself.

Emma though, is the perfect clicker training partner.  She is very much NOT a horse (or a dog) so working with her is different.  I find that clicker training with her works very well because my own habits don't interfere as much.  Clicker training also works very well with her because she LOVES food and she is very intelligent and imaginative.   With the help of clicker training, she has also learned to be very brave.  When she first came here, she had not been handled much.  While she was friendly and liked people, she had no trust in them and was very wary of every new thing. 

With the help of the clicker, Emma has learned that scary, new objects are more likely to be a path to goodies then donkey eating monsters.  Things like road cones for example....

I have been using this to introduce Emma to as many new things as I can.  Both, because it is good training for her and because I think it will help when her baby comes along.  Foal rejection is one of the most common problems associated with jennies (and mares) having babies very young.  I believe that learning how to be calm and open to new situations will help Emma accept her baby when the time comes.  In the same vein, I have also been getting her used to being handled and groped all over, especially on her belly, udder and under her tail.  She tolerates all of these indignities with good grace.

As for the clicker training, I have this notion that if she does show signs of rejecting her baby, the clicker might help.  If I can teach her that ropes snaking under feet and sleds dragging behind her are good things, I ought to be able to convince her that a baby donkey is a good thing, right?? I hope so.

A whole new meaning to "barn-sour"

Emma is only 16 months old and had never even worn  halter before coming here so I hadn't been expecting much when I first started working with her.  However, I have been continually amazed at how fast she learns and she absolutely loves doing it.  I had heard from several sources that I need to let her mature before doing too much with her.  Honestly though, I keep having to come up with new things for her to do so she doesn't get bored and go looking for trouble.  I do try to keep all our training sessions fun, interesting and include lots of carrot slices so really,  she thinks they are great games rather than work.  She looks forward to our "games" every day and will start making up her own if I don't get moving fast enough.   *Note:  Be very, very careful about letting your donkey make up her own games:)

Yesterday, I brought Emma out onto the lawn intending to work on her leading skills and play around with some obstacles.  Since we were going out by ourselves and leaving Tessa in the barn, I figured we'd be lucky to get to the end of the driveway, which is about 500 feet from the barn.  When we got there though, it was very clear that Emma was enjoying herself and wanted to keep going.  The only time she balked at all was when I tried to turn her back to the barn.  So, we just kept going.  We went all around the neighbors place, down the road and through the woods around the back of the house.....She wanted to explore everything.

Emma has completely redefined the term "barn-sour".   We went out again this afternoon and wound up stopping at several of the neighbors houses where she got to meet lots of new people (and got to eat even more carrots).  We were out for about an hour and a half and walked nearly two miles and I still had to pull hard to get her back to the barn.  I am thrilled that Emma likes going out like this.  The exercise is good for both her body and mind.  The only problem I can see, is that Tanner and Emma don't want any part of going out together.  Since I already take Tanner hiking every day, this could get to be a bit much.  I think the search is officially on to find another riding animal.  One that Emma could follow along behind.  I have a few ideas and some options and perhaps, maybe.....there is a really big, mammoth saddle donkey out there that could use a good home?????