It was quite cold this afternoon and I was sorely tempted to not go to the barn. But, we have a big storm coming that may prevent me getting there for a few days so I decided I'd better just bundle up and go. I took the new dog, Lance with me. I found one of Zephyr's sweaters that fit him and put that on him to help keep his short haired, skinny body warm. He didn't mind the sweater at all. That was nice as Zephyr HATES it when I "dress him up".
All was quiet at the barn when I got there. No one was around and at first I couldn't find Louie! Wendy had moved him to a different paddock. He seemed happy to see me. He still resists going into the barn though. Even after being at the barn for nearly six weeks now. I have decided that it is the barn he doesn't like and not a reluctance to work in the arena. Because he resists going into the barn with Wendy also and she's never worked him. And he never hesitates a second about going into the arena and always seems content enough when we are working. But, when entering the barn, he is never sure if he is being put in his stall or going to work in the arena. He really hates being stalled.
Anyway, I let Lance run loose to see how he would be. The barn is way back off the road so pretty safe in that respect. Since no one was around I decided to work Louie at liberty again. When we entered the arena, the first thing both Louie and I noticed was there was a big pile of sawdust in one corner of the arena. Under the spot where it is normally blow into a sawdust storage room. Louie was quite fascinated with this enormous pile of sawdust in the corner. I let him wander and investigate for a few minutes. Then, when I asked him to "lunge" he complied immediately. Though his circles were not quite a perfect as the other day as he was for some reason drawn to the pile of sawdust and kept swinging close by it. Funny boy. I asked for some walk, trot transitions which he did nicely. At first his whoa was perfect. But, he had a short spell were he decided to ignore me. When he ignored me, I made him do numerous quick direction changes to work him harder and asked for the whoa again. A couple times of this and he decided that whoaing was easier. It's the only thing I could think of to do as not being on a line, you are limited in what you can do to correct unwanted behavior. Once he was paying attention to me again, I asked for a few canter transitions. I wondered if that would send him off down the other end of the arena but it didn't. He wouldn't hold the canter long in the smaller circle around me but he did transition each time I asked. So, good enough.
Lance the dog was in the arena when I started working with Louie. Thankfully, Lance is starting to show some caution around the equines and now seems to realize they could potentially hurt him. He's not afraid but is showing some caution. I noticed he was no longer in the arena and called him a few times and he didn't come. I really wasn't to worried so continued to work Louie.
I decided to see if I could teach Louie to "pick me up" at the mounting block. I put the block out in the middle of the arena and free lunged him around it for a minute. Then I sent him off and climbed up on the block. In just a second, his natural mule curiosity kicked in and he came to me standing there on the block. I used the word "park" and used the whip to "tap" him into place and line him up as if I was going to mount. He fully understood I was using the whip to cue him so was not bothered by this at all and quickly figured out what I wanted and I soon had him lined up. I patted and rubbed him all over and gave him a treat. It was tempting to just slid onto his back. BUT, the arena is too large a space and it was that kind of bright idea that earned me a bruised hip and some broken ribs this past June. So, I put that thought out of my head quickly. I then sent Louie off and repeated the exercise. He was easily convinced to line up each time. He never did it all on his own and required a bit of tapping to get lined up properly each time. But, for his first time doing this at liberty, I thought he did great and was very pleased. Louie was a very good boy today and did not display any of the immature behavior of our last session.
Before leaving the arena, I went to the back door where I had last seen Lance. I called to him several time but he did not come. Now I was a tiny bit worried and I was sure hoping he hadn't wandered off too far or gotten into some trouble. I figured I'd put Louie away and then go look for him. When I got to the arena door that leads into the barn, I heard some pitiful whining. Lance was on the other side of that door. He'd circled the outside of the barn and come in the side door. So, he'd been trying to come to me when I called but didn't know how to get to me. Silly dog! He sure was some happy when I opened the arena door and he saw me. Louie is real good with him too thankfully. When the were both loose in the arena, Louie approached him a few times just to sniff but did not threaten him at all. So, they should be fine when I bring Louie home.
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