Video of full fetch

I was so excited this morning!! I decided I was going to see if I could get Louie to do a full fetch. The toy I am using is about to fall apart and I'm not sure how Louie will react to a new one. I have not had him target any other objects. So, this morning at feeding time, I got the toy and stood in the run-in and tossed it 20' or so out of the shelter. Louie went right out, picked it up and brought it back to me!!! WooooHooooo! A full fetch! I tossed it out a few more times and he retrieved it each time.

So, this afternoon I decided I'd better get a video of this before presenting a new toy to Louie. No one was around to help me video so I'd just had to do the best I could alone. And as you see in the videos I didn't do great unless you wanted to look at Louie's legs. Anyway, Louie was a bit distracted this afternoon but still did a few good fetches for me. By the time we were done, the toy was pretty much in pieces. So, tomorrow I'll buy some new toys and see what Louie thinks. Hopefully I can find one just like the one I'm using.

Newest Video of Fetch Training

Today Louie showed off for my friend Bonnie and then I finally got my husband to go out and take video. Louie didn't mind having an audience. I also tried to get a video of Louie and Lance playing. But, of course as soon as I aimed the camera at them they wouldn't play anymore. But you can see that Louie is good with the dogs. Ok, I can't get the video of Louie and Lance to upload. I'll keep trying.

Another Ride at the Beach and Training

Barbara had the day off from work today and despite Marie being a bit broncey (is that a word...) on Saturday, was willing to ride her again and we decided to go to the beach. It was yet another cold and windy day being barely 40 degrees but what can you do but just bundle up. Susie and Linda were riding today also but they were going to Pine Point beach. Neither Barbara or I have permits to ride there and I don't want to bother getting one with only a short time left that we can ride the beaches. So, Barbara and I met at Popham. We had a lovely ride. Some parts of the beach were protected from the wind by the sand dunes and those sections were lovely. The windy areas were.....exhilarating. AND my horse was her good old wonderful self today. Louie was a bit anxious the whole ride but behaved. We only had one booger. I foolishly mistook a very hungry mule trap for a common lobster trap. Louie quite vigorously appraised me of my mistake and took it upon himself to protect us both by quickly vacating the area. He did a pretty good about face but to his credit stopped right away when I got my reins gathered and asked him to whoa. He kind of caught me off guard as he walked right up beside it before he reacted. Possibly he was also fooled at first into thinking it was a common lobster trap and only at the last minute saw through it's clever disguise.......silly boy. We did some nice long trots and a little bit of cantering. We rode for about 2 hrs. and had a wonderful time.

When I got home, I spent a few minutes with Louie working on our fetch training. Today I not only asked him to put the toy in my hand, but I threw it further away and only walked part way with him. So, he had to actually turn to put the toy in my hand. And he did most of the time. GOOD MULE!! Marie continues to happily target the toy when dropped in front of her.

Fetch Training Day...... ?

I've been working with Louie and Marie twice every day. I work with them before I feed each day. I did not think they would want to "play" at feeding time but I was wrong. Louie is not a big chow hound anyway and he is more then happy to play for a while before getting his grain. Louie is progressing a bit more everyday. I am now requiring that he place the toy in my hand. If he drops it, I tell him to fetch again. I can see him starting to understand. He is so funny though. When he feels he has completed the task appropriately and doesn't get a treat and I ask him to try again, he give me the funniest and most disgusted looks. He lays his ears back (not flat) and twists his head sideways and out towards me rolls his eyes. You can just see him thinking the he is sure he did the right thing and I am being unreasonable. But, after a second of expressing his opinion, he tries again. Louie is so much fun to work with.

Now Marie has actually made some progress. More in her attitude then in being anywhere close to fetching. She is now consistently targeting the toy when dropped on the ground. And when the light bulb went off and she FINALLY figured out that it was touching the toy that earned her the treats, she suddenly started looking forward to our sessions. Before she was just angry, frustrated and quickly would just leave. Now she is eager and is no longer mugging me for treats but rather looking for the toy. Big step forward for her.

Cold Windy Ride in Phippsburg

Today Linda, Susie, Barbara and I went riding in Phippsburg. Barbara rode my horse Marie. We met there at 1:00. Marie doesn't have shoes on so I put Old Mac's on her. She was so happy to be going for once. It's been nearly 4 months since she's been ridden. We had a great ride and I think we were out nearly 3 hrs. We did a lot of trotting. Not all the roads were clear of snow but enough were clear or at lest passable for a good ride. The only naughty horse in the group was my Marie. She snuck in a big buck on Barbara catching her off guard. Luckily Barbara stayed on. Marie tried to get in a few more throughout the ride but Barbara was ready and nipped any further attempts in the bud. And you sure wouldn't have know that Marie was 20 yrs. old (soon) and hadn't been ridding in months. She was fired up and moving out like nobody's business. Louie once again did great today. He has a hard time keeping up with the others when they are doing their big trot and will canter. But that's ok, I don't really want him doing extended trotting yet. That can wait until he is better conditioned. And towards the end of the ride, he was not tiring but rather getting quite fired up as we rode back to the trailers along Devil's Highway. It was once again a cold windy day but when you are with good friends riding good equines, it doesn't matter what the weather is.......to a point anyway!

Riding at Brown's Point

Had a lovely ride with Susie today. She was off work early today so I picked her up at her house. She rode Cody today as Spark was playing hard to catch. Cody seemed more then happy to be the chosen one. It was cold and windy but tolerable. Louie was a bit anxious at first. We rode down Center Point Rd. To Carol's house. We trotted all the way back to Browns Point Rd. and Louie was very good and went very steady. He doesn't trot as fast as Cody but he managed to not get left in the dust. We then rode down to the end of Browns Point Rd. Louie was good about crossing the bridge but then he had Cody to follow. We trotted and Cantered the length of the dirt section of that road On the way back up Brown's Point, we turned into the Prout's strawberry fields and followed the field road along the bay to Pork Point Rd and then rode out to Route 24. We then turned around and rode Pork Point Rd. back to Brown's point and then back to my trailer. We did quite a bit of trotting on this road. This is a tar road but has some good dirt shoulders in places. Louie only had one small spook today when Cody kicked a rock into some dried cattails along the road. He stopped when a bike came up behind us be he was not nervous about it. And he didn't really pay any attention to the school bus when it when by. I was very pleased with my boy today.

Finally Video of Fetch Training Progress

I worked with Louie twice today. Spend a few minutes before feeding this morning. Louie was ready to play and he did very well. He continues to pick the toy up every time. This morning he tried a new trick and started tossing it out of the shelter. So, he taught me to fetch this morning.

This afternoon I went out again armed with my camera. I knew I wouldn't be able to get very good video holding the camera myself but figured I'd get what I could. Louie did very well again this afternoon. He did not repeat his performance of throwing the toy out of the shelter. He still picked up the toy every time and most of the time he's holding it long enough for me to take it from him. I've got to really start reinforcing this part now.

I also worked with Marie both times. She is actually targeting the toy now. I am proud of her!!! This is a big step for her.

Yes, Fetch Training Again..... and an Anniversary

Today marks a significant anniversary for Louie and me. It was a little over a year ago that Louie slipped on ice and sustained a soft tissue injury to his hip. It was exactly one year ago on this day that it was suggested to me by a vet that it would not be unreasonable to put Louie down due to what I am now sure was a misdiagnosis of Louie's injury. So, I am very thankful that not only is Louie still here with me today, he is now 100% sound and healthy and I'm actually making plans for our first CTR. And, I still have my sweet silly boy to teach silly tricks to.

Today's fetch training went very well. Louie picked up the toy 100% of the time. 99% of the time I was able to take the toy from him before he dropped it. And I think I am seeing a glimmer from him that he is starting to realize I want him to give the toy to me. Only a glimmer but I can see the wheels turning. Just out of curiosity I tossed down one of my gloves to see what he would do. He did target it but would make no attempt to grab it or pick it up. So, I'll stick with our designated toy until he has this trick down solid with that.

And even better (ok, nothing is better then Louie but...) I truly think a tiny, tiny light bulb went off in my mares rather unimaginative brain. She really did target the toy today. She minded her manners and even targeted the toy several times when I dropped it on the ground. I don't want to get my hopes up but maybe there is hope for her...... maybe.......

More Fetch Training

Today was another good training day. For Louie anyway. Marie quickly dispelled any notion I got yesterday about her possibly catching on to targeting the toy being what earned her treats. Today she was rude, grabbing at my hand holding the toy and when I tried to correct her she simply left.

So, on to Louie. Today Louie picked up the toy every time. Quite often he'd drop it fairly quickly. But about 60% of the time he'd actually pick it up off the ground and about 40% of the time he'd raise his head up enough for me to take it from him without bending over. And I think I saw a glimmer of him realizing I wanted him to give it to me. Maybe......... He's smart though. If he drops it too quick and I say the word fetch, he knows there is no treat coming and that he hasn't done quite what I want and immediately focuses back on the toy. So, I think he is doing well though I'm very glad that right from the start he was inclined to use his mouth to play with the toy. It's made my job easier for training this trick.

Good Day Training

It was an interesting day working with Louie today. It's snowing today so I wanted to work inside the run-in shed. When I went out, both Marie and Louie were up by the workshop barn and neither wanted to come down. They watched me, both rolled and they watched me some more. They both seemed to have some concern about something out in the woods. Marie finally came down so I worked with her while waiting for Louie to decide to come down. Marie really isn't making much progress but finally does seem to be realizing that touching the toy might have something to do with getting the treats. Might being the key word. She still won't even look at it if I drop it on the ground. But, today she did not mug me for the treats so that alone is progress and earned positive attention from me.

Finally Louie came down. But, he was totally distracted and now very worried about whatever was out in the woods. He was doing the moose trot and snorting. I put Marie in her stall as the two of them together were just working each other up. I then tried to get Louie's attention but he was having nothing to do with it. There was a mule eating monster out in the woods and he was not going to let his guard down for a moment. So, I resigned myself to missing another day of training. I went about doing my chores of giving Marie water and putting hay in the run-in shelter for them both. By the time I was done with that, Louie was settling down and came to me looking like he might want to play after all. So, I went back in the shelter, got my treats and the toy. And indeed Louie was ready. He was still on alert but most of his attention was now on me.

Louie did great today! At this time I'm not throwing the toy away from Louie but only dropping it in front of him. It seems to me the hardest part of training this trick is getting them to pick the toy up. And he has already shown he is willing to target the toy when tossed away from him. Today Louie grabbed the toy in his teeth every time. And he picked it up most every time though mostly dropping it right away. But, 5 times he lifted it up high enough so that I could take it from him before he dropped it back on the ground.

It's good I have both equines to work with. If I had only Louie to work with, I might think I was actually a competent trainer. If I had only Marie to work with, I'd think I was a total failure as a trainer. Having them both is keeping me realistic about my abilities, that I really have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm figuring it out a little bit and I'm sure glad I have a smart mule!

Riding with Susie

Susie and I mad plans to ride today. It was a cold day so we decided to ride at around 1:00 pm. Our original plan was for me to pick her up and to ride in Phippsburg. But, the dirt roads there are not plowed in the winter and I was afraid there would still be some snow and ice. I don't have any shoes on either Louie or Marie and didn't want to trailer all the way there and not be able to ride. So, I called Susie and we changed our plans and decided to ride in Monmouth. I didn't know if all the dirt roads we ride there were plowed though the winter but I knew a lot of them were. So, Susie picked Louie and me up at noon time.

Susie's trailer is a slant load but has a very high step up. Much higher then mine. My trailer is also a slant load but Louie is always loaded up in the first stall. Today he'd be in the back stall. He did protest at first about loading but it didn't last long. We parked along the side of a dead end dirt road. Both Louie and Susie's horse Spark were quite while being tacked up. Louie dropped several loads of diarrhea though so I knew he was a little bit nervous. And he didn't stand still right away for me to mount.

Susie's horse is a long legged Arabian horse she uses for endurance riding. At first Louie was hot to go and was keeping right up with Spark. But, today's ride had some hills. Something Louie hasn't been doing though the winter as we've only ridden in the indoor arena. So, it didn't take long for the wind to go out of Louie's sails. But, he still did great. He never shut down or quit on me at all. He did everything I asked him and did it all with good forward motion. Just not quite as fast as Spark. I did not ask for any extended trots and mostly let him choose the speed of each qait I requested. I know it's going to take time to condition Louie especially considering his soft tissue injury last year and the fact that he has never been conditioned before. And Louie self loaded into the trailer for the ride home without even a hint of hesitation.

So, while the jury is definitely still out if Louie will have the stuff to do distance riding, I was still very pleased with how he did today. It's the fastest I've ever ridden him and on harder terrain then he's been doing.

Fetch Training Day ??? and Day ???

Yesterday and today's training went very well. I think..... Never having trained this before I have nothing to compare Louie's progress to. Louie is now consistently mouthing the toy. It's funny because if he touches the toy and starts to raise his head and I say "fetch", he doesn't even finish raising his head because he knows that he hasn't done quite what I want to earn the treat. Marie made a bit of progress today in that she started to actually touch the toy again but only when I was holding it.

I didn't get outside to play today until this evening at 10:00 pm. Marie was the first to come into the barn. She targeted the toy a few times but then got too excited about the treats to concentrate at all. She started mugging me for the treats and any efforts to make her mind her manners makes her just leave. I did have to correct her and she left the barn. Louie was more then ready to take her place. Today he again mouthed and bit the toy consistently. He picked it all the way up once. But, only because just as he got his teeth on it, the dog ran by the barn door and made him look and he forgot to drop the ball and I was able to take it from him. I gave him huge praise for that though he really had no idea why. After that though, I waited to reward him until he actually picked the toy up. He never raised his head all the way again but he did pick it up off the ground four of five times. I gave big praise and favored treats for those efforts.

First Beach Ride of the Season

I finally got to the beach to ride today, now that beach riding season is almost over. What a beautiful day it was. The temps were in the 50's and it was a bright sunny day. Linda was going with me today. Low tide was at 3:00 pm. So, I told her I'd sleep when I got home from work and plan to get up around noon time and call her when I was pulling out of my yard to come pick her up.

I did manage to get up right at noon. I had a quick sandwich and coffee then went out to load Louie. The yard is all either snow or mud. Yuck!!!! Louie actually caught me and didn't even load too badly. He put up his usual token resistance then hopped in and went right to pawing of course. I then went to Linda's to pick her up. her horse, Gus, loaded good too, and commenced to pawing. When we got to the state park parking lot we realized we had forgotten to call ahead to let them know we were coming. We tried to call the park ranger from the parking lot but had no cell reception. So, we just hoped we would not get in trouble. Louie was quiet while being tacked up. But, when I went to mount, he wouldn't stand still. He is VERY good about being mounted so that let me know he was nervous. After a few tries, I did get him to stand and got mounted. Just as we were heading across the parking lot, a man came by us on a bicycle and started riding circles around us taking pictures. I was very pleased that Louie was not concerned about that at all. As we approached the access path to the beach, we see there are several dozen people there working on the path. This concerned Gus more then Louie but both went though fine though Louie did drop them a nice splatter of diarreah. Sigh.

Once onto the beach, Louie was quite nervous, but he behaved quite well. What DID scare him were the changes in the color of the beach sand. And the places where the sand was rippled! Whoa, serious mule eating sand!!!!! Took a minute to convince Louie that these things were ok. Then we went around a point on the beach and there were hundreds of big chunks of ice laying all over the beach of varying sizes some being VERY big. Double scary!!! I rode up to one that was very flat on top and had Louie walk up onto it and across it. With the warm day, it was soft and snowlike on top so not slippery. But, it would collapse a bit with each step. Nothing dangerous
but scary for Louie. He did great though and I got him to cross one several times. We had to take turns leading as neither Louie or Gus are super bold. And we played "bumper equines" a bit at first as they kept trying to be glued to each other.

We did some nice long trots and a bit of cantering. One time when Linda got ahead, Louie got a bit worried and/or excited and thought about doing some bucking. He did get his body twisted at an odd angle and for a second feet were going in some strange directions but I was able to stop him before he actually launched into real bucking. Naughty boy. BUT, good boy for stopping when told to! And, he hasn't been ridden outside in nearly 3 months so I was really pleased at how well he behaved. When we came back up the access path back to the parking lot, I dismounted and did my best to disperse and cover with sand Louie's diarrhea splat. You are supposed to pick up any manure but how do you pick up a watery splat.

3rd Lesson Training to Fetch

Today it was cold and rainy out. I was not going to go out and work with Marie and Louie today but then figured I could just move things into the barn. I'd just have to be more careful that everyone minded their manners.

Marie and Louie were already in the barn when I went out. Louie was very happy to see me get out the toy. Marie was clueless. I tried working with Marie at first. She just does not get it. Not that she has determined that the hand holding the toy does not hold a treat she won't even glance at it. I finally gave up knowing I was going to have to come up with a new plan to motivate her and get her to understand what I was asking. All the time I'm working with Marie, Louie is pacing back and forth with for all the work looking like a eager kid in a classroom with his hand up saying, "pick me, pick me, I know the answer"!

So, I moved on to Louie. He is completely solid in understanding that touching the toy gains him the treat. His head was bobbing up and down like a bobble head doll in a dashboard over a rough road. He'd hardly give me a change to pick up the toy to toss it anywhere. He pushes and lips the toy nearly everytime. And today he actually grabbed it and picked it up twice though he dropped it right away. For these efforts he got special treats. I've been using carrot pieces as rewards. But for special rewards I use Peppermint wafers.

So, now I think it might be time to start withholding treats to encourage him to work harder at getting them. That hopefully being picking up the toy more consistantly. For Marie, I may just try touching the toy to her and treating to see if any lightbulb goes off in her head.

Day 2 of the Trainers Challenge

Louie and Marie ready to play


I went out to work with Louie and Marie today at about 2:00 pm. I figured they would be getting thoughts of evening feeding and be more motivated. I took the dogs out with me today. Marie and Louie came right up when they saw me come out. But, Lance was immediately making a pest of himself as he wanted to play. I had to use my stern, mean voice to convince Lance to stay out of the paddock. The loud voice made Marie nervous so she wandered off. Lance seemed to know I was not talking to him and in fact seemed to want to know why I won't allow him to chase the dog out of the paddock, yet I can do it. Once I had the dog convinced to stay out, Louie was ready to play.

Louie targeting toy in my hand


Louie targeting on ground


At first he did not do as well as we ended yesterday. He would target the toy in my hand but not on the ground the first few times. He attempted mugging me for the treats. I waited him out and he eventually started to figure out that was unproductive. So, he finally started focusing his attention on the toy. My horse has now realized that treats are being given out and was wandering back our way and eventually joined in. She started targeting the toy right away.

Marie and Louie targeting the toy




After a few minutes, they both seemed to really "get" that targeting the toy was what was earning them the treat and they got very consistent about it. I ran out of treats and had to go down to the run-in barn to get more. Marie and Louie followed me down so we continued our work down there. I started tossing the toy a little further away each time and Louie was now consistently targeting it. I was quite pleased. Marie would not walk for it yet. She would only target it on the ground if I threw it close to her.

Louie starting to follow the toss

The MulesOnly Training Challenge

So, our MulesOnly group has come up with a training challenge for those interested in trying.One of the list members put up a list of possible tricks we could try. We had to all pick the same trick and it had to be one that our mules had never done before. That was easy for me as the only trick I've trained Louie to do is bow. And I didn't follow through and complete his training on that. We all decided on trying to teach our mules to fetch. Eight list members have comitted to giving this a try. We have 30 days to train and at the end of 30 days we each will submit a video of our results to the list. No prizes involved. Just something fun to do.

So, today was my first day of training to fetch. I chose one of the dogs toys as the object for them to fetch. It is big and bright enough to be easily seen and should be easy for them to pick up. It is a tennis ball with a rope strung through the middle of it. The bad part about picking one of the dogs toys is that I had to leave the dogs inside while I worked with equines as Lance knew I had the toy and was more then willing to do some fetching for me!

When I went out to the paddock, Marie was actually the first one to come up to me. So, I decided I'd work with both of them. It would be interesting to see the difference in how each learned and reacted. I will be using treats for rewards. But, I don't use a clicker. I just tell them they are "good" when I get a correct response. I just started by getting each one to target the ball. They both did this willingingly and quickly. I got as far as tossing it on the ground and both would target it there. Louie actually mouthed it a bit. Marie just targeted it. Both picked up the idea at about the same speed. I only worked with them for about 20 minutes but was pleased with how they did. Neither is totally solid with the idea but have a notion of what is getting them the treats. Both have to learn that mugging me for the treats will NOT get them anything. A few times when Louie was unsure, he made attempts to bow for me hoping that would earn him a treat.

Moving home, again

I decided to try once again to get my trailer free so I could bring Louie home. When I got to the barn, Wendy was there and I told her I my trailer was frozen in. She gave me some rock salt to put around the tires. I did that and we waited a while. But, I still could not budge the trailer. Wendy came down with a shovel full of sand. She put sand around the tires. She told me to give it a try again. As I was trying she went to put more sand under a front tire and got too close with the shovel and the tires caught the shovel and sucked it right under it. We then could not get the shovel out from under the tire. I had to unhitch the trailer to move the truck enough to get the shovel. Wendy said she would go got her truck and pull me and with the trailer out. A few minutes later she came back and said she could not find her tow chain. After a few calls, she found out who had borrowed it and went to get it. While I was waiting for her to get back, I cleaned some stalls. When Wendy got back, we hitched her truck to my truck. Even then it took quite a bit to get me pulled out just because of all the ice making it hard for the truck to get any traction. I was expecting my trailer to come out minus the axels and tires. But, we finally got the trailer free. I pulled the truck and trailer up behind the arena. It was the only spot with bare ground showing. Everywhere else was ice and I needed a safe place to load Louie. After parking the trailer, I helped Wendy finish cleaning stalls.

When we were done with the stalls, I got most of my tack out of the tack room and put it in my trailer. I caught Louie and brought him up to the barn. I tacked him thinking I might ride one last time before taking him home. I was feeling lazy and ended up only doing some ground work with him. He was real good about loading into the trailer. He stopped briefly to take a quick sniff then hopped right in. He then went straight to pawing like he always does but I didn't care since he loaded so well. When I got him home, he seemed very excited to be there. And Marie was excited to see him as she's been alone. Louie checked out every part of the barn and paddock he could get to then did what all good mules do and took a good roll. It's good to have Louie home.