And the Trick Training Continues

Thanks to Wendy, from the MulesOnly internet list that started the trainers challenge, Louie has turned into a trick training addict. He just loves our training sessions and so we have had to continue with them even after the trainers challenge was over. I don't work with him twice a day like I was for the challenge but most days we do a little something. I have continued expanding on the fetch training. We are working on completing his bow training. And the past few days I've been teaching him to step up on objects that I point to.


I had not planned to work with Louie today. My husband took me out to supper this evening :-) and so I ran out and fed quickly just before we headed out to supper. When we got back, I went out back to collect eggs from the chicken coop. Louie was in the shelter eating hay when I went out. He came out to the gate and nicker-grunted at me. He wanted to play. I couldn't resist his request so I grabbed some treats from the horse trailer and we went to work. We started with bowing. He did 3 great bows today with no physical aid from me. He is still a bit nervous about getting into a full bow position but he's offering quicker each time we work on it. *grin*. I pointed at a few things and asked him to step up onto them. I've had his halter on him for this previously. And I haven't pointed, I have urged him forward with the lead rope and just cued him verbally with "step up". So, he hesitated a second trying to decide just what I wanted. He then offered to bow. This is his default action when he's either not sure of what I want or isn't sure he wants to do what I'm asking. But then he put one foot on the object. When I told him "good boy" he immediately knew he'd done the right thing and he stepped right up proud as can be that he had figured it out.

I then went into the barn and got his halter as if I was going to catch him. When he saw me come out with the halter, he got the "you're not really going to ride me this late in the day are you" look and he kind of turned away. I tossed the halter out into the paddock and asked him to fetch. He's fetched the halter before but this time the lead rope was attached. He immediately went from suspicious mode to fetching mode. He walked over to the halter and looked it all over as the lead rope was trailing from it. He sniffed the halter and the lead rope trying to decide just what he should do. He chose to grab the end of the lead rope. Not that I really want to teach him to grab ropes but I did want to see how this played out. When I gave him the "good boy" cue he knew he was on the right track and he grabbed the end of the lead rope. One he picked up the lead rope he started walking towards me. In five or six steps the slack went out of the lead rope and he was now dragging the halter. This did startle him but not too bad. He dropped the lead but didn't run off, he just turned and eyeballed the halter and you could just see the wheels turning in his mulie head. I asked him to fetch again he picked the lead rope up again. This time dragged the halter too me. He kept one eye and ear on the dragging halter but he held onto it the lead rope. GOOD MULE!

Working with Louie is so much fun. And the trick training has had may side benefits I had not considered. Louie is now very in tune to my verbal cues that indicates he's done the right thing. This has definitely transferred to work in the saddle. It's also developed a level of trust that we didn't previously have. Not to mention all the time we now spend together just plain having fun and enjoying being together. (Thank you Wendy)