Where has the time gone?
I can’t believe Chewie and I have now had six months together. I spent a bit of time this week reflecting on what we’ve accomplished during the last six months, as well as looking forward and thinking about some of our goals for the future.
Since February, I’ve been blogging weekly about Chewie and our training progress. You can use the category Chewie to find all of Chewie’s posts.
Chewie arrived in February, just in time for some pretty cold winter weather. I went slowly at the beginning, taking time to get to know her and giving her time to adjust to the ranch.
Communicating with positive reinforcement
Those of you who are regular readers know that my training is done using positive reinforcement. I use a variety of positive reinforcers as I interact with Chewie, mainly food and scratches.
We used protected contact when we first started doing training sessions using food as a reinforcer. Protected contact helped make desirable behaviors more likely!
Over the past months, we have spent quite a bit of time building and adjusting several different reinforcement systems. Having clear reinforcement systems makes our training faster and more efficient.
Creating enriching experiences
I’ve also spent a lot of time introducing Chewie to new objects and activities. My goal has been to make these experiences fun for her and to help build her confidence and curiosity.
We’ve had lots of fun with tarps, blue mats, rainbow mats, and even a puzzle ball.
Foundation behaviors
Most of our formal training time so far has focused on foundation behaviors and husbandry tasks. These are behaviors that Chewie needs to learn so that she can stay healthy and so that she can happily co-exist with me and other humans.
We’ve worked on grooming, foot care, fly spray, baths, and more.
Chewie has also had lots of fun with targeting, including nose targeting and forehead targeting. Targeting is a great foundation skill that will make it easier for us to teach other behaviors. For example, we have been using targeting to teach head lowering and to teach walking forward without me.
We’ve also worked on other foundational skills, including haltering, leading, backing up, and standing on a mat.
So far, we’ve made a lot of progress, and we’ve had a lot of fun. I’m excited to see what the next six months have in store for us!
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