Dogs, horses, and rats. Birds, goldfish, cats. Dolphins, raccoons, and elephants. What animals can’t we train? In this section you’ll find lots of great training stories and tips. You will also get to meet many of the wonderful animals that I get to train. I hope that you’ll enjoy reading about my adventures (and misadventures) and that these articles and tales can provide you with insight that will help you with your own animals.
I have been introducing Chewie to her new friend, Liberty the donkey. This has been a gradual shaping process over the past couple of weeks. I wanted to go slowly, to make the experience positive for both Chewie and Liberty and to make sure we didn’t have any injuries or negative experiences. At the previous […]
As I wrote about in last week’s post, Chewie has moved to a new barn! In this post, I wanted to share a little more about how I introduced Chewie to her new home. Rescue horses running in the pasture When a horse is introduced to a new pasture or a new group of horses, […]
Chewie has had an exciting week. This past weekend, we moved to a new barn! There were many things that I liked about our old boarding barn. However, there were a handful of things that meant it wasn’t the best fit for Chewie and me. First day at the new barn The new “barn” isn’t […]
When I first adopted Chewie, I took her on some exploration walks around the ranch where she lives. Wait, I probably should revise that sentence. I didn’t take Chewie out walking — I let her take ME for some walks! Going for a walk with Chewie We usually went walking early in the morning, when […]
Chewie has learned how to use her snuffle mat! (Scroll to the bottom of this page for a short video.) Initially, Chewie wasn’t sure what to think about the snuffle mat. She wasn’t afraid of it, but she didn’t know what to do with it. So, we ditched the snuffle mat and played the “Anything […]
Chewie and I have been exploring a new (potential) training location. This area is a small paddock that is attached to her pasture. It’s next to the run where we often do our training sessions. The horse who used to live in this run has moved to another barn. So, at least for now, the […]
