Sheriff the donkey was recently rescued and already has a new home! However, he is staying at the rescue for a short while until he can go to his new home. He is curious and interested in people, but can still be a bit shy and skeptical, especially when being approached.
Once you get close, he is more than happy to have you scratch his ears, face, shoulders and back. However, he’s a bit skeptical about being approached. I petted him some and spent some time with him yesterday when he arrived.
He wouldn’t let me get very close to him today, so I started with some CAT style approach and retreat. I would approach, wait for a sign of curiosity, interest or friendly behavior, and then back off. After about 20 minutes he was following me around the round pen and was definitely enjoying having his ears scratched.
Here’s a clip from towards the end, I’ll post some more clips from working with him today later on. By letting him repeatedly approach me, it helped build his confidence and curiosity. He knew he could leave at any time if he got scared or unsure. Sheriff really seems to enjoy getting his ears scratched and is quickly becoming friendlier and more confident.
I will keep you updated as we continue to work with him. I think he’s going to be a friendly little fellow before too much longer!
Lovely! I used this approach with my mini donk 3 years ago. She had been “free ranging” with a herd in Nebraska and had had no interaction with humans except when she was trucked here. I didn’t know about CAT back then; we went with our instinct. My daughters bundled up in their winter clothes (it was January) and sat in the pasture just waiting for Jingle to approach them.
Good work and thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I hope to share some more about Sheriff in the next week or so. He is still a bit shy, but is quite a sweetheart. I really love donkeys–they are such neat animals. And he has the cutest little bray!!
Mary
Thank you for giving me the link to this video. Zeppelin is definitely more skittish than Sheriff. I can’t approach him or stand facing him. The only way I can pet him is if he comes to me and I stand sideways to him, then lean down and reach as far as I can to pet him. Sometimes once I’m petting him I can stand up a little and maybe inch closer but usually any movement towards him causes him to back up. The reason he started coming to me is because of treats. Once he was coming to me really well I started sometimes giving treats and sometimes only petting. I haven’t tried that particular spot although he has no problems with me touching his ears so long as I start at the nose and work my way in that direction. It doesn’t take as long as I’m making it sound lol, but I do have to stay slow and calm. I’ll try to get my husband to videotape me working with him so that I can show you how he’s doing. Maybe you’ll have some suggestions for me when you see him. Thanks again for linking this. I hope Sheriff is happy in his new home. 🙂
I loved the video you posted on our blog!
It looks like you’re making good progress with Zep.
Sheriff is very happy in his new home. His new home is actually right down the street from the rescue. I often see him lying down napping under the trees. 🙂
Mary