I decided that Aztec needed me to slow down with her, a lot. So today we kind of started over. Since I left the halter on her from yesterday, I only had to walk up and clip the lead rope on her. Which was a task all in itself. So, I back tracked.
She walked herself into the round pen, so I calmly followed her. She didn't take off running mindless circles like she did yesterday, and that gave me a bit of confidence and patience with her. She just poked around munching grass. My entire goal for the day was to get the lead on her without a blow up.
I began working with her by following her around. All I wanted was her to stop and look at my outstretched hand at first. It took her about two circles of walking around the pen before she stopped. I kept my hand out to her, and she looked at it. Good enough. I turned immediately and went to the other side of the pen. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see her looking at me. Then she went back to grazing, so I approached her again. Same deal. Twice around, and the she looked at my hand. I went away. I did this for five or six times, until she finally only took a few steps before stopping and acknowledging my hand.
That's when I asked for a bit more. Now I wanted her to stop and touch her nose to my hand, kind of like targetting when you're using a clicker. She did this the first time. She stopped and looked at my hand, and when I didn't retreat, she streched out her nose to sniff me. Then I turned and left. After a minute, I did this again. And again. And again. Until finally when I retreated, she took a step towards me. That let me know that she was ready to move on.
Next I asked her to let me rub her shoulder area. I took the same approach, and within a few moments I could touch her all over her right shoulder. Then I asked her to let me touch her halter where the lead clips. At first, she had a mini heart attack at my hand under her chin. So I went back to what she knew, and rubbed and retreated a few more times. When I came back to touch her halter, she raised her head slightly, but I held on to it until she dropped it back to normal. I let go and retreated. Again, I repeated this until she could stand and let me touch the halter with no issues or fuss. Then I attached and reattached the lead rope in the same manner. Once she let me put the lead on, I quit with her for the day.
I've somewhat come to the idea that she is like a kid that's not so good at math. The teacher has to show that child EVERY step in order for the child to solve the equation. So that is how I'm going to handle Aztec. With Lucy, I didn't have to show her every little thing, like the targetting my hand to let me approach then rubbing and what not. She caught on to the big picture and fast. Aztec learns differently, and so it was foolish of me to try to teach her the same things as quickly as I taught Lucy. I'm glad it only took me four days of struggling to figure this out. I guess I'm learning jsut as the yearlings are. (:
xx Shell
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