Da Boss Of Da Shoulders

That would be me, Ace. Your mom. And leader. Who moves your shoulders.

Despite frigid temperatures (one digit with a minus sign in front!) I went out to work with my boy for a little bit last night. I was fully mentally prepared to take him on with a positive attitutude and a good mood in a little groundwork with some forward emphasis.

After some work on our fundamentals (backing, moving haunches, moving fore, sideways), we moved on to the dreaded forward movement in a circle.

The conversation went a little like this …

Me: “Move off to the left and walk in a circle around me, please.”

Ace: “Well …. ummm …. ok, if you insist.”

He leans to the left, takes a step to the left, and haltingly begins to move around me.

Me: “Keep moving those feet buddy.”

I swing the stick towards him to encourage him to keep going.

Ace: “Ok … do … I … really … have …. to?”

He stops.

Me “Oh yes you do. Move those shoulders and start walking.”

I tap him on the neck until he takes a sideways step with his outside leg, and he starts circling me again.

We repeated this performance for a little while in both directions. I stopped him and brought him to me a few times, liberal with rubs and even some cookies.

Typically when Ace is circling at a walk, he decides to stop and then goes backwards when I remind him that he’s supposed to be moving. It’s been pretty tough to get him going again. But now that he is much more responsive when it comes to moving his shoulders, I discovered that I could ask for that first, and when he obliged then I could send him back out to the circle.

But it was still rather reluctant, especially to the right. Our final conversation of the night went like this:

Me: “Out you go buddy.”

I point to the right and give a little flick with the stick in the direction of his girth.

Ace: “Ok. That doesn’t mean I’m going to like it, or do it very willingly.”

He takes off to the right, but he’s crooked and slow and halts if I don’t constantly remind him.

Me: “Move that shoulder and walk.”

I tap his neck, he steps to the side and then continues on the circle.

Ace: “You’re not da boss of me.”

He stops at the end of the rope, turns to face me, tosses his head up and starts going backwards.

Me: “Oh yes I am da boss of you!”

I reach out with the stick, give him a good flick on the shoulder with the rope while pointing to the right.

Ace: “Ok, Ok! You ARE the boss of me.”

He moves his shoulder and takes off circling around me at a nice, energetic walk. He’s moving straight and not threatening to stop.

Me: “I told you so. See it’s not so bad!”

I let him walk around one and a half times, then stopped him, brought him in to me, and lavished on the love and treats.

Hopefully he will start to decide that I’m not such a bad boss after all. We had lots of little successes and lessons last night.

1. much more responsive with moving his shoulders
2. take it one step at a time, shoulders first, forward second
3. I need to look at the drive line (girth area) so that my energy is directed there. caught myself watching his head as he was circling, which may have been contributing to the stopping.
4. were able to work through resistance.
5. had that aha moment were he stopped resisting completely and did what I asked.

Ace is also starting to act like a gentleman. He didn’t get pushy about the treats in my pockets and was even focused on what we were doing. And when I opened his stall to let him back in, he stood there and waited for me to tell him to go in, even though there was food in it!