SELF STUDY

Smudge was born here and has been very hit and miss as far as breaking/training. She has a very hot temper and gets mad quickly. We are in the ‘work on Smudge mode’ again. A volunteer has been working with her on her lunch hour to correct a problem with ‘body blocking’ that she does. She will move herself to push you out of her way and you can get hurt in the process. Meg is making progress with her on that.

   On this particular day, I decided to work on tying her up and letting her stand for a bit. In the past within about 3 minutes she is stressing, fidgeting and getting mad. On this day she surprised me and stood for 30 minutes with three 15 second demonstrations of impatience. She didn’t get mad. A lot of the time she looked like she was processing information and thinking about her situation. She never did cock a back foot and totally relax to the ‘whatever’ point but to me she looked comfortable.

  Notice the lead line across the top of her neck. When she raised her head and it tightened, she took her time and moved it off her neck rather than fighting it.