I took on the care of 2 neglected donkeys Dorothy and Seymour, in January 2020. It’s now October, 2020.
They both had a number of serious health issues that needed tending, some have been resolved in the short term and some are long term projects. They both seem to have learnt not to trust people and Seymour in particular appears very frightened by people. They were difficult to catch, halter, lead etc and particularly difficult to trim; Seymour had not been trimmed in a very long time.
When I first got them, my approach was influenced by what I’ve learnt from amazing trainers/mentors like Ken Ramirez and Susan Friedman, from what I’ve read and studied and my understanding of the science of behaviour change.
I started out my relationship with them by being someone quietly predictable, consistent and that brought good things like nice grass hay. If they were scared and stood back that was fine, they still got nice hay, if they got a fright and ran away because of something I did by accident, that’s ok, they still got nice hay. Just for fun, I also paired my arrival every time, with a jolly shout out “hello!”. It didn’t take long for them to walk up when I arrived, then trot up and eventually be waiting at the gate for my arrival. When they started jostling each other to be the closest and I had trouble getting in the gate, then I knew real change was happening. That’s also when I went into Protected Contact for both our safety.
This is simply Classical Conditioning at work. There would have been an Operant component as well, as indicated by their change in behaviour, ie. they acted on their environment. But I focused on what I was doing and allowed them to just do what they felt most comfortable doing. I paired myself with things the donkeys liked, with no strings attached whatsoever (contingency). It doesn’t matter what they did, they didn’t have to do anything and even if they were scared and ran away, it didn’t matter. I did the same thing every day, often twice a day and my patience and consistency paid off with them learning to trust that I am reliable and to eventually learn to trust me.
They are both very different donkeys. My heart aches sometimes when I look at Seymour and understand what a super sensitive soul he is. But he is doing great! I am always focusing on our relationship, by being aware of Classical Conditioning and what I am pairing myself with and the emotional response that goes along with that. His training process is very much about a few steps forward and a step back now and again.
Seymour is making great progress with his hoof lifting training. He has started reliably lifting his right hoof and I’m shaping towards doing some rasping of it as well. Best of all, he lifts it so gently and as light as a feather – you can see the air between my hand and his hoof.
I took some hand held video, so you can see up close that I’m barely touching him, I’m waiting for his start button, cueing the hoof, not pulling or squeezing – he wouldn’t tolerate that at all and would kick out.
To think big burly farriers couldn’t rope him and get to his hooves and I’ve taught him to do it himself! AND most important of all, he feels emotionally safe and comfortable. I’m building the positive reinforcement history and the relationship and what is helping us make progress is ensuring I listen to him.