Buying the Dachshund a Home
So today unfortunately I’m not going to post anything about The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. (sorry). I really should rename my blog The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague and their Dachshund.
Anyway, back to my post for the day….so recently my husband and I have been house shopping for our first home. And at 25 neither one of us has any idea what we are doing! House hunting hasn’t been so bad – Mike and I are pretty good at narrowing down what we want to look at. And in the past month we’ve only looked at 4 homes. We usually study the listings then do a drive-by first before we decide if we want to set up an appointment. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted – had 
to be inbetween my parent’s new farm and my shop in town. Mike wanted to not be farther from his work, which is already a 40 minute commute. I also wanted a pretty private yard – something the dog and us could enjoy and where the neighbors weren’t up our butt.
So a couple days ago we looked at a rancher that had the perfect location, a nice 1 acre yard – which part of it was fenced so the dog could go outside at will (doggie door included), nice sized 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a finished basement, sunroom, and to boot it was on a quiet culesaque with lots of trees and was pretty private. So that being said after looking at this home (that was pretty nicely kept I might add) the only thing I could think was its perfect for my Dachshund but its not “my home”. When my husband asked me why, I had no answer, I couldn’t pinpoint one specific thing about it I hated…there may have been a few tiny things I would of liked to change, but overall I had no clear answer.
So after a few days of back and forth on why I didn’t like, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a second look. This time I brought my father (builder extroidinaire who seems to know everything even though his day job involves computers) and my husband brought his dad (electrical expertise). So after investigating every square inch they came to the conclusion that the house was in good condition and they didn’t see any “red flags”. I found myself hoping they had some clear answer for me like don’t buy this house! So it was back to agonizing for me. My husband clearly wanted the house – I was still unsure. I just felt like I should be completely inlove with the place.
So after much debate I came to the conclusion that my Dachshund, Ammo will love the house, and I will love it if he’s there (and my husband of course). I guess you can’t go wrong there – although it still totally freaks me out! I think I will still always wonder if my DREAM home was out there and I just didn’t wait long enough to find it – but for all I know thats just completely unrealistic.
Anyway thats my vent for the day – me trying to buy a house for my Dachshund- I think I might be crazy.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Gathering of the Clickers
Katie Bartlett and her horse Rosie
So on Sunday I went to my first group get-together of some local clicker trainers. I brought Minnow along as well so we could show the group what we were doing and have some fun with him. The first hour or so Katie Bartlett (owner of the farm we were at) showed us some of her horses and what she had worked on with them. Most of her horses did fun tricks, but she had also done a lot of ground work with them. Her one mare actually cantered collected on the bit while Katie walked next to her – it was pretty impressive.
Katie's horse Willy learning Spanish Walk
I then brought Minnow out and went through his little repitoire of tricks. I got some helpful suggestions from a lot of people. One suggestion was about Minnow’s trick involving rolling out the blanket. He’s really good about rolling it out all the way, but when it gets to the last little part he tends to leave it folded over. So Katie suggested I work backwards (which I had never thought about before), start with the hardest part of the trick (unroll the blanket and leave the last bit folded) – ask him to unroll that part and then when he has that mastered move onto unolling the whole thing instead of just the end piece. It was a neat concept I had never thought about before.
The other thing I learned was about cues. It was suggested that you don’t add a cue to your trick (or exercise) until your horse has given you that final product you want. So if for example I am trying to teach Minnow how to bow…as I go through the stages I would not be saying “BOW” at all (which is what I want my final cue to be) I would only add the verbal cue BOW when he successfully placed his knee on the ground like I wanted. If had said bow all along then Minnow may end up giving me different versions of the bow that he had done while he was learning it instead of that final polished bow that I wanted. I had never thought about it this way, and I admit I think when I taught Minnow to bow all along I continued to say it. Anyway now I know and I can put this to use with everything I do from now on.
Katie and her miniature horse, Buster
The final tidbit I took away was that it may be beneficial for me to teach Minnow a cue to do “nothing”. Katie told me about another trainer that taught her horse the “grownups are talking” cue (taken from Alexandra Kurland’s training methods). Where the horse learned when she folded her arms that it was to stand there quietly and still. This is a great cue for performance work because if I need a minute to gather my props I could give Minnow the cue so that he knows to stand still and not “perform” on his own while I get ready. Minnow has a tendency of offering tricks when I don’t ask for them because he gets over excited.
Later I brought out my big tuff ball so that Katie’s horses could play with it. I found it really interesting that they were willing to go up and touch it, but all of her horses opted to push it with their noses. In contrast, when I first introduced the ball to my ponies their first reaction was to kick it with their front feet. I’m not sure why, but it was neat to see the different reaction her horses had to it.
Overall it was a fun day and I hope that I can attend another monthly meeting in the hopes to learn more.
Photos courtesy of Katie Bartlett
Tommie Turvey at Pony Penning
So I have several blogs that I comb every day – one being the Equine Extremiest Blog of Tommie Turvey. I met him and watched his demos/exhibitions at the horse world expo in March of this year. He’s a trick horse trainer that trains horses for movies, events, and pretty much anything you can think of. This was the first time I saw him and I thought what he did was pretty exciting. I still prefer to include clicker training into my training (Tommie does not use clicker training that I have seen but I have seen him reward with treats), but I have incorporated some of Tommie’s methods into my training. (see the video below of me using Tommie Turvey’s method of laying down Blitz).
Anyway while reading Tommie’s blog this morning I was excited to see that he will be attending the Chincoteague Pony Penning this year. How cool! Then I started to think about how there is no way that my little act with Chincoteague Minnow at the Pony Centre can top anything that Tommie Turvey can do. Now I think I should be nervous! I really need to make sure I get my “act” together, Minnow and I have a lot of work ahead of us!
Either way I think it will be a lot of fun to see Tommie Turvey again, perhaps he will come to the shows at the Pony Centre and will even be able to give me some pointers.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Clicks for Tricks
My video for the day is of Minnow and I goofing around at the farm last weekend. I was teaching him to kick the ball while standing on his pedestal. This video reminded me of how difficult Minnow was when he first came to live with me. If I had brought out the ball 6 years ago Minnow would have had his typical reaction – which was to pretend it didn’t exist and he couldn’t see it – mostly he would turn his head all the way around so that he didn’t have to look at it. This was extremely frustrating because if I wanted to show him something (games equipment, a scary rock, etc) I couldn’t even get him to acknowledge its existence. That is until I began clicker training him – then suddenly everything was of interest to him. He wanted to touch everything! In the hopes that it would get him a treat.
Now I love showing him new things because I’m always amazed at how he decides to react to it. Sometimes he bites it, sometimes he licks it, sometimes he kicks it, and so on. In the case of the ball (as you can see) he decided that kicking it is the most fun.
Tomorrow I am taking Minnow to my first meeting with a local clicker training horse group. I’m very excited to meet everyone – as I’m sure Minnow will be too. Minnow loves to travel, especially if he gets to do tricks when he gets there. It should be fun, and I look forward to posting how it went on Tuesday!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Ammo the Dachshund
So today I’m going to share with you some photos of my adorable Dachshund, Ammo. He’s 8 months old today – Happy Birthday Ammo, sorta! He’s my husband and I’s wedding puppy, as he was born the day after we were married. Ammo has been a constant source of amuzement for us, and we consider him our child (although don’t worry we still treat him like a dog – he isn’t allowed to sleep in our bed, he doesn’t eat table scraps and mike wouldn’t let him be caught dead in clothing). Anyway enjoy these photos of Ammo, he’s definitely got character.
Ammo and my husband take a break at the farm
Ammo will be attending the Keystone Dachshund Races on June 14th to raise money for charity! Come cheer him on!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
