Posts Tagged ‘sit
Painting Pony heads to Pony Penning 2013
The date is quickly approaching for our annual homecoming of sorts as we travel back to where it all started, Chincoteague Island, for the annual pony swim and auction. Plans are being made and the training has begun as Painting Pony prepares once again to wow the crowds at the Chincoteague Pony Centre all week long!
Only this year is going to be different! Instead of just bringing the super talented Minnow, head Painting Pony and trick pony extrodinaire, we are brining TWO ponies! This year for the first time ever Chesapeake Boomerang aka Boomer will be performing in the nightly shows as well.
Boomer has been working tirelessly on learning new tricks and preparing to appear in front of a crowd, and we’re just excited as you are to see him perform. He’s also been brushing up on some classic reading in preparation for the big trip, because how could he have gotten this far in life without reading Misty of Chincoteague?
We couldn’t be more excited for this year’s trip, and we hope you’ll come visit us at the Chincoteague Pony Centre!
Painting Pony at the Chincoteague Pony Centre 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013 to Friday, July 26, 2013
4:00pm and 8:00pm
See Chincoteague Minnow paint and Chesapeake Boomerang perform at the Chincoteague Pony Centre during Pony Penning week. Last performance is at 4pm on July 26th.
Find out more about the Chincoteague Pony Penning HERE.
Boomerang Learns to Sit
Boomer is one of those rare ponies that will do just about anything for his “person”, combine that with the fact that he’s pretty fearless – makes the things he can accomplish (in a short amount of time) quite amazing.
So last week I decided I wanted to teach Boomer to sit on some beanbag chairs I had been saving since I was a kid – just for this reason. He had already had some practice targeting his rear end to things, but I had never fully gotten him to sit on anything from a stand-still.
After a few short sessions over a period of 3 days I had him successfully sitting on his bean bags. He was very proud of himself once he figured out what I wanted and now he doesn’t even want to get off of the beanbags.
As he progresses in his training I will slowly remove some of the beanbags until he can hopefully just use one to sit on.
Next he’ll be learning to shake hands while sitting on his beanbag! He’s such a cool pony!
June Events & Sitting Ponies
Well June is officially here – and thus begins our countdown to pony penning! The pressure is on for me to think up a new skit for Minnow to perform while we are down there. I have a few random ideas floating around my head – but suggestions are definitely welcome!
I do need to come up with a plan though, so I have an idea of what new tricks I need to teach Minnow this year. In the hopes that working on some new tricks might spark an idea for me I started training both Minnow and Boomerang to sit.
We’re at the beginning stages right now, (although Boomer has had some previous lessons on it last year with me – I just got a bit distracted before finishing it) but I’m sure they will both get it soon. I’ve been training them together – something I only sometimes do – but working them at the same time is really helping them to learn faster. Boomerang I think might catch on a bit quicker than Minnow, as he’s less concerned about touching his butt to a rustling bean bag chair. Minnow would much rather prefer to pick them up and throw them. haha.
I’ve also been having Minnow watch me cue Boomerang to lay down – and I’m just waiting for the opportunity when Minnow offers this trick to me so I can reward him. Any day now….I can just tell!
Amongst the pony training, Ammo has also been getting ready for his big performance at the Keystone Dachshund Races next weekend.
I swear he’s really excited! 🙂
Ammo will be performing around lunchtime with his pal Super Trooper (my mom’s Australian Shepherd/Labrador). This will be Trooper’s debut performance and he’s been working really hard! Let’s just say I’m off in search of a doggie sized tutu today – it’s going to be epic.
So if you are in the Lewisberry PA area next Sunday June 12th around from 12pm – 6pm – be sure to shop by to watch Ammo race for charity & perform with Trooper. We’ll also have a booth set up where ammo will be selling some of his artwork- with perhaps a few pieces from the ponies as well. It’s definitely a fun day with the profits benefiting the Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue. We hope to see you there!
P.S. Ammo says that anyone who sports a “Go Ammo” t-shirt on Race day to support him will get an extra slobbery kiss!
Blitz and Minnow grazing at home at Iron Horse Farm
Take a Seat
We’re now less than a month away from the first appearance of the summer for Painting Pony. This year our first appearance will be in New Jersey, at the site of the Mounted Games Across America National Competition. This is a new venue for us, and I’ve been racking my brain for a new performance idea, or some new tricks. I finally decided that we just need some more “wow” tricks. To me this means some funny/goofy tricks, and some amazing tricks.
So trick number one involves the magnificent Boomerang! Boomer will be attending this competition as my designated mount, while Minnow will be attending solely as a performer. Since its rare that I bring two trick ponies along with me to a performance, I decided to utilize this rarity by teaching Boomer something “amazing”.
See Minnow’s specialty is manipulating objects around him. He will pick up anything I hand him, and can easily figure out what to “do with it”. His weakness is putting himself into vulnerable positions. I attribute this to his wild island pony background, as well has his brief stint in a home that neglected him. And although I have been working with him for the past 7 years, he still feels too vulnerable to let me near him when he lays down. So for my next planned trick, Boomer was the obvious choice.
For I decided to teach him to sit.
In the past two weeks I have been working on moving Boomer from the ground. We’ve worked on his backup, his spin on the haunches, and spin on the forehand. With each day, Boomer is becoming progressively lighter in all directions. So on Monday I decided to lug out a bale of straw to see if I could get him to learn the beginnings of putting some of his weight on it.
Boomer is a pretty trusting pony, having had no major life traumas and the fact that he was “home raised” in a loving environment. He’s pretty willing to try anything, and if it involves food he’ll definitely try it. Within a minute of asking Boomer to back his hind end into the straw bale it was evident that he was going to take to sitting pretty quickly. After about the third try I had him resting a good bit of his weight on his hocks, which were leaning on the haybale – and I had him holding it!
Had I moved the bales away from the fence line I probably could have had him “sitting” on them too! But I decided to save the next step for another day.
Boomer was pretty proud of himself and his new trick. As I stepped back to snap a few photos of him he just kept trying to sit deeper and deeper onto the bale (of course I was sure to keep clicking a rewarding each effort he gave). I can’t wait to drag the haybales out tomorrow for another session with him…this time I have a few bean bag chairs too!
Dachshund Training class #2
After our first adventure at training class I spent the next week working on of the necessary assignments with the little Dachshund. We worked on sit with hand signals and then a verbal cue, and the same with down. I also practiced teaching him not to pull on the leash and to follow when I walked. And most importantly I worked on getting him to look at me when I called his name and keeping his attention. And yes, proudly I worked with him EVERY single day. We practiced at the shop in between customers, we practiced at the farm when he was distracted by ponies and farm smells, we practiced at my parent’s house, we even had a session at Petsmart and we practiced at home.
I think my insistence on practicing ALL day long really paid off, because at last night’s class he was an angel! I was completely amazed when I was able to keep his attention throughout most of the class. Yes, he did get distracted a little and focus on some smells, but the difference this time was that I was able to snap him out of it and bring his attention back to me.
We started off class by working on a watch or look command. This command can be used when you want your dog to look at you (in your eyes) but not necessarily come. Our instructor gave an example of doing agility with her dog. She wants her dog to wait on the start box and look at her but not move off the box. We practiced this command by holding a treat at our dog’s nose and then moving it up to our noses asking the dogs to keep focused on the treat. When their eyes met ours they were clicked and rewarded. Eventually we moved onto moving the treat to the side of our face and when the dog’s eyes landed back on ours instead of the treat they were rewarded. Eventually the treat will be faded out all together and we will add a “look” cue to get our dogs to look into our eyes.
Then we worked on resetting our dog when we are loose leash walking them. If they start to get out of position we can use this technique to reset them into position. Here are two videos of Ammo working on his reset.
Next up we worked on the come or recall. First we lured our dogs away from us by dropping a treat behind them. As they were finishing up the treat we called their name and backed away from them, when they turned and followed we clicked and treated. Eventually we will add a verbal cue to this such as Come or Here. The important thing about this recall is that you have to be prepared to reward your dog EVERYTIME they come to you, otherwise they will decide its not worth listening. I like to think of it as an emergency call. Like if your dog was going to run into traffic you need a verbal to yell that brings them running EVERYTIME. So for example I might use come to call my dog in from the yard because I’m not going to reward him everytime he does this. But if I yell HERE my dog should drop everything all the time and come sprinting and I need to be prepared to reward this – EVERYTIME.
Overall I was very pleased with the Dachshund’s progress. Its been hard carrying around treats with me EVERYWHERE and remembering to practice practice practice with him. But I think in the end it will give us a much better partnership, and the more I do it with him the more it will become second nature. Anyone that has or has had a Dachshund knows how stubborn they can be, I’m determined to break this stigma with Ammo and have a dog that listens more like a Labrador would. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
