“A horse is a very sensitive animal. He can feel a fly land on him. You folks who have been around horses know that because you put fly spray on him in the summertime. And yet when you ride him, you ride him like he doesn’t have any feeling. You ride him with a chain curb strap, a tie-down, martingale, …
Ron Pyne — 3 Star Parelli Professional
Here is some horse-y inspiration… Watch this video! Notice how little he does and the responsiveness and sensitivity he gets from it. Of course, that’s not how it started, but it is a perfect reminder of what we can strive for.
Mowgli & The Kong
My dog’s way of eating was taken to a whole new level last week… I got inspired by a book (Wanja und die wilden Hunde: Mein Leben in fünf Jahreszeiten) by Maike Maja Nowak. It’s an amazing, amazing book if you can read German – I highly recommend it. She entirely changed my views on feeding my dogs (and many …
Suspending
“Suspend judgement… Welcome the possibilities! Sometimes even a valuable improvement will initially feel mostly strange… If we are too quick to judge it and label it as ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ we miss this chance to improve! Sometimes you have to swim around in these new sensations… long enough to play with them and learn about how they function! If they …
Getting Vocal
Humans like to talk. Most of the time we do it subconsciously – babbling “empty words” and talking on and on to fill a silence. If you’ve had a conversation with someone like this (and most of us have on more than one occasion), you know how easy it is to zone out and stop really listening to what the …
Together
“I don’t believe in waiting for a horse to do the wrong thing and then punishing him after the fact. You can’t just say no to a horse. You have to redirect a negative behavior with a positive one, something that works for both of you. It’s as though you’re saying, ‘Instead of doing that, we can do this together.”‘ …
Let It Soak
It feels so great when everything is going great with our animals… We find it hard to stop! Just one… more… minute… practicing… and it might get even better! I used to find it hard to stop when something finally “clicked” in a training session. I always wanted to try it again to see if I could improve it, or …
Animal Culture
Do you own animals so that they can get a job done? It’s always a good reminder to have a conversation with someone from another country who has animals for different reasons than I do. I give my animals jobs. But my dogs aren’t full-time watch dogs! Sure, if I’m alone at home, I don’t correct them for letting out …
The Precursor to Good Behavior
“Discipline isn’t a dirty word. Far from it. Discipline is the one thing that separates us from chaos & anarchy. Discipline implies timing. It’s the precursor to good behavior, and it never comes from bad behavior. People who associate discipline with punishment are wrong: with discipline, punishment is unnecessary.” – Buck Brannaman
“I brought some wine!”
What do you bring to your animal’s “home”? Their space? The key to training and being with animals is bringing something of worth and substance. Just as you might bring some wine, dessert, or perhaps a wonderful salad to a friend’s house – you don’t want to arrive empty-handed at your animal’s door. Of course I am heavily anthropomorphizing here. …