We started with just loading, and then I asked him to yield his fore and hindquarters so he would stay against the wall. That was something he did not want anything to do with. We had to get out of the trailer and have words about it. First I asked him to do it in the open, which he knows how to do so that was no problem. Then I asked him to do it up against the open door of the trailer, like a wall. No way. But eventually we had the breakthrough, and he did it no problem. Then we went into the trailer, and it seems he made a leap of reasoning as to WHY I had asked him to take those steps, because I didn't even have to ask him to stay over there, he just did it.
The first time I tied him I just ran the rope through the Blocker Tie Ring once, so if he panicked he'd just be able to back out of the trailer. He was fine for a minute but when I left his sight he did just that. Backed right on out and stood waiting for me to rescue him. (The rope I'm using is the right size to use with the ring, but not as dense and too squishy, so it slides through more easily than it should, doesn't hardly have any resistance at all.) The second time I looped the rope through twice so it would hold much better, then I stayed at the back of the trailer and talked to him, and pointed and clucked at his butt when he thought about backing up. Worked like a charm. Unloaded, then did it again. This time I was able to move around to the side of the trailer and give him treats from the outside.
I took some pictures of him, of course.
Above you can see that he's not really comfortable. Tense and fidgety.
Here it might be hard to see, but he's standing more calmly, accepting it better and is licking and chewing. Still a bit tense though, understandably. Then he stood like a good boy while I wandered around out of his sight, but still talking to him.
Then we unloaded again and were done!
This trailer loading thing is going so well with both boys. Actually yesterday afternoon I was worried about Lyric, since he had SUCH a rough time with it, but we did it again in the evening and he had gotten the lesson. There was one refusal and then he loaded, many times. They're good boys, and they're showing me that trailer stuff doesn't have to be scary. I'm learning and growing, and very happy for it!
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