Star's Saga

Star, a difficult loader, recently suffered yet another bad experience in an attempt to be loaded onto a trailer by a handler working alone (both were injured in the process, the handler with a concussion and lacerated finger). A day after the incident, the assistance of a vet was called to tranquilize him and after 5 doses, a vet and her assistants were also unable to get him loaded. Not only would he not get on, or at this point, get anywhere near the trailer without a fight, he's learned he can rear, strike, buck and haul back when asked to do something he doesn't want to do. To sum it up Star needs desensitizing to the trailer to overcome his fear before success with training to load and actual  loading can be achieved.

So, the following, which only took a few short sessions over a period of three days,( many thanks to Parelli, Anderson, Tom Dorrance and Ray hunt for the tools and knowledge) is how i approached Stars problem with people and trailers.

We parked the trailer in the arena. I did groundwork exercises away from the trailer and when he was ready, let him rest near the trailer. His owner and I set his am and pm grain  on the trailer, sometimes standing with him, sometimes leaving him alone. He was more apt to relax and eat when no humans were around.

After a few sessions of doing groundwork to get his attention and his respect, and letting him understand that the trailer was where I'd let him catch his breath,  It wasn't long before he'd take me to the trailer when he wanted to rest. I stood on the trailer and he was comfortable to stand quietly with his head and neck in the trailer. Before he even thought of leaving I would back him off and put him to work, then repeat., He got the idea very quickly that backing away was not going to take him where he wanted to be. By this time i was able to move and jiggle things on the trailer, myself included, and desensitized him to pressure from behind with the stick and string. Even with dogs barking, cats running around, heavy equipment with air brakes coming up and down the drive, he eventually was  willing to stand quietly with a relaxed attitude and ignore distractions. At no time did i pull him to try to get him on the trailer as these sessions were focused on getting a relaxed response rather than a fearful response when a human interacted with him at the trailer. Their were times when he got cranky, and disrespectful, but were short lived. At no time did i get mean, yell or frustrated with his behavior, I simply redirected the behavior, moved his feet,  smiled and gave lots of praise and encouragement  when he got the answer right. All in all, we were just playing a game with a goal in mind and having fun.

Since we were expecting a professional handler who used natural methods, to finish the job and get him loaded, my sessions were done at this point. The owner continued to feed him on the trailer, but I told her not to do any work around the trailer and to only lunge him away from it, as if this person showed up, we didn't want to do anything inconsistent or interfere with his methods to get Star to load.

To find out what happened next and the outcome, read the note titled "Good Boy, Star"