A very interesting morning... I have a great dog named Deuce. He's a great learner, a great listener (most of the time) and he's just a joy to have around. Some mornings, he goes on walkabout. He's gone for a couple hours just checking things out and having a good old time. Living in the country, this isn't such a big deal. People around me all have 35 acre lots and I doubt anyone much notices him as he crosses properties. Anyway, he's done this for about 2 years with no issues.
Well, I was out bringing horses in with Deuce, when we noticed a herd of deer in the neighbors pasture. About 10 deer, relaxing and eating. Deuce saw them and went running, no charging and prepping to chase them. Well, then the craziest thing ever happened. The deer looked up, saw Deuce watched him run to them, but didn't run! He made it to them, they stood and watched, then went back to eating. Deuce stood with the deer, bounding up and down a little, obviously trying to instigate a chase or some play. The deer were not threatened and just ate their grass.
I've never seen anything like it! I imagine on all those walkabouts he's been desensitizing the deer to his playful nature and they've come to realize Deuce is harmless. He came hauling butt back to me, looking proud of himself, but for what - I don't know. I'm sure he would have preferred it if they ran and he'd had a good chase. He's a cute dog and those deer have become desensitized to his antics. Unreal.
After the dog show, I spent about 20 mins with Rio. I'm working on helping him become less sensitive to mounting. I'd like to be able to safely mount him bareback. At this point he's a little wary and will get defensive about me jumping up and down next to him. To help him, I jumped and down while asking him to bring his head just slightly around. When he brought his head around, I'd stop. He was pretty relaxed by the end - much better responses to my jumping.
Ready for the next step.
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