Yesterday afternoon I was getting ready to leave & I looked out the back window and there was little Ceelo happily eating grass in the back yard! Earlier I saw him grazing next to the fence that borders that area. I checked my cord for the charger, it was hanging half way out of the outlet - so it must not have been working! lol

I went out and said hi to him, and gave him a couple scratches.  Then I went & got a halter, my clicker, some treats.  I walked back out, said hi again, and haltered him with ZERO problems. Grabbed the lead rope and snapped it on the halter - he was like 'ok'.  Asked him to follow me - lol leaving the tasty green grass!! and he politely walked behind me! We went through the garden gate ( he was on the lawn that borders the garden, thankfully he didn't help himself to my lettuce and other goodies), walked through the main back yard (said hi to the garbage can lol). I opened the gate to the north pasture, before I could turn around he blasted through the gate & stopped on the other side at the end of the lead. He could've easily ran me over, but he went around me, and once he was on the other side he stopped.  I thought about what could have made him react that way, there are some boxes piled up next to the dog run that are waiting to be disposed of, I think those & the combination of my puppy scared him (she seems to enjoy waiting til he gets really close to the run & then going beserk and making him run away). I was just happy he didn't bolt all the way, he literally got to the other side, and stopped & waited for me.  

I then led him to the main gate to the donk pen, by this time R&D are at the gate waiting for their turn - they were watching him the whole time he was grazing on his escape. So they both wanted out because he got to graze and they didn't. It took me awhile to convince them that they were NOT going out. Ceelo waited outside the gate patiently while I shooshed and shoo'd R&D back. Once we had a nice open path Ceelo walked right in!

Closed the gate & unhaltered him, I also gave him a goodie for being so willing. mini paycheck :)
It really made me realize that all that training so far is paying off! One point I want to make is, I didn't go into the yard yelling at him or telling him he was bad. It was an opportunity for him - fence was off, he's short and there was grass on the other side. It's really my fault that he had the opportunity, but if I went in there & scolded him that would make him go 'oh...you're not fun, I don't know if I want you near me'. Just like if your dog is doing something bad, and you call them back to you, you're not going to scold them. Because the only thing you just taught them is coming to you is not fun.  I believe it's the same with the donks.

I double checked the fence and it was indeed not hot. I fixed it up and kept an eye on him. If he slips out again, I'll put up another strand to keep him safely in the pasture. 

This morning he had a great session, the last two mornings he's been a bit more interested in grazing. This morning he was actively engaged with me. It was so cool. Haltered him right away with no problems, proceeded to do some target training with the actual target stick- he's getting that alot better now - starting to take steps to touch the target, and then did some training on accepting being hugged...cuz he's so cute I'm sure people want to hug him LOL.  I also got to scratch him quite a bit today, down his back, on his chest ( which he especially likes).  Very happy how active he was today in the session. 

Little man is getting the idea of hand targeting! This morning he reliably targeted my hand about 4x! I even got to pet his neck. Much better than the responses he was showing me earlier in the week - basically he wanted nothing to do with me!  So cool to see his little brain working, my goal is have him WANT to be caught & haltered by the time the rescue picks him up. He's well on his way for sure! So far everything is at liberty obviously, since we're working on 'being caught', so if he doesn't want to play the game, he can choose not to. I think though he'll find that it's rather enjoyable and will look forward to me approaching him & asking him things. 


If we get to the halter targeting section of our training, I'll be tying him a new halter that fits properly :) Good thing for him I only have brown! LOL seems like a manly enough color!  Also hope to get some video of his training progress, it'll be cool to look back & see how far he has come!