I wish there was a way to put background music on blogger. That's the song I would put on today. When I got to the barn today, Ace was hoppin' mad. It was lunch time, and he was still out. OMG! I ignored him a bit, making preparations for the vet who was there to do some dental work. Every time I went past Ace he hopped up and down and whinied. He was having an absolute hissy over the perceived injustice. Namely that his schedule had been disrupted, a fact we humans seemed oblivious to.
In my own time, I ran a chain over his nose and went in with him. He would love, at this point, to barge through the gate, and drag me to his stall where hopefully, lunch would already be served. So, that has to be the exact opposite of what happens. First I led him around the arena a little. He did marvelous. He must be catching on? He takes the lead strap in him teeth, and marches me around a couple of laps each way.
Then, once he has proven to be a well behaved young man, we proceed to the gate. The first time he rushes right through it, visions of lunch dancing in his head. SoooOoooo, we do it again. That is the only "punishment". If he can't be polite, we will do it again until the activity looses it's excitement quotient, and he can do it right. It only took two tries. That is much better than our walk from his stall to the arena on Saturday morning. We had to try that one five times before he gave up and realised he had to contain his exuberance for a whole 30 seconds. You rush, we turn around and go the other way. Simple as that.
Once he is in his stall, lunch does not arrive immediately. See, there was no need to rush back afterall. This baby raising thing takes a lot of self control. You have to keep in mind that what might be easy today... grab the little sucker and throw him in the stall so he will Shut.Up. will make your life that much more difficult when you realise you have a thousand pound brat who constantly acts on impulse. That must not happen.
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2 comments:
Working with Ace about lunch sounds a lot like working working with 3rd graders about lunch. "Just how many times do you want to walk up and down the hall"? I'll ask in the first week of school to my class. "We aren't getting to the cafeteria any faster if you run and push it actually SLOW US DOWN". Generally the kids "get it" by the end of the first week. Of course, they will need refresher messages throughout the year...
Good for you putting up with all that! I have a hard enough time with my 5 yr old, but I have raised young'ns and yours sounds like quite the handful. Good luck, keep a whapper handy, and I have no doubt in a year or two it'll pay off :D
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