[nagdu] Dogs VS. Horses

Mon Aug 15 19:36:53 UTC 2011

Ann,
I love reading your posts about Panda, she sounds adorable! I like the games you play with her. One game that I play with my guide dog, Pascal is hide and seek. It's great for those bad weather days. We also play it at my work (a doctor's office) when we are on lunch break.
I will have Pascal heel and sit next to me. Then I will tell him to stay. I will go hide somewhere, and whisper, "OK." He runs throughout the office (or home) ltrying to find me. It's so much fun. Sometimes when he finds me, he gets a kibble. But, he is usually just so happy to find me. 
Deanna and Pascal

--- On Mon, 8/15/11, Ann Edie <annedie at nycap.rr.com> wrote:

From: Ann Edie <annedie at nycap.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Dogs VS. Horses
To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Date: Monday, August 15, 2011, 12:18 PM

Hi, Larry,

The socialization for miniature horses is similar to that for dogs, I guess. They don't chew up your shoes, but they do have to learn that your house plants are not meant as conveniently-located snacks.  They do need to be house trained and to learn that counter surfing is not permitted.  They have to be taught not to eat the cat's food or the dog's food, and to play nicely with the pet dog or cat.  They also have to learn to just chill out when you are busy and not to always be the center of attention.  Then they need to be exposed to all sorts of people and places, noises and activities, vehicles, stores, parades, construction sites, etc., so they will take all of these in their stride later as working horses.  And some of the time spent on baby socialization is just a matter of waiting for the baby to grow up to an age where you would want them to become a full-time working animal.  We didn't want to put Panda to work full-time until she was
 about 2 and a half years old, although she was quite mature and ready to go much sooner.

Panda doesn't run through the house, but she does like to walk around from the kitchen, down the hallway to the front door, turn left into the living room, left again into the dining room, and then left back into the kitchen. She also likes to roll on the living room carpet to get a good back scratch and to take a nap on the family room rug.  She goes to the door to greet guests when the doorbell rings, but she doesn't bark or jump up on people, so it is much more relaxed a greeting than with most puppies.

Since I had dogs before getting Panda, I had a lot of dog toys around the house, and Panda adopted some of them for her own.  She doesn't gnaw on nylabones or natural bones, of course.  Her favorite game is fetching and bringing back thrown objects, and her favorite objects to fetch are a canvas and rubber frisbee and some soft squeaky toys.  Minnies cannot open their mouths as wide as dogs do, so picking up a ball is difficult for them unless the ball has handles as some of the dog toys do.  Just as I did with my dogs, I taught Panda to bring the object all the way back and to put it right into my hand, rather than to drop it at my feet or to play keep-away, as some dogs do.  If she doesn't bring the toy all the way back to my hand, the game's over.

Panda has made up some original games of her own, which she has taught me to play with her.  One of these is called "Panda Catch."  This is a game played with 2 or more people and Panda in a large indoor or fenced outdoor area. All the people have to do is spread out and stand around near the perimeter of the space with a few pellets of grain in their pockets.  Panda will run across the space, around a person, and come into perfect heel position at their left side, at which point the person makes a clicking sound and hands Panda a tiny bit of grain as her reward.  Then she tears off toward another person and makes a tight little circle around that person to come into heel position once again, to get her click and treat.  The game can be made more exciting by having the people in motion so that Panda has to work harder to get into position.  It is also interesting to have each person have a different type of treat, and to see whether Panda starts to
 favor one person over another on the basis of which treat they have.  This game is especially good for giving Panda exercise in bad weather when it is difficult to get out on long walks.

Another of Panda's games I call "Show Me."  This is a game where we enter a room or outdoor area and I just put my hand on Panda's withers or rump and she starts walking around the space.  She will stop and point out to me any feature of the room or space that she thinks I might be interested in knowing about, such as a door, a gate, a staircase, a chair, a desk, a ladder, a traffic cone, a construction tape or barrier.  And, of course, each time she stops, I reach out and touch the object, click and give her a treat, and tell her, "Thank you for showing me the ...."  A variation of this game is one where I ask her to find specific objects around the space, like, "Find the steps" or "Find the water," and I click and give her a treat when she takes me to that object.

In confined places, like when we're riding in the car, we play a game called "Touch", where I hold out my hand in a particular position and say, "Nose, touch" or "Chin, touch" or "shoulder, touch", and Panda moves to place whatever body part I mentioned into or against my hand.  She knows which body part I want both from the verbal cue and from the position of my hand. Another game that she likes to play in the car is to pick up the leash if I let it drop to the floor and hand it to me, also for a click and treat.

For those of you who might be concerned that Panda is being fed continuously and might be at risk for becoming obese, let me asure you that this is not the case.  The tiny bits of grain that she gets throughout the day are a measured part of her day's ration, and since horses are grazing animals, it is actually healthier for her to get many tiny bites of food spread out throughout the day than it is for her to have a big grain meal once or twice a day.

Best,
Ann

----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry D. Keeler" <lkeeler at comcast.net>
To: "doggie" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2011 10:44 PM
Subject: [nagdu] Dogs VS. Horses

> Ann is the socialization a lot different than with dogs?  I would imagine that horses don't chew up your shoes!  What kind of toys do they use and do they run through the house like dogs do?
> Intelligence is always claimed but rarely proven!
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