Today was filled with ups and downs as I worked with Jack. I could tell when I caught him that he had a lot of energy. Then, when we got into the arena there was a truck and trailer in there picking panels up. Great... I tried matching his energy, but a lot of that energy was him being scared by the truck. I feel like I didn't do a very good job with him because I wasn't hardly able to get him to pay attention to me. Then, once we'd start doing a little better, the truck would move, and it would get him wound up all over again.
After the truck left I asked Carlee if we could just let them go, because I felt like that would be a lot more efficient at getting Jack into the learning zone. So, we did, and it was so fun to watch them play! After he got most of his nervous/playful energy out, we started working with them at liberty. It was way fun to try to keep him engaged without a lead rope or halter. All I had was the carrot stick. For the most part I felt like we did really good. Jack is really sensitive to pressure, so I was able to get him to spin in circles. But, he would usually just take off after spinning a circle. But, if I just started driving him, I was usually able to get him to stop and change directions with me. It was really cool, because without a rope on them, they have so much more freedom, but they would still stay engaged. It was also a lot less forgiving of the handler, because if you weren't in the right spot then they would become disengaged, and would take off, but if you positioned and worked right, then they stayed with you. I learned a ton from doing it!
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