We went Down to the River

On Saturday morning, I decided it was time to take a hike down the hill to the river with MerryLegs.  He was very, very excited.  As he walked down the hill, he looked left, right, left, right.  There was so much to see!  Actually, all there was to see was a lot of trees, but MerryLegs thought it was exciting.

He did so well that when I got to the bottom of the hill, I decided to see what he would do when we approached the water.  I had no intention of stepping into the water, and I didn’t expect him to, either.  Still, I was curious to see his reaction.

MerryLegs went right down the bank and stopped a few feet from the edge of the water.  He didn’t seem frightened, but he wasn’t close enough to touch it.  I started walking him back and forth, and he gradually got closer.  Finally, he was close enough to take a good look at it.  I put my hand in front of him and asked him for a head down.  He did, and I clicked/treated.  I repeated it a few more times, getting lower with each attempt.  Next thing I knew, he had his nose in the water and was wiggling his upper lip back and forth.  He definitely got a click for that.  He had to lift his head up to get the treat.  Then he did it 2 more times.  We would have stayed longer, but a huge flock of horse-killing insects started to swarm us, and they were agitating him.  We decided to end on a good note and went back home.

The following day, we got about 3 inches of rain, so we didn’t go back down the hill.  The water was over the bank and part of the trail was submerged.  I bet it was up about 8 feet or so.  It will be a while before it is low enough for MerryLegs to go dip his nose, again.  Even if the water is crossable, I only like to work on water training when it is low and very unimposing.  This was a great starting point.we