One of the things that I always have trouble with is the friendly game with Gypsy. Not so much rubbing her all over -- no problem with that, but as soon as I start swinging the savvy string around, or any rope for that matter, she starts backing away, or trotting around me. So I started spending a lot more time doing just that. I started with just the carrot stick and rubbed her all over with that, then I dropped the string (which is attached to the end of the carrot stick) and let it bump her side. She immediately backed away. So I started swinging it on to her back and she started trotting. I kept doing this in the hopes she would eventually stop - at which time I would stop. But she didn't stop (maybe I just didn't keep at it long enough... I am not that patient!). So then I tried swinging the string slowly from side to side with my back to the fence and let her trot back and forth until she stopped. When she did, I stopped. I started swinging it back and forth again, she started trotting back and forth again, then stopped and looked at me, so I stopped and she walked toward me. Lots of petting. While she was close I started rubbing her face with my hand and then swinging the savvy string over her neck at the same time. She seemed OK with that as long as my hand was on her face. As soon as I took a few steps away from her and swung the savvy string onto her neck, she'd back away again. I followed and when she stopped I let the string drop. And started again with my hand on her face. We did this for a while, then left it alone and started doing circling, driving and sideways games (in the next 3 blogs) before coming back to the friendly game with the savvy string.
At the end of my session when we came back to the friendly game, she was standing very quitely while I swung the string up on her neck -- from both sides. I also swung it around behind her withers and around her back legs... all very quietly received. Hopefully this will continue in the next session as well!
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