They hit their first hurdle when it was time to have Suzi microchipped by the vet. As she hadn't been taught to lead, and therefore to follow a pressure, when she decided she wanted to leave, she just left, and the carefully constructed Velcro headcollar that Anja had made simply came apart. This small incident has put Suzi off having the noseband over her nose, presumably because she got a little bump from it as she decided to leave.
I was asked to go and work with her to put the headcollar on and to start to teach her to lead but with the vet coming an hour later to insert the microchip, I was up against it and under pressure myself.
True to recent form, Suzi wasn't keen to have the noseband over her nose even though she was happy for it to be done up around her neck.
I began to work on desensitising her nose but again, when she wanted to leave, she did. This is something that Anja needs to be aware of - it's important never to ask for too much but when you do ask for something, it does need to happen.
Accordingly we closed her into the field shelter with her Mum and I worked on desensitising her nose until I could quietly do up the noseband on her old headcollar and also put a new one over the top. I also started work on teaching her to lead by asking her to move towards a slight pressure from the scarf around her neck. In the event I didn't need either headcollar as Julie and I gently enclosed her at the side of the shelter, me holding the ends of the scarf, with her Mum standing right next to her while Nicki (Brooks) inserted the microchip and then read it with the microchip reader. Suzi wasn't terribly impressed with the sting of the microchip and, in an ideal world, I would prefer to work on something like this separately from painful procedures, but the good news is that afterwards she let me work with her quietly, continuing to desensitise her nose and to teach her to lead.
Progress is being made inch by inch with Henrietta who is now letting me go down the side of her nose.
