Another Forest outing this morning to work with Paragon. We has an extra observer present.
Once more Paragon was willing to go on the trailer until there was a front bar in place. This time however we were using my fake bar, the swimming woggle. He met this just a couple of days ago. My job was to convince him that he could rely on the front bar not to bite him, or bruise him, and this warm to the touch, spongy material, satisfied him that it was okay to come into contact with it, and to load with it in place. We will replace this fake bar with a padded front bar on the next occasion.
Soon he was quite happy to be touched by it and to stand right against it while the back bar was put into place.
He was then asked to take a tiny step back so that he could feel the presence of the back bar with his tail.
Once again Paragon worked quietly with us, expressing his feelings in a way that put none of us in danger and were easy to read. Sometimes (no, always) you wonder who is teaching who. But you do have to be open to learning. His owner has received other advice about how to make Paragon load, including the practice of tapping with a stick. I fail to see how this sort of training would help Paragon to let go of his fear of being in the trailer.
