Saturday 29 September 2012

Topsy's Progress - Week 4

Here's a couple of videos of Topsy from today that really show how she is progressing.  She is being turned out without a headcollar now - I didn't make it back from the field in time to film Paul headcollaring her, but here is the second phase of that - clipping on the lead rope.  You can see how much progress she has made - you can see that Topsy is even choosing to follow Paul before he clips the rope on.  There's actually an alley there along the side of the house (which isn't visible/obvious in the video) and she could have walked off back up towards the grass if she wanted to...but she didn't...she went towards a human.  Her past experiences of people had caused her to learn to avoid people at all costs...and now she is learning to trust a human for the first time in her life.  Paul is helping her to overcome her fears, and Topsy's comfort zones are slowly increasing.


This video shows Topsy having her headcollar taken off in the stable.  She's accepting of Paul doing this now.  She's not 100% comfortable with people around her yet and you can see the anxiety...but also notice her "licking and chewing" at the end of the video.  Before, she was too frightened to express like this.


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