Today I went over to Jennifer's to see what Peach would think of a cart. This last week I have been getting her used to the harness and moving around, in and out, sitting between and going under a fake set of PVC shafts that I just held or laid on the ground. We worked with those for a few minutes at Jennifer's and then moved over to the actual cart and did about 15 minutes of click treat for getting near it and then working towards standing and then sitting between the shafts. Then Jennifer stood in front of her and fed her non-stop while I moved the shafts up and down and touched her rear end and sides with them and such. (She's a little sketchy about having her rear end touched).
Per Jennifer's nod that she felt she was ready, we slid the shafts into the harness loops and had her do a few sits and stands while I held the cart from the side with Jennifer standing in front of her. We then took the leap and hooked up the traces and low and behold off she went. Hitch and go! We walked down her long driveway, did a big circle in the culdesac and back up the driveway about 1/4 mile in all, up hill and down. The cart had about 10 lbs. in it. We were both quite surprised how quickly she took to pulling and that the cart really didn't bother her much, less so than the fake shafts did. I made sure to give treats at the very moment it made any noise or hit any bumps like the ridge from the driveway to the street.
I guess now I can send in my registration for the draft test in Seattle, and get busy building her own cart and practicing... I'm so glad I have the videos from the June draft test, I'm going to study them so I know more of what to expect! Hopefully we will get in.
Peach was awesome!!
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