Since it seems this is just on my mind lately, we had another session where I went really slow and things worked out really well. It just knocked my mind out of the water with the power of a plan. I felt like if I showed Moose what I had in mind, and made an effort to help him do it, and really concentrated on what I wanted him to do, he got the idea. He understood my intent. For example, Moose gets a little funny when people stand above him (I think because since he's so tall he's never had anyone really taller than him before), so I decided to stand up on our picnic table, and have him walk along one side of the picnic table, then turn around around a cone, and walk down the same side, and turn around around another cone. It was a very awkward pattern, and I knew it, so it was a test. And Moose passed with flying colors. I felt like he knew what I was asking from the moment I started, just because I was so focused on the pattern.
Also, I read something posted on Mugwump Chronicles a long time ago just recently about horse's walking on a track, and about it being a color and such (I'd link to the old blog post itself, but I don't know what it's called, sorry). Well, I'm not quite sure about it being colored, but I did find out something interesting about it today. I asked Moose to circle around me, and he's gotten in the pattern of doing a few laps, and then stopping. We're just not far enough into the levels to change his mind about this yet, lol. But it's not a big deal. So I sent him out, made sure he knew it was a circle, and then closed my eyes. He stopped right away, so I re-sent him. This time, he walked 3 laps around me calmly without a fuss, and I have to say I think they were the most perfect circles we've ever gotten. "How interesting!" Then, as I opened my eyes to disengage him, he stopped. I was overjoyed! I guess there really is something to this stuff.
Overall, by myself making a conscious effort to slow down and make sure he understands, I feel like Moose is really hooking on better now. I feel like I should go back and read Tom Dorrance's book again now. I think maybe I'd get more out of it this time around.
