Baker training session 30 - more clipping!

I worked with Baker for about 27 minutes today.  I haltered him and led him to the tree.  He was a bit resistant to walk forward today, so it took quite a bit of tapping with the whip, quite often.  Eventually, we made it, and then I tied him, groomed him, picked his feet and flysprayed him.  I had a helper again today, so we worked on the clippers together.  Just like the last time, when I turned the clippers on, he was very curious and wanted to touch them with his muzzle.  He was very relaxed while I clipped all the short hairs on his muzzle again.  And he was also quite relaxed as I moved the clippers to the area of his jaw just beyond his muzzle.  That's the part I had worked on last time, for the first time, and he had been a little fussy about it.  During this session, he was perfectly fine with it.  So, I moved on to a little farther up his jaw.  I worked on the area underneath his jaw, in the middle.  He reacted much the same as he did last time when I worked on the newer area.  So, while Katie rubbed his withers, I would make three swipes and then give him a break and switch sides.  Each time I started again, he was a little jerky with his head, but eventually he relaxed enough that I could make three passes without him reacting at all, and by the end, he was even licking and chewing.  Gradually, he is getting more and more comfortable with the clippers.  Once we were done clipping, I worked with him on leading at the trot, and halting, and backing.  He was in a big hurry to get back to Fiona, and he was a bit concerned about something he thought he saw in the woods, so he was not very focused on his job, and often tried to run me over instead of going straight.  Every time he did this, I made him halt, back, and try again.  His halts and backs were very good - very responsive.  It took a while before I could get a pleasant, obedient trot.  Once I did, I decided to end on that.  As usual, he was quick to put his head down to get his halter off, and then proceeded to snuggle up to Fiona and tell her how hard his day was, I'm sure ☺.

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