I had a big breakthrough with Paddy, my mini donkey today, but I need to say “we” because it actually revolved around my partner David.
I’d like to define “trust” first though. For Paddy and myself, it means I’m someone that brings him nice things, gives good butt scratches when he asks, doesn’t scare him and helps him feel safe. I’m also predictable and consistent and look for his ‘voice’ in his behaviour and try to offer choices wherever possible. Especially when we play our little games with food (Positive Reinforcement training), I build his ‘voice’ into the training. I wait for him to communicate with me, tell me he’s ready, tell me he’s ok or even more than ok. I’ve worked diligently on developing his belief that I’m a good, and importantly for him, a safe person to be around. I’ve made myself trustworthy.
That was very evident today during our training, when I worked on introducing David to my donkeys in a training scenario. They’re all a bit wary of him and Paddy is flat out scared of him, so I need to change that. I need David’s help for upcoming vet visits and it’s good for all the donkeys to learn to trust other people, not just me and this is especially true for Paddy.
All the other donkeys are pretty cool with David if he has food. Seymour, who used to be the most fearful donkey, was very happy to interact and train with David. He even marched up to David and gave his Start Button (a head nod) as a kind of greeting and demand in one, it was pretty awesome! David then did some leading with Seymour and it all went beautifully, I was so pleased (with them both!).
Next was Paddy and he was very scared of David in his space. Padd was moving away, avoiding him, circling in a very wide berth and did a liquid poo, so there’s no way he’d go anywhere near him, even for food. But did I need to use Negative Reinforcement, approach and retreat or CAT? Definitely not.
I started by asking Paddy to station on his mat, where we do most of our training. I then asked David to stand a long distance away, roughly 5-6 metres and every time Paddy looked up at me and tilted his head inquiringly, to tell me he was ready (his Start Button), I dropped food in his bowl. That’s it, I’m focusing on Counter Conditioning, no behaviour required from Paddy, apart from his Start Button and I was carefully reading his body language every step.
Next session, David started in the same place, but when Paddy looked around at me expectantly, David took a step towards him and I and then I dropped food in his bowl. Now we are switching to systematic Desensitisation and Counter Conditioning. We did that slowly step by step, til David was standing at my shoulder and I was standing at Paddy’s shoulder. It was interesting to note that if David got too far in front of me, Paddy would back up and put me between us. I’m his safe person, of course.
Next session, David was able to take his place at my shoulder after a few steps and we did a few reps of him just standing there. Paddy would give me his Start Button, his ‘I’m ready’ look and I would drop food in his bowl. Then I suggested that when Paddy gave me that look, could David reach out his arm a little towards Paddy with a closed fist, and when Paddy looked at it, I marked that behaviour and dropped food in his bowl. Now we’ve switched to Positive Reinforcement! 
We did that a few more times with David raising his arm a little higher each time and offering his fist and trying not to bend over, as Paddy finds that super scary. Then the next time, Paddy carefully stretched his neck and reached his nose forward and tried to sniff David’s hand from a distance! I marked/clicked that behaviour and dropped food in his bowl! I suggested David put some food in his fist and next time, offer his fist and if Paddy is close enough, flip it and open it to reveal the food.
One of the early behaviours I taught Paddy was that if I backed away and he followed, I offered my closed fist with food in it and if he nudged it with his muzzle, his behaviour caused the fist to open and he could eat the food. One of the most powerful things I’ve learnt about training fearful animals is that teaching them their behaviour matters, that they have control over consequences, is a very powerful thing. It’s what opens the floodgates of behaviour and the light bulb goes off for the animal. They realise that we know how to communicate with them in a way they understand AND we give them a measure of control. Something they may never have experienced before. For Paddy, it’s always a game we play whenever he’s unsure and any time I back away from him, that’s his cue to follow me and there’ll be food in my fist, if he gives it a little nudge.
When I saw Paddy reach forward to sniff David’s hand, I saw curiosity replace fear. He was wondering if he could make the food appear as a consequence of his own behaviour, even with this strange scary man! It was exciting!
After Paddy gave his Start Button, David reached his arm forward, fist with food inside, closed, and we watched, holding our breath. Paddy reached forward and did his adorable little sideways muzzle nudge of his fist and David flipped his hand and omg there was food and Paddy ate it!
We were so happy, we smiled at each other and I said to David, you’ve done it, you’ve cracked the code with Paddy! Hooray!
Then of course I said, do it again, wait for his Start Button and David offered his fist and he did it again.
We got excited and I suggested backing away a few steps and then doing it again and Paddy followed us – he knew this game!
We were ecstatic. We backed up a few more times and finished on that high note.
To sum up, with really fearful animals, there’s no need to scare them or make them feel unsafe to get behaviour and then remove the scary stimulus to reinforce that behaviour (R-/CAT). Just because they’re scared of us, doesn’t mean we need to use that fear or deliberately scare them to get some kind of behaviour to reinforce. They know the difference between being scared and being able to create distance or run away and having control that way, and someone deliberately invading their space and repeatedly scaring them. We can instead take the time the animal needs, meet their basic needs, provide the safety of a herd or at least a companion, give them space to move around and then thin slice the Desensitisation steps and be generous with the Counter Conditioning (food).
I didn’t get any photos or videos, there was so much focus on Paddy and ensuring he was comfortable.
But I’ve got this brief video of Paddy doing his cute little nose bump of my fist for some hay. He was terrified of me at the start and wouldn’t even eat anything else besides hay or eat if I was nearby, or out of a bucket or my hand when he first came. So I had a lot of training to do just to be able to deliver the food in an expeditious and contiguous manner.
Click on the link to watch Paddy doing his little nose bump:-