NLP is Magic!

I've been having some NLP sessions and I have to say they are really helping.

So far we have worked on and improved the following:

Feeling pressured/judged

Anxiety about situations where there are others (social, or competing, anything really)

Control issues

Not knowing where I am "going" aka what I want to do when I grow up!

I have cried most sessions, in a releasing kind of way. Yesterday's we ended up working on my relationship with Magic. I think its going to really help how we are with each other (peas in a pod that we are) and where we, as a partnership, want to go from here.

So this morning I continued our new leading routine. He came to the gate, I let him through, but didn't put headcollar or anything on. We did target the fist until the loop was clean, then I stepped away and asked him to do it again so he had to walk towards me. By the end of the session he was walking along with me, and I was C/T for this, so he would stop for his treat, then we could have another go. We went along the track to the schooling area and back. Only when we turned for home did his ears go a bit less "happy". So I used that as my cue that I needed to take smaller steps (literally) and go back to target the fist until he wasn't showing the tension.

The great thing was that he was happy to go back into the yard with the others - he did so when I opened the gate, with his ears forward. Often, he seems unhappy that a session has ended, but today it felt like I was able to keep tension out of him for the whole time. Maybe because the NLP has helped me take the pressure off both of us.

I remember blogging about "happy faces" and ears forward, and saying I wasn't sure I believed it was the right thing to do, but could see valid reasons for doing it AND not doing it. And that I experimented a bit, but never really "got" anywhere. Well now, the deal is that when Magic has his ears too forward he is "lal-la-ing", when they are further back than half way, he is in conflict/I've chunked to far. Anywhere else and we are good to go.

Against previous thoughts, I am going to let him la-la as much as he needs to - as its all information - if he is la-la-ing and I don't know why - I have to ask myself is it him trying to "leave" the situation? What am I doing that could make him feel the need to leave? What can I do to make him want to stay with me, rather than return to his herd and gallop them down the field "out of danger"? Ditto with the tension face - how can I split what I am asking down into smaller components, and if I do that, does he get back to happy Magic?

Now I can see where we are going with this, I can't believe I was able to suppress my knowledge of his tension around leading for so long. I've known its there, but I have tried to "fix" it with a higher rate of reinforcement, but still doing the same thing, or even by chunking up to the next behaviour when his FEELINGS around ground work were going to restrict what we could do. Whereas I needed to split the behaviour down even further to find where the "sticky" spot was.

It really is a learning curve this stuff, and I honestly don't think you ever stop learning. Good job Magic is such a great, patient teacher, huh?!