The Donkey

We try to start with young donkeys usually the offspring of our proven Therapy Donkeys.

Not every donkey is cut out to be a therapy donkey.

• They all have their unique personalities and there are parts of the therapy program that some donkeys may not enjoy participating in. We use most of our donkeys on the farm, only a few go out to do the inside Therapy work.
• I believe that most donkeys can be trained to do therapy work but not every donkey should be a therapy. I can offer many examples of donkeys that I trained to do therapy work but are only used on the farm and not the visitation program for a variety of reasons. One example: Some donkeys don't like riding in the trailer, when we off load they are ringing wet from being nervous on the ride or have Diarrhea. It's likely over time I could change that behavior but I'm in a position that I don't have to, I can accept that its stressful for them and give them another job.

STARTING A FOAL

Everything we teach is through pressure and release. No treats are involved.

• Imprint foals as soon as they are born. Their mother's instinct is to teach their foal to move away from humans and protect the baby. We need to interrupt that instinct and let the mom and baby know that we are not going to harm them and get the mom to accept us being around their baby.

Handling the donkey foal

• Moving our hands all over the baby down their legs, picking a leg up off the ground and then putting it back down is super important because we are cleaning feet every time we go into a facility, and they have to stand quietly.
• brushing - we introduce brushing at a young age - we do not give them a bath every time we go on a visit. I don't think that is in the donkeys best interest, so we brush them out as best we can before going on a visit. If we were asked to bath them we would consider it but we have never been asked to. That would add a lot of work into a visit. Donkeys just do not like getting wet so its uncomfortable for them and we just don't do it unless we are going to a show, or we might do it before a fair that we are going to be at for a week.
• We introducing the halter, at first they just have to wear it for a few minutes and then it comes back off. We build on that until they aren't bothered that they have it on. Usually only takes a few times.
• Leading once they will accept a halter, we train them to walk on halter. Pressure and release is how we teach just about everything. Applying pressure at the halter and sometimes using a rump rope to help them find the right answer. I will elaborate on this in the pressure and release section.
• We also pair everything with a voice command "walk on" "back" "stand" etc.
• desensitizing them to a variety of things they could come into contact with is also helpful but since we normally take the foals in with their mom, often don't even realize all the scary things around them, they just follow their mom.
• Trailer loading - this is something you need to teach. You do not want to have to be yanking your donkey on and off the trailer at a visit. Foals usually hop right on with mom but if you have an older donkey that will not load easily use pressure and release technique to train them. Build on this lesson at first just getting on and off the trailer, then loading for a few minutes, going for a little ride, then back home. We will make sure they get some grass which is like chocolate cake to our donkeys since they are on a dry lot. Yes, this is a food reinforcement but it is a natural one, and we try to offer a small amount before and after the visit but not in between if we can help it. In the trailer there is always fresh hay for them to munch on.
• We always clean the donkey's hooves before going inside a facility. We do sometimes put shoes on if their feet are wet or the floors are freshly waxed it's like a skating rink for them. If we are staying outside, we don't usually bother with cleaning hooves.
• floor changes are one of the biggest challenges we face taking the donkeys inside. This is where your on the farm training to desensitize them to a varitey of surfaces and colored surfaces will be a big help. Secondary to the trusted relationship you have created with the donkey that you will never lead them into danger.
• The donkeys have poor depth perception so they will freeze up at floor changes. It could be a different color or moving from hard floor to carpet or even just crossing a white line on the floor. For them they can't tell if it's a cliff they are going to step off. They learn to trust their handler and will move gracefully throughout the facilities, but it takes time to build that trust. If we come across the situation where they refuse to move forward, we just apply steady pressure on the halter and wait for them to move off the pressure it can sometimes take a few minutes. If you can try to place one foot on the new type of floor this sometimes helps but otherwise just wait them out. I promise you they will give in. Whatever you do...DO NOT let off on the pressure on the halter, that will just reinforce them bracing against it and they could rear up or start backing up. If they do rear up or back up maintain the pressure. You must win! The only time I will let them have the win is if someone else is in danger of getting hurt.
• Sometimes sliding doors are an issue we tend to train them on the spot in this situation it's hard to plan ahead but I suppose you can go to places like tractor supply and train them around the doors. It has never been a big issue for us. Remember you have trained them on the farm that once you apply pressure to the halter the only way it goes away is to comply so they just learn to comply with the understanding that they can trust you.
• Walking in and out of rooms and up to wheelchairs is a challenge. There is always lots of medical equipment around the rooms and in the halls so your donkey has to know how to back up well. This is the hardest part to get them to walk forward when there is no way out, a dead end at the bed or chair. getting them to take that last couple steps so the person can reach them is not easy. Initially I do not hold this expectation on the donkey. You can practice this on the farm too walking them right up to a wall a dead end, if often what they will need to do in a facility.
• If the visit is in a large day room and everyone has gathered there, talk to the folks and ask them to space out the wheelchairs so you can walk through them it's so much easier to get them the donkey to move forward if it's not a dead end.
• We also make sure the handler is trained to redirect people's hands to the top of the donkey's nose or head not down near the mouth. We never know what they had for breakfast but it's likely to smells good to the donkeys so we are cautious not to let them have their hands near the mouth. Obviously if your donkey bites you will not be taking them on a therapy visit until you have that behavior fixed.
• It's also a good idea to desensitize them to a variety of sounds so they are not afraid or try to bolt if they hear a noise. They need to know, no matter what the noise is they are safe with you.

TRAINING WITH FOOD

In the beginning we used to bring a bowl and we would offer treats to the donkeys for moving up and standing still. we would fade the treats out once they had an understanding of what we were asking but food was also so distracting. when food is around they are focused on the food and it takes away from their natural social nature. The reason we never feed the donkeys while they are on a visit no matter what! We will let people give them carrots once they are loaded on the trailer and the visit is over but as a rule the only food they get is their hay on the trailer or if we are cleaning feet and there is grass we will let them graze for a few minutes. I can not stress this enough and this is a rule that our therapy donkeys are never fed from hands. If we allow them to get treats they are always given on the ground.

You will also want to consider are you going to use an elevator, strictly ramps or will your donkey do stairs. Plan ahead.

Potty Breaks

We typically will go inside for about 20 minutes at a time. Our donkeys are not house broke so we don't like to take the chance of them pooping inside the facility. They have never urinated inside so that's a plus. If you are at a big facility just make sure they know that you will have to take a break and load the donkeys on the trailer for a few minutes they will most-likely go once you do.

We tell people not to have us come in on expensive carpeting, if the donkey happens to poop inside, we will clean it up. We do try to pay close attention to the donkey's tails which is why we always have an extra person with us. The tail watchers carry a bucket and if the donkey is inside, we will try to catch the poop or get them outside if we see their tails go up.

A word of caution, donkeys are highly intelligent so if every time their tail goes up you take them out to a patch of grass, what do you think that donkey will learn. Raise my tail and they take me to the grass. For this reason we always load on the trailer, let them off lead and wait a few minutes. You will create a monster, yes, I am speaking from experience.

Pressure and release

I use this is a technique I use to train just about everything with a donkey.

Teach walk on halter

Walk on is taught by applying pressure to the halter, enough pressure to make the donkey feel uncomfortable. The key to this is to maintain the pressure until the donkey takes a step forward. It's possible they could try lots of different things to get away from the pressure. You can never take the pressure off until they take a step forward if you do you are reinforcing and increasing the likely hood that the behavior to avoid walking is what they will do the next time you put pressure on the halter.

1. I asked the donkey to "walk on" at the same time I start waling forward, you may have to walk in place at first but at least it looks like you are moving.

2. I cluck or kiss "I'm warning you, you need to walk on" wait 3 to 5 seconds

3. Then apply pressure to the halter by pulling on the lead rope. It needs to be enough pressure to make them fee uncomfortable.

4. maintain the pressure for as long as it takes no matter what the donkey does rearing up, backing up, going sideways etc. just keep the pressure on.

5. As soon as the donkey moves forward or takes a step in the desired direction, release the pressure on the halter. Then repeat the steps. building on the success going from one step to walking down the trail. and eventually over scary things like bridges, and painted plywood.

Desensitizing

I will just say that it's important to let the donkey move his feet, and you keep the pressure on until they decide to stand still for 5 seconds, then take a few steps away and turn your back to the donkey. Wait a few seconds and then repeat, Once they no longer run then move to the next step in teaching them.

There are lots of videos on You Tube teaching this Ben Hurr is a good resource.

Things to remember the donkey must always be allowed to move their feet even if it's in the wrong direction just keep the pressure on until the donkey stands still.

I hear from people all the time, saying the donkey wont stop running away from me. I am here to tell you they are wrong, they simply gave up before the donkey.

I'm happy to hear feedback and I wrote this quickly so please excuse any typos, and I'm happy to fix anything that is incorrect if you would like to reach out to me.

Happy training everyone! I hope this helps