More trailer-loading

Yes, I know, I'm spending tons of time talking about the trailer.  But he's just doing so fabulously I can't wait to share it!  I got home from work SUPER late tonight, so I thought I wouldnt do anything with the trailer, just spend some undemanding time grazing.  Well then my mom and sister showed up, and I wanted to show them some of his cool stuff.  So.. I went to scratch him, and asked him to back up using just a few strands of tail hair, and he backed up 5 whole steps!  I saw their jaws just drop, which was pretty cool.  The last time they saw him, he was still half-feral, not really "tame" from sitting out at pasture without any human attention.  Then we went to show off with the trailer, because my mom has a friend that works with horses traditionally, so she knows a bit about the traditional method of trailer loading(and has tried to offer me tips!).  I stood at the tire, and sent Pistol into the trailer, and he walked right in.  He stopped before his back feet got in, but I'm ok with that, because he offered a really fabulous try.  Up until this point, he has been a little reluctant to get in right away, its taken some time to get him to decide to go in.  But this time he just marched right in.  My grandpa even went up and opened up the tack storage doors, and the side access door, and he didnt budge.  This is also huge, because he used to go RB very quickly, but has started spending more and more time on the LB side.  As I stood there with him, he looked out the windows, sniffed the roof vent, cocked a leg, and blew a big sigh out, so I got him out and gave him a treat, and got some licking and chewing.  It was getting pretty dark(another big deal!!!) so I ended the session right then and there.  I love my horse!!  He was definitely the right horse for me. 

Ooohhh... the farrier...

I forgot to mention the farrier in my earlier post.  I have a wonderful farrier that has come out twice now, and she puts up with so much from my horse.  I thought she would be pleasantly surprised, because he has been doing so much better for me with his hooves.  I've been picking them up, cleaning them, tapping on them, pulling them forward, etc all at liberty.  But... apparently that didn't translate to the farrier.  He was still a pain for her, he tried to kick, rear, walk away, lay on her... :(  I'm not sure if he just doesnt like her or what.  Like I said, I can do it at Liberty with him, but I am in no way confident enough to trim him myself.  This woman doesnt do Parelli, she does Clinton Anderson instead, but I honestly have not seen her do anything I wouldnt do.  For sure, if she pulled some real CA stuff, I would stop it immediately, but... everything she's been doing has been right in line with what I think she should do.  Pistol just seems to think that his hooves never need to be trimmed.  Sorry pal, but they were looking bad.  Plus we discovered thrush in TWO hooves!  :( So now I have yet another medication to put on him.  Ugh... that poor horse.  This has been a bad week for him veterinary-wise. 

Woo-hoo! 2 feet plus zone 3 in the trailer!

That's right, we worked on the trailer today, since I would like to trailer Pistol to Colorado in a month.  He put both front feet in and had his back feet right up to the step.  He started licking and chewing and did a big yawn and sigh, so I ended the session.  Go us!  I'm really hoping I can get him to Colorado, because otherwise, I would probably have a really hard time continuing with the working student opportunity.  I'm confident we will get it though.  Also, its been a really bad week for him medically, between the scratches on his sides, and then developing thrush in 2 hooves, and then whacking his head on the trailer door... Its been a rough week for him.  He's getting so sick of his medicines, every time I walk out with it he gives me the saddest hang-dog look like "do I have to...?" But he's been pretty good about it.  I can't wait for the scratches to heal up so I can spend lots of time brushing him again.  That was one of his favorite things before he got scratched up, and he's just dying for a really good top-to-bottom brushing.  Every time I even brush a little bit, he stretches out and looks at me with his parrot lips going "PLEASE????"  Poor guy.  At least things are looking up still.  :)

EXCITEMENT!

I just got word today that I am accepted as a working student at the Parelli Center!  I almost fell off the couch reading the email, because I was NOT expecting to get an email about it on Sunday!  So now, I have to run around and make sure I get everything together to go down there in about a month, and get my horse ready for it as well.  It means I have to find someone to do my job while I'm down there, and I probably will be down there for about 6 months, because I want to work off all my tuition, not just part of it.  I'm so excited about this, I'm practically bouncing off the walls.  I worked with Pistol using the new trailer, and things went fabulously.  It took a lot of exploring, but I finally got some licking and chewing, plus a big sigh, so we moved on to walking down the driveway to play with new things, and circling on a slope.  Of course, he did fabulous.  And I got a response from the owner of the stable where he used to be boarded, apparently he was foaled in Spring of 2006, so he is just barely 4 years old.  Plus, he's a purebred Appy, which fooled my vet, who thought he was an Appy/Quarter horse cross.  He has appaloosa characteristics like the striped hooves and mottled skin, but not the spots, and he is built like a foundation quarter horse.  Confusing!

Things are much better today!!

The vet came out and looked at Pistol, and turns out everything will be ok.  Go figure, right???  He was a little concerned about the swelling, but thinks the bute will take it down in a couple days.  Plus, I'm so proud of Pistol for how he handled this whole thing today.  I hadn't worried too much about preparing him to stand inside my garage, because it was supposed to be sunny today.  Well, not 10 minutes before the vet was supposed to arrive, it started POURING.  So we emptied the garage and stood in there with him.  Our pole barn doesn't have lights in the horse side, just a large door to open, and the natural light wasn't enough.  The vet got there, and started poking Pistol, and he just stood there the whole time.  He handled it so well, he didn't even offer to kick or rear or anything.  It turns out too that Pistol is even younger than we realized.  I was told he is 4 years old, but he hasnt lost his 4 year old teeth yet... So the vet thinks he's just barely 4 years old.  Also, I managed to sell my old trailer yesterday, and buy a new one today!  The old one was all open, with a ramp, and it just wasnt safe for me to try and load Pistol in it.  So the new one I bought today was cheaper, newer, and better.  Its 15 years newer, all the lights work, it has inside lights as well as outside, a water tank and hay rack, and 2 closing doors, plus tack storage.  It was almost dark by the time I got it home, but Pistol got super excited about it so I grabbed him and let him investigate it anyways.  He was a little skeptical, one of those "You expect ME to go in THERE?" kinda looks, but I said "nope, just sniff it", which rocked his world, and I got instant release of tension, so we headed back to the pen.  I bet tomorrow he will hop right in once he can see it in full light.  Hopefully I can sleep tonight through the excitment. :D

Oh no........

I was at work today, just wrapping things up, and I got the kind of phone call that you never want to get about your horse.

"we dont know what he did, but there's a situation here, we need you to come home, your horse is out".
!!!!!

So I went flying home, and I live a half hour away from work, so I spent a half hour worrying, because I couldnt get ahold of my grandparents (I live with them and so does my horse). I got home, and found my poor horse has huge scratches down both sides of his rib cage, with a huge gouge on his left hip. His fence was sagging by his pasture gate(I have electric braid) so I went to investigate, and found that somehow he had snapped the gate post off 1 foot into the ground, and knocked the post the gate latches to sideways. There's chestnut hair all over the latch and I think that's where the gouge came from, but we cannot figure out what happened. Its a 6 foot gate, and he is the only horse on the property, so another horse didn't chase him into it or anything. And even if they did, that doesnt explain how both sides are scratched. So the poor baby is just miserable, and I had to put some Blu-kote on his scratches to keep the flies out while they heal.

THANK GOD for the Parelli program!!! This horse was a fruitcake when I got him(no fault of his own,btw!), and I've been working with him for 2 and a half months, and I was able to spray the Blu-kote on a cotton ball and wipe it on his cuts at Liberty. He is terrified of spray, which is why I couldnt directly spray it on him (yet!) but I've been working with him, so I can spray it near him in any zone, as long as I dont actually spray it on him. Now I've worked at traditional barns before I discovered Parelli, and they have done some horrible things while trying to medicate/treat horses. But because I've worked with him, he let me poke and rub and investigate him. He even picked up each hoof for me when I ran my hands down his legs, even though I was checking for cuts/punctures, not trying to pick up his hooves. I cannot imagine how awful this could have been without Parelli, because I would never have been able to treat him without a halter using traditional methods. He was definitely in pain, but because the trust was there, he knew I was going to try my hardest not to hurt him more. He even rested his chin on my shoulder at one point during the treatment!

I think he will be fine, but of course, I'm worried about him, who wouldnt be? I just wanted to share my story, and how wonderful it is that even when he's hurt, he can still trust me.
 
I did find out what happened the next day, when I was able to check everything out in the daylight. On closer inspection, the prong of the gate latch was bent, and had hair and skin flaps on it. Plus the actual latch had skin flaps on it too, so somehow he pulled the gate loose from the post it gets tied to during the day, and tried to squeeze through even though there wasnt room. My guess is something spooked him, and he knocked over the post holding the gate open, and tried to run around it even though there wasnt room for him, and he ended up tearing his sides up on the pieces of the latch. poor guy. So now he has purple spots all over his sides. My appaloosa finally has spots!
 
I don't even think he will need the vet out(fingers crossed), because there isnt even anything to stitch, and only a couple are bad enough to really need a protective covering. I'm hoping they will heal cleanly so a) he won't have scars, and b) the vet doesn't have to give him antibiotics.
Now though, he has developed a large lump right between his front legs. I'm concerned, because it definitely hurts him, but I can't figure out what it is. It wasn't there last night when he injured himself, it just appeared this morning. He will let me touch it lightly, but is really uncomfortable, and if I try and manipulate it or anything, you can tell it hurts him.
 
I'm still keeping an eye on him, this is kind of a post that has been ongoing since last night.  We are in the middle of fixing the gate posts, and the goofball is over checking all the tools out, and helping as much as he can.  He rolled the posts off the trailer for us, and is having a blast picking up all the tools, and trying to figure out the tractor.  I'm glad he's still curious, it makes me glad he's not in so much pain he can't be curious.  I'll keep posting with updates as it happens. 

Eventful weekend!

Well... I just got done teaching an advancing natural horsemanship camp for the past 3 days.  I've barely had time to play with Pistol, and have sacrificed some time with him to spend time with my boyfriend of almost 3 years, Ian.  But... that was a nightmare.  Luckily we talked things over and are good again.  We hung around and watched some tv and played with our puppy today, and once he left, I went out to spend some time with Pistol.  It was fabulous!  I played with him at liberty, because I feel like he is getting bored online.  He backed up with just a few tail hairs, which he has never done before!  He also backed up with me in Z5 "drawing" him.  I was able to play with the tarp on his back a bit, waving it around and crackling it, and got some licking and chewing, so I started scratching him.  He's been super itchy lately because of the flies.  :(  This big giant 2 inch long horse fly found him, and kept trying to land on him.  I shooed it away repeatedly with my carrot stick, and my silly horse started licking and chewing.  ^_^ I started scratching his right side while standing on his left side, and he stood perfectly still and started doing parrot lips.  So I thought "hmm, what if?" and put all my weight on his back while I was scratching.  He stayed perfectly still, still doing his happy parrot lips, and turned to look at me without moving his feet.  I rubbed his face, and he turned back and concentrated on how good the scratches felt.  I just barely had my toes on the ground, and we stayed like that while we watched the sunset.  The funniest thing is he actually watched it!  I saw him roll his eyes up and look at the moon a couple different times while I was hanging on his back.  I ended our session with that, since he was so happy and everything went so well.  Thank goodness everything went well in the end!

Woohoo! Difficult Liberty Tasks!

That's right, I did even more liberty with Pistol today.  I feel like he and I are both bored online, because he's already playing with some level 3/4 tasks online.  He's so busy-busy-busy all the time, I need to keep teaching him new things every session, or else we lose our focus and start on the dominance games again. So, I've started playing with even more liberty, and he's gotten really connected to me.  I can tell he's really watching my body to see what I am going to ask of him.  I know you're not really supposed to do anything at liberty that you havent done online, but I was just playing with him and seeing what he would do, so I stood behind him in Z5 to play extreme friendly, and I wondered if he would back up again.  So I asked him to, and he did, but this time he barged into me.  I thought "that's not good", and I sent him forward from Z5.  He picked up on it right away, and moved away, so I then asked him to back up again.  This time when I stopped and he didn't, I tapped him lightly on the rump with my carrot stick.  He stopped, and gave me the goofiest look like "whaaat?" I played around with that a bit more, and got him to the point where I would back up, ask him to back up to me, and tap him to get him to stop.  I would like him to understand eventually that he really shouldnt back up into me without having to tap him on the rump all the time, but I figure that will come with time.  For now, I rewarded him BIG TIME every time he did it right, and pretty soon I got some licking and chewing, a sigh, and a big old yawn!  Time to move to something else! :)  So I grabbed my grooming stuff, and started brushing him, and working on his feet, since his farrier is coming in about a week.  Last time, he was HORRIBLE for the poor farrier.  He wouldnt stand still, leaned on her twice, tried to kick, literally walked away with just 3 feet while she was still holding his foot, you name it he did it.  This time around I'm hoping she will be pleasantly surprised by how good he is.  When I was working with him today, still at liberty, he picked up all 4 feet for me, not once, but TWICE.  And... he held them up in the air for me to grab them, and waited until I set them down.  I'm so proud of him!  I've only had him about 2 and a half months, and the amount of progress we have made is unreal.  I feel like he already knew this stuff, and was just waiting for someone to come along that knew it too.  I usually play with him at least twice a day, and I've had days where I play with him 5 times a day, because he wants to.  Its such a nice change from the very first week I got him, when he didn't want to do much with me.  Now, any time he sees me, he whinnies at me, and heads for the gate, and if I meet him there, he whinnies even more.  I can just tell he has so much FUN with what we are doing, even though I'm pushing him a tiny bit, because he thinks all the time.  His mind is always going, so the more I play with him, the happier/calmer/smarter he is.  This has been such an interesting time, seeing just how much progress I have made with him in the short amount of time I've had him.  I feel like I've been working with him my whole life, we just have such a tight bond. 

On another note, I got some more information about the working student opportunity yesterday, and I am VERY excited about it.  I'm really hoping to get accepted into the program, because paying for a fast track course right now is completely out of my reach.  But, heading down to the ranch to work off my board, Pistol's board, and my tuition is very doable for me.  Plus, I think it would be a fabulous experience for Pistol and me.  I can't wait to hear back from Ann Kiser! 

Liberty Today!

I just got back in from playing with Pistol at Liberty today. I took things slow, since he seemed kind of introverted today.  I started by asking him to back up from Z5, which he did beautifully!  I got 4 steps from him, straight back, at liberty!  I was so impressed with him that we spent some time scratching his favorite itchy spots.  Then we played with some Z3 driving, and point to point "touch it".  He did all of it beautifully, and even did a nice little sideways for me on the fence.  I feel like we are truly getting connected, and he understands WHY I do these things with him, which is making all the difference.  I now have a happy horse, who whinnies at me whenever he sees me!  Its wonderful.  Plus, he's keeping his sense of humor intact.  Once I got done, I started to fill his water tank (I give him molasses water).  He moseyed over and started biting at the molasses jug, which made me laugh, and then, without any warning, he grabbed my belt loop and pulled!  I laughed and tried to get him to let go, and the funny part was, once he let go, I petted his face and he started licking and chewing.  I love my horse. :)

Woohoo! First steps to riding!

Yep, I took the first steps towards riding Pistol today.  I dont have a mounting block yet, so I took him to the side porch on our house to practice things.  I would never really get on there, it has too many things around it for him/me to get caught on or trip on, but for practicing it works just fine.  I got up there, and asked him to come sideways to me, which he has never caught on to before, but this time, something clicked, and he got it!  I started rubbing his back, and putting some weight on my hands, and pretty soon, I was putting a lot of weight on my hands.  I even picked my leg up and threw it over him like I was going to get on, and he was totally fine with it.  I'm so excited!  I'm heading to the store for a mounting block tomorrow,and hopefully I will have enough time to play tomorrow. 

Saddling, again

I got pistol saddled today with no incidents, which I am SO happy about.  He has had several incidents with saddling, including at his old barn where they "let him buck for 20 minutes" before they got on. So I'm taking saddling him super slow.  I put the pad on, which didnt bother him at all, so I moved on to the saddle.  That didnt bother him either, but he had an itch that he reached around to scratch on his back leg, and I was a little worried that the saddle would fall right off.  I've worked on bouncing the ball off his side, and rolling it over his back, so I dont THINK he would panic about it, but you never know.  I started with his girth on his "off side" and did some approach and retreat on his left side.  I've found that even though he is LBE, he is very treat motivated, so I gave him a couple pieces of his favorite molasses cookie each time he let me approach("tighten" the girth and hold it there).  I know that many treats is probably overkill, but for the first couple of times, I really want him to think "wow, being saddled ROCKS" so I'm willing to take the chance.  He's doing so well with everything they say you need to do in order to ride, driving in z3, bouncing the ball on his back, extreme friendly in z3-5, that I'm thinking I might get on him bareback to ride, while still working on the saddle.  I've noticed varying opinions on saddles vs bareback for starting riding, but I'm starting to think that bareback might be the way to go with him.  He's showing that he is ok with me getting on, but he's still unsure of the saddle, so I think if I get on bareback, there won't be anything to spook him like there would be with a saddle.  Plus if he does get upset for any reason, sliding off bareback is MUCH easier than getting off a saddle.  Any thoughts?

I think I forgot to mention this...

I'm supposed to pass Level 2 Online and Freestyle by September 1st for my job.  I work at a riding center that uses PNH to teach, and while we are not Parelli Certified, we still have requirements to work there.  The biggest one that we just implemented is that you have to pass Level 2 in order to teach there.  The current staff is the first to have to do this, so we have been given the summer to work on it.  Well... my horse is green broke, and I have yet to ride him.  I'm not sure if I can pass Freestyle with him before September 1.  I am getting ready to tape my online audition with him, but if I havent even gotten on yet, I doubt Freestyle will happen before the deadline. 

Back to work

Yep, its true, I'm working again, so I have even less time to play with Pistol.  I had errands I had to take care of during the morning, and then work from 1pm-8pm, so by the time I finally got home and sorted everything out, I didn't have any time to play with Pistol.  All I could do in the time I had was feed him and head in because of the bugs.  I'm still hoping to tape my level 2 online assessment soon though. 

HOT HOT HOT

Its so hot here, I haven't had much chance to play with Pistol.  I did go out and brush him a bit, and we played fishing for pistol!  I started wiggling the savvy string around in the air, and Pistol tried to grab it.  It was soooo funny, he got such a happy look on his face when he caught it.  Also, he let me clean his sheath today, which he has never done before.  I've had him almost 3 months, and he hasn't been comfortable with getting his sheath cleaned before this.  But I took it nice and slow and started rubbing his leg, and soon enough he dropped it, and let me start peeling smegma off.  Pretty gross, but I'm glad he trusted me enough to let me do it.  I know its been bothering him, he's been kicking at it and trying to bite it even.  Poor guy.  Also, we played a bit with a sprinkler today, since Pistol is still kind of spooky about water.  That was interesting, he really wanted to play with it, but he couldnt quite bring himself to touch it. 

I read this to my boyfriend, and he laughed, but thought I was serious! :)

OCEANS Syndrome


Just recently, after years of research, I have finally been able to give a name to what my wife and I have been living with for years. It's an affliction, for sure, which when undiagnosed and misunderstood can devastate and literally tear a family apart. Very little is known about O.C.E.A.N. Syndrome. But it is my hope this article will generate interest from researchers involved in the equine and psychological sciences. You will, no doubt, begin to identify similar symptoms in your own family and hopefully now be able to cope. Obsessive Compulsive Equine Attachment Neurosis Syndrome (O.C.E.A.N.S) is usually found in the female and can manifest itself anytime from birth to the golden years. Symptoms may appear any time and may even go dormant in the late teens! , but the syndrome frequently re-emerges in later years. Symptoms vary widely in both number and degree of severity. Allow me to share some examples which are most prominent in our home.

The afflicted individual:



1. Can smell moldy hay at ten paces, but can't tell whether milk has gone bad until it turns chunky.



2. Finds the occasional "Buck and Toot" session hugely entertaining, but severely chastises her husband for similar antics.



3. Will spend hours cleaning and conditioning her tack, but wants to eat on paper plates so there are no dishes.



4. Considers equine gaseous excretions a fragrance.



5. Enjoys mucking out four stalls twice a day, but insists on having a housekeeper mop the kitchen floor once a week.



6. Will spend an hour combing and trimming an equine mane, but wears baseball cap so she doesn't waste time brushing her own hair.



7. Will dig through manure piles daily looking for worms, but does not fish.



8. Will not hesitate to administer a rectal exam up to her shoulder, but finds cleaning out the Thanksgiving turkey cavity for dressing quite repulsive.



9. By memory can mix eight different supplements in the correct proportions, but can't make macaroni and cheese that isn't soupy.



10. Twice a week will spend an hour scrubbing algae from the water tanks, but has a problem cleaning lasagna out of the casserole dish.



11. Will pick a horse's nose, and call it cleaning, but becomes verbally violent when her husband picks his.



12. Can sit through a four-hour session of a ground work clinic, but unable to make it through a half-hour episode of Cops.



The spouse of an afflicted victim:



1. Must come to terms with the fact there is no cure, and only slightly effective treatments. The syndrome may be genetic or caused by the inhaling of manure particles which, I propose, have an adverse effect on female hormones



2. Must adjust the family budget to include equine items - hay, veterinarian services, farrier services, riding boots and clothes, supplements, tack, equine masseuse and acupuncturist - as well as the (mandatory) equine spiritual guide, etc. Once you have identified a monthly figure, never look at it again. Doing so will cause tightness in your chest, nausea and occasional diarrhea.



3. Must realize that your spouse has no control over this affliction. More often than not, she will deny a problem even exists as denial is common.



4. Must form a support group. You need to know you're not alone - and there's no shame in admitting your wife has a problem. My support group, for instance, involves men who truly enjoy Harley Davidsons, four-day weekends and lots of scotch. Most times, she is unaware that I am even gone, until the precise moment she needs help getting a 50-pound bag of grain out of the truck.



Now you can better see how O.C.E.A.N.S. affects countless households in this country and abroad. It knows no racial, ethnic or religious boundaries. It is a syndrome that will be difficult to treat because those most affected are in denial and therefore, not interested in a cure. So, I am taking it upon myself to be constantly diligent in my research in order to pass along information to make it easier for caretakers to cope on a day to day basis.

Audition Part 2

I practiced filming for my Level 2 audition today.  It went fabulously, until the mosquitos came out!  We had to abandon it because they were so bad! Tomorrow I will try it during the day, and see if it goes better! :)  Pistol was so bummed though, you could see that he really wanted to play still, and even he got frustrated when the bugs wouldnt leave him alone.  He'd be in the middle of doing something and stop to itch really quick and get this frustrated look on his face.  Oh well, we will try during the day when the bugs aren't out. 

Getting Ready for an Audition

Last night I had one of the best play sessions I've ever had with Pistol.  It was late, about 8:30pm, but he really wanted to play, so I went ahead and haltered him.  We've been practicing our haltering, because one of my co-workers keeps saying we should be level 4 in haltering no matter what level we are in anything else, so I figured that's what I would shoot for.  He will now turn his head to the left if I stand at his shoulder and draw him using my hand, and puts his nose in the halter for me.  Usually he puts his mouth on it first, but I have been letting him do that since I watched Linda Parelli haltering Allure and he did the same thing.  LBE, what can you do? :)  So once we had the halter tied, he was ready to go, so I sent him in a circle, because he usually gets himself really riled up.  Sure enough he started to buck, so I decided to change the pattern.  We started a traveling circle, and had TONS of obstacles in the way for him to look out for.  We travelled across the pen, and he settled into a beautiful canter, jumping over his pedestal, a barrel and a pole.  I headed back the way we came, and this time he stopped and hopped on to the pedestal.  I waited a second while he went up there, he looked at me, and I said thanks but I really wanted you to keep circling.  So off we went again, and when we got back to the other side of the fence, I asked for the sideways game.  He had a rough start with it, but managed to straighten out and finish pretty nicely, so it was back to a travelling circle.  I could sense he was getting bored, so we changed to Stick to Me, and headed for the tarp.  I asked him to trot over the tarp, and he did a wonderful job, so I asked him to canter back over it, which he also did.  The big green ball was sitting right next to the fence, so I asked him to go sideways on the fence, and instead of pushing it with his nose like normal, I asked him to push it with Zone 3.  He picked up on it right away, and I even saw some licking and chewing.  Then we pushed the ball to the tarp, which blew his mind.  The ball rolled across the tarp, and he got super excited, like "My two favorite props just COMBINED!"  I got creative with the tarp too, asking him to go sideways around it, sideways across it to me and away from, and back up across it, which led to even more licking and chewing.  Then we played the friendly game with the ball, bouncing it around to zone 5 and back to zone 1 and then to zone 5 on the other side.  He even let me bounce it up to zone 3 and rest it on his back, and then roll it down his tail.  I was ready to be done, but he wasn't, so I thought "why not? let's keep going" and we headed back over to the barrels.  He immediately looked at it like "I'm gonna jump!" and I said "No, lets go sideways around it" and got some more licking and chewing from him.  He went completely sideways all the way around it away from me, and then we changed directions and did it again.  Once we did that, I thought it was time to be done, and he agreed because he was so itchy.  So he got a nice scratch and a couple treats, and we had to be done anyways because it was getting dark.  It was so wonderful!  His ears were forward the whole time, and his whole attention was on me.  I was watching Level 2 passing auditions today on ParelliTube, and I'm feeling pretty confident about taping and submitting an audition of my own. :)