Trailer Training

As many of you have probably figured out by this time, getting into trailers has been a real challenge for both Max and I over the years. While I have successfully trailered Max places over the past two years, there have been instances where Max refused to go, something that I believe is behavioral rather than stemming from any innate fear. I've been able to resolve these by jerking the lead rope, getting in his face and growling "KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF NOW". It seems to have had an effect because the three times this has happened, Max immediately bowed his head and submitted and then proceeded to follow my instruction with no fuss.

Also, the fact that he's trailered for long periods of time and spent long stretches in an idle trailer further reinforces my belief that at this point, the issues are behavioral. He even stood quite calmly for some 45 minutes when we stopped in Malibu on our way home from Morro Bay in August (it was to drop off a passenger and her stuff).

I've decided to tune him up and reinforce his trailer training so every so often, I practiced loading him into a trailer. A couple of times he balked while I was walking him in a circle before stepping in but I solved that by revesing direction. Then it was no issue. Go figure. After a few days practicing walking in and backing out, on a lark I decided to see if I could get him to go in on voice command and it actually worked! What I do is to while verbally commanding him, I take the hand holding the lead rope and point with hit into the trailer as a cue. This seems to work very well. Max then turns and looks at me. I then make him wait a bit and then command him to exit (more like "out!"). Eventually I'm going to train him so he'll do it solely on voice command.

This is all very promising and while he may get stupid in a "real situation", it still has gone a long way to getting him to load successfully. My next step is to train him to do this in the dark/low light situations.