Adventures with Jimmy Fuzzbutt and Friends

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

Hi everybody! A couple months ago I received a miniature donkey for my high school graduation gift. His name is Jimmy Fuzzbutt and he is about 8 months old. I'm working on training him and I thought I'd share my adventures. I would love to hear any tips/tricks/advice and of course stories any other current or previous donkey owners have! As a bit of background I've had and ridden horses for 8-9 years. The horse I ride most is a 17 hand Paint gelding with a rather stallionish attitude. I've had experience training and dealing with stubborn and difficult animals, but I've never dealt with a donkey before. I'll admit it is a bit of a learning curve. So far the hardest thing is that it seems he's naturally desensitized to everything. I'm used to earning a horse's respect through lungeing or similar pressure exercises while also earning their affection through positive reinforcement such as clicker training. Fuzzbutt is super super good when he wants to be, and responds well to positive reinforcement, but when he doesn't want to be good or when I'm trying to lunge it is very difficult to motivate him to do the correct thing. Anyone have any similar issues and ways to correct it?

This is Fuzz at 6 months.

 

[Birdie mom]

nice! i have never owned a donkey but good luck!

p.s. i love his name!

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

nice! i have never owned a donkey but good luck!

p.s. i love his name!

Thanks! His name always gets a good chuckle out of people!

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

@sassysarah, I know you train horses, have you ever dealt with a donkey?

 

[Bunnylady]

With a donkey, you pretty much need to take everything you know about horses, dump it in your tack box, and close the lid on it. Donkeys are not just funny looking horses, as you are finding out! Donkeys are very smart, and they insist on thinking for themselves. There's a saying - "a horse is smart, a donkey is smarter, and a mule is smarter than you - deal with it." (Yes, I am owned by a mini mule. It's a humbling experience, but one I wouldn't have missed for the world.) A horse's natural response to something it's not familiar with is to run from it, while a donkey's natural response is to stand and stare at it. On the "fight or flight" continuum, a horse is at the "flight" end, while a donkey is more at the "fight" end. Once a donkey learns something, he's got it; lots of repetition doesn't make him better, it just makes him bored. If he gets bored, he may get creative, and then you will have to spend a lot of time getting him to "unlearn" whatever his creative thinking led him to. Unless he is actually engaging in something dangerous like kicking or biting, forget about "respect," what you need to be thinking about is "trust." If he trusts you, a donkey is much more likely to do what you ask, but bullying him (which, admittedly, is often what people do to horses) will just make him mean and hard to catch.

Oh, man, is there anything cuter than a miniature donkey foal?

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

With a donkey, you pretty much need to take everything you know about horses, dump it in your tack box, and close the lid on it. Donkeys are not just funny looking horses, as you are finding out! Donkeys are very smart, and they insist on thinking for themselves. There's a saying - "a horse is smart, a donkey is smarter, and a mule is smarter than you - deal with it." (Yes, I am owned by a mini mule. It's a humbling experience, but one I wouldn't have missed for the world.) A horse's natural response to something it's not familiar with is to run from it, while a donkey's natural response is to stand and stare at it. On the "fight or flight" continuum, a horse is at the "flight" end, while a donkey is more at the "fight" end. Once a donkey learns something, he's got it; lots of repetition doesn't make him better, it just makes him bored. If he gets bored, he may get creative, and then you will have to spend a lot of time getting him to "unlearn" whatever his creative thinking led him to. Unless he is actually engaging in something dangerous like kicking or biting, forget about "respect," what you need to be thinking about is "trust." If he trusts you, a donkey is much more likely to do what you ask, but bullying him (which, admittedly, is often what people do to horses) will just make him mean and hard to catch.

Oh, man, is there anything cuter than a miniature donkey foal?

He is adorable isn't he?!?!
Thanks for the advice! I'm trying to train him to drive. Do you have any tips on how to do that especially considering that he won't lunge at anything faster than a slow walk? I was working with him yesterday, and he does really, really well when I ask for walk. Ask for anything faster and not only does he not do it, he flat out stops! He's like "look here girl, you got two options: walk or nothing. Your choice." He walks super well on lead, trots really well when he's in the mood, stops, backs, and pivots.

 

[Peaches Lee]

What a cute and adorable little man! Sometimes I call my horse a "mule" because he has a stubborn streak!

Lovely, informative post @Bunnylady

 

[Bunnylady]

Donkeys don't seem to "get" lunging; maybe just going around in circles makes no sense to them?

Let me tell you about working with my mini mule (Betsy). Remember, mules are half horse, so what I'm working with isn't 100% donkey brain, but it may give you an idea of what you are up against. She understood "walk" and "whoa" really, really well, and would give me "trot" if I really cranked up the pressure, but if I even thought something like, "OK, halfway around again and we'll stop," she would stop immediately. That animal reads my body language so well, she picks up cues that I'm not even aware of giving - it's like she reads my mind. Her body language was clear enough, too . . . she was doing it, but definitely not enjoying it.

Nonetheless, she learned to be a lead line pony for my kids when they were little. A few years ago, my daughter and I did a pony party with our minis. I knew that at some point, just walking around with a bunch of different kids on her back was going to get really boring for Betsy, so I made sure to have a supply of sliced carrots (what some call "carrot coins") in my pocket. (honestly, I think her name for me is "Carrots") We'd stand at the mounting block, get a child seated in the saddle, make a couple of circles around the ring, stop at the mounting block, the child would get off, I'd give Betsy a carrot slice, a new kid would get on, off we'd go around the ring again . . . you get the picture. After we'd done this several times, I got distracted talking to the children and forgot the carrot slice between riders. When I asked Betsy to move off, she locked up and refused. Oops! My bad. I gave her a carrot coin, and we proceeded on our way. Like I said, she's smarter than me; I still have to laugh about my "coin operated mule."

But, back to your little guy. You want him to stay interested and engaged with what you are doing, and pushing him around in circles probably won't accomplish that. If he walks, trots, backs and whoas on a lead without you having to haul on him, great! Sounds like you guys are ready for long-lining. I wouldn't ask him to deal with a bit just yet; you can clip or tie ropes to the rings on his halter. It takes them a little while to get used to you being behind them rather than beside them, but once they learn, it can be a lot of fun. You can set up cones to work around, or any other type of obstacles, take a walk on a trail, whatever.

This is "Wig out first, ask questions later Syd" happily working in our mini obstacle course (yeah, lots and lots of desensitization needed on this one!)

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

Donkeys don't seem to "get" lunging; maybe just going around in circles makes no sense to them?

Let me tell you about working with my mini mule (Betsy). Remember, mules are half horse, so what I'm working with isn't 100% donkey brain, but it may give you an idea of what you are up against. She understood "walk" and "whoa" really, really well, and would give me "trot" if I really cranked up the pressure, but if I even thought something like, "OK, halfway around again and we'll stop," she would stop immediately. That animal reads my body language so well, she picks up cues that I'm not even aware of giving - it's like she reads my mind. Her body language was clear enough, too . . . she was doing it, but definitely not enjoying it.

Nonetheless, she learned to be a lead line pony for my kids when they were little. A few years ago, my daughter and I did a pony party with our minis. I knew that at some point, just walking around with a bunch of different kids on her back was going to get really boring for Betsy, so I made sure to have a supply of sliced carrots (what some call "carrot coins") in my pocket. (honestly, I think her name for me is "Carrots") We'd stand at the mounting block, get a child seated in the saddle, make a couple of circles around the ring, stop at the mounting block, the child would get off, I'd give Betsy a carrot slice, a new kid would get on, off we'd go around the ring again . . . you get the picture. After we'd done this several times, I got distracted talking to the children and forgot the carrot slice between riders. When I asked Betsy to move off, she locked up and refused. Oops! My bad. I gave her a carrot coin, and we proceeded on our way. Like I said, she's smarter than me; I still have to laugh about my "coin operated mule."

But, back to your little guy. You want him to stay interested and engaged with what you are doing, and pushing him around in circles probably won't accomplish that. If he walks, trots, backs and whoas on a lead without you having to haul on him, great! Sounds like you guys are ready for long-lining. I wouldn't ask him to deal with a bit just yet; you can clip or tie ropes to the rings on his halter. It takes them a little while to get used to you being behind them rather than beside them, but once they learn, it can be a lot of fun. You can set up cones to work around, or any other type of obstacles, take a walk on a trail, whatever.View attachment 2252607
This is "Wig out first, ask questions later Syd" happily working in our mini obstacle course (yeah, lots and lots of desensitization needed on this one!)

What an adorable mini you have! And yeah, Fuzz is so so smart and my super smart horse is really good at lungeing (I'll see about adding a video later) so I thought Fuzz would pick it up really easily, like he's picked up loading in a trailer and other things I've trained him for. But no. He can't seem to understand why I would ask a creature as cute as himself to walk away from me and for heavens sakes why did I suddenly get so bossy and pushy?!?! How did you train yours to step up and walk and trot from behind on the long line if you didn't get those cues first while lungeing? Sorry, lots of questions, I know. It's my first time training any animal to drive. I've trained my Paint to back up with a finger wag, head down, head side to side, and pick a leg up, all with cues that don't involve touching him or any equipment. I've even nearly gotten him bowing, but I am completely stumped on this one.

 

[Bunnylady]

It's like training an animal to do anything else, you break it down to small parts, then put them together. Riding involves a lot of physical cues, but driving is mostly verbal cues. So, starting standing beside the animal with it on a lead, you give the verbal cue ("walk on"), then move forward. Mine seem to respond better to stopping with a little warning, so they get "aaaaand whoa." When they were good about starting and stopping on a slack lead, I moved to "reins" attached to the halter rings. This is easy with minis, because they are so small; I could put my right hand over a mini's right shoulder easily. Standing beside them, facing forward, you teach them to give to the rein pressure left and right. Standing behind them, same thing. Then I went back to the left shoulder, one rein in each hand, and said, "walk on." So then walking beside them, steering this way and that. When we seemed to have that in hand, I let the reins slide out of my fingers a little bit, using my voice to keep them moving as I worked myself back to a position behind them. Syd, being very insecure, was the worst about trying to turn around and get back beside me, but having the reins running along the sides of the animal helps some to keep them straight. If you've been doing clicker training, you know all about promptly giving the positive reinforcement. If you can make it a happy game, you may be surprised how quickly they can pick it up.