Danny Boy

Danny Boy, the newest recruit to our training program, arrived a few days ago. Danny Boy isn’t a typical recruit. He has hooves instead of paws, a whinny instead of a bark. Danny is a miniature horse, just 31” high. One of our clients recently inquired about using a miniature horse instead of a dog for her mobility needs and we have decided to experiment with the concept. Amy Lacey, of Finch Meadow Farm in Monroe, Washington, very generously donated Danny to our program.





Danny has settled in easily amongst the 10 dogs that share the barn and outdoor exercise pens. At first he was a huge novelty for the dogs who paced the fences, barking and whining, trying to get a grip on this new roommate of theirs. Danny was unphased by all the commotion and eventually the novelty has worn off except for my German Shepherd, Gus, who still follows every move Danny makes.

Since one of the big things we need to determine is whether a horse could be a practical animal to have in the house, I was keen to see what Danny’s reaction would be to coming inside. The first night he walked right through the door like he’d been going in and out of people’s houses all his life. Absolutely no fear. He took one round through the lower floor to investigate, then pooped. So much for my prediction that he might not be comfortable pottying in the house after growing up with grass and shavings for a toilet area. I immediately took him out the front door and left him there to graze while I went inside to clean up. I took him outside because I didn’t want to turn him loose in the house while I cleaned up for fear he might slip and fall on the slippery pergo flooring. After cleaning up I brought him back in. Within a minute he pooped again. Same scenario. I took him outside and let him graze while I cleaned up the mess. I brought him in one more time and he pooped again within a minute or so. Gee whiz, I thought to myself, I haven’t ever seen a horse poop that many times in close succession.

The following night I brought Danny in again. Almost instantly he pooped. As I was taking him outside this time the light went on but I couldn’t imagine he could be so much more clever than I. Did I just teach him to poop in the house by reinforcing the pooping with a trip outside to the green grass, the highest value reinforcement he seems to have from what I can determine so far? I cleaned up and brought him in again and almost instantly he pooped again. This time no trip to the grass. I managed to clean up while holding onto him. Shortly thereafter a third poop. Again no trip outside. By the third poop I was tiring of the clean up and used a little aversive hissing sound as Danny lifted his tail. It startled him just a little. When he started to lift his tail a fourth time I used the hissing sound again and he dropped his tail and didn’t poop. Now this isn’t normally how I’d housebreak but I was feeling just a little frustrated with so much horse manure in just 10 minutes time and wondered if he would respond to the sound. It seemed to work. I gave him a short clicker training session which he loves and then we went outside and I put him up for the night. He urinated on his shavings and I positively reinforced that behavior. It’s the first time I’ve been able to catch him pottying outside of my house.





The past two evenings Danny has spent 20 minutes in the house with no pooping. May be a coincidence but the more I get to know this guy the more I believe he really did figure out that pooping in my house earned him a trip to the grass so he repeated the behavior. He is just lightning fast to pick up on things in our clicker sessions. So far I’d rate him as fast or faster to learn than any dog I’ve worked with but we are only doing relatively simple targeting behaviors like touching his nose to a plastic lid and to a dumbbell, placing his front feet on a rug, turning his head away from my treat pouch, etc.

Last night I had a huge scare. I had 4 dogs in the house that I had put into the back laundry room while I brought Danny in. I was clicker training Danny in the living room and suddenly the whole pack of dogs came busting through the laundry room door. They must have turned the handle by jumping on the door. Anyway, they rushed into the room and surrounded Danny. Gus, my shepherd, ran up to his face and started licking him. I was freaked out trying to fend off the dogs and yelling to my husband for help but Danny stood there motionless, calm as he could be given the circumstances. He didn’t even venture to kick. He didn’t like Gus licking his face but tolerated even that. I was really in disbelief. What could have been a really bad mess with flying hooves and a panicked horse in my living room turned out to be no big deal thanks to Danny’s bulletproof demeanor around dogs. I couldn’t ask for a better horse to come live at a dog kennel. And now that my dog Gus has properly introduced himself he seems to be less fixated on Danny. I’m thankful Gus only seemed to want to wash Danny’s face. For the other dogs, Danny seems to be becoming old hat. Thankfully the barking and whining is dying down and things are returning to normal again. Danny will never be left unsupervised with a dog but I am happy that none of the dogs seem to have an aggressive streak with him.

Well, there’s so much more I could write but this is all I have time for today. I’m posting a couple of photos of Danny with Wesley, a teenage boy who uses a wheelchair. Wesley is Barb Clark’s (puppy raiser) nephew and came with us when we picked up Danny from Finch Meadow Farms. The miniature horses were just the perfect size for him to groom and lead from his wheelchair.


Sue