Blog of the Year – Zonkey Training

Don’t tell Zee, but I particularly loved Zambi, the Mammoth Donkey cross. Maybe it was those huge fluffy ears or her big soft eyes? But she captured my heart with her desperate desire to try, even though she was so frightened of humans and what they did. She had an equally strong desire to investigate and make friends.

With Zee, it was mainly about the food. And the sweeter the better! But Zambi wanted a relationship. She wanted to try things out. She wanted to play. And at the end of the video, it is so beautiful as she trusts Hannah, leaves the free food and tries a new game.

I could talk about all the training reasons I love it too. It encapsulates our philosophies in one video. Firstly, the set up provided the 3 F’s: Friend, Freedom and Forage. Either zonkey could leave the building at any moment and could go and feed on free hay instead of the treats.

Secondly, our focus on emotions. Hannah trained with awareness on how each zonkey was feeling in the moment. Her focus was on relaxation and fun. It’s relatively easy to get behaviours from animals when you use rewards, but getting those behaviours with an animal who really is happy and relaxed is a whole different matter when they start as scared as these two did.

Finally, you see here the focus on each animal as an individual. In training, we don’t believe that “one size fits all”. You have to see the animal as the individual she is and change things accordingly. Hannah had to get very creative with Zambi and the result was delightful.

We still miss our “stripey girls”  but watching this always brings a smile to my face. Sit back and enjoy watching fear change to trust and anxiety change to fun. It’s a wee bit of magic!