Koda would not willingly approach a trailer, and if coerced with even light pressure he would pull back and bolt. We spent several months just doing simulation exercises away from the trailer to teach him new behaviors that would generalize over to the trailer. The first exercise was stepping up onto, walking across, and backing off a wooden bridge in both directions. This taught him the “step up” cue and helped him become familiar with walking on a surface that produced a hollow sound similar to the trailer floor.

Using several different pole patterns, I worked on teaching him lateral movements so I could isolate and control his body parts on cue. I wanted to be able to ask him to move his hind end and shoulder toward me and away from me softly so I could position him without scaring him if I used tactile cues in an enclosed space. Touching him in the trailer created trigger stacking. The poles helped him be mindful of his foot placement and make more precise hind end and shoulder turns without stepping backwards or forward.

I spent many hours generalizing the step up cue to the trailer. He would step up into the trailer with me leading him, but would back out immediately if I tried to step backwards. My intent was to have him stand in the trailer eating while I backed out. I was able to do this once or twice with his front feet in the trailer, but then I decided that the only way Koda would be comfortable in the trailer would be if he could turn around and look out the back. At this point we stopped working with the trailer and went back to simulations to teach him how to turn around in tight spaces. This was something he was extremely resistant to doing.

The next phase of training was teaching Koda that he could turn around safely in small spaces without panicking. We started on squeeze exercises with him between me and the fence and then asking him to turn into the fence and stay tight alongside it, simulating the wall of a trailer. We then generalized this process over to an open air stall. This took a few months as initially he was unable to walk through a stall gate without pulling back and bolting. Once he was able to walk through a stall gate, turn tightly into the fence and then face out of the stall gate calmly, we progressed to the breezeway that had a raised floor and was more narrow. This was one of the most time consuming and difficult steps that required a lot of shaping with a handheld target and body targeting. It was a major breakthrough when we achieved this milestone.

After we had the turn around sequence solid in the breezeway, I then went back to the trailer. We spent several days using free shaping to build Koda’s confidence with touching the trailer walls and reducing his tension inside the trailer. I parked the trailer so there was no step up to eliminate that criteria. I then worked on leading him into the trailer and having him face forward toward me to get his food rewards. After he was relaxed with all four feet in the trailer, I started shaping a head turn to the left wall of the trailer. Eventually the head turn became a neck turn and then a step to the left. It took a couple of weeks to accomplish a full turn away from me. Initially he would rush out of the trailer so then we worked on stopping after the turn to face out of the trailer while I stepped alongside him.

Once he was confidently turning around to face out the back of the trailer, I practiced the “stay” cue to keep him in place while I stepped outside. When he was staying in the trailer on his own, I worked on straightening his body using shoulder targeting and hind-end yielding and then asking him to back a few steps into the trailer. I wanted to avoid having him back up on an angle and hit the wall which would have spooked him. Also during this phase of training, I had started gradually closing the trailer door, inch by inch, until it was at a 90 degree angle so I could reach it from inside when we got to that stage of training.

Our next step was to repeat the entire sequence of stepping up, turning around, facing out back, straightening and backing without me leading him in. I stayed on the outside of the trailer and sent him in with the lead rope to start, and then at liberty. We practiced all the steps of sending and turning on his own first using the stall and then the breezeway before generalizing to the trailer.

The next big challenge was closing the door. Even me raising my hand to the door was enough to trigger Koda to tense up and leave. I had to figure out a creative way to get him comfortable with the door closing on him. I started by teaching him to push a barrel and then to push gates. It became a fun game for him. We then had several sessions where all we did was push the trailer door while he stood outside. It became one of his favorite behaviors to push the door open when I would swing it toward him. I thought I could continue playing that game with him once he was standing inside the trailer so he would recognize the game and not see the door as something that was going to shut him in.

The last phase of the training was closing the door completely. Initially I stayed in the trailer with him. It took a few weeks before we had a full closure of the door, working up to it very gradually and then playing the “push” game once the door was close enough. It worked beautifully. Once he was comfortable with the door closed, I asked him to step back into the trailer so I could step in front of him and then we worked on me stepping out of the trailer and closing the door from outside, gradually increasing the distance I stepped away from him. I wanted him to be calm in the trailer alone and to remain calm after I opened the door again.