Cocoa--What's Next

I called a trainer friend of mine to talk about (among other things) the quality of Cocoa's connection with people. It's fleeting. He has done so well at learning to be led, learning to listen to commands in the ring (offline, even), and so on. But he doesn't want to take the next step. My friend said, "Have you had his teeth checked?"

His teeth! Of course! He has a tooth-ache! Now that I think about it, that would totally explain his withdrawal and grumpiness. Imagine if you had a full-time, painful toothache and somebody was asking you to walk, trot, canter, now let me get on your back. I think I'd kick the person. Cocoa is long past wanting to kick people (he was a bit psycho when he came here, though), but his general surliness, and that way he has of pushing his head up against me like, "Make it feel better,"--it all fits. It also explains the fact that he hasn't gained weight as much as I would have expected given his diet.

I know how this fell through the cracks--the first vet checks he had when he first came were done under duress while he was still wild.

So the call has gone out to the dentist. And a new note goes on the training program master document: dental check-ups at the earliest possible time.

What a thought.