'Complex' Dougie making great strides

Dougie, whose story with us began with an operation on a ‘grapefruit-sized’ tumour, is described as one of the most ‘complex’ donkeys ever worked with by Equine Behaviourist Kayna Prescott.

Kayna worked closely with Dougie throughout 2024, building on the work put in place by New Arrivals Groom Rachel Hill, who spent a large chunk of 2023 chipping away at his walls of fear and mistrust.

After his stint at our New Arrivals Unit, Dougie made the move to Town Barton Farm in May last year. His behavioural work continued with Kayna and Town Barton Manager Kimberley Greene.

Dougie has made remarkable steps in the time spent with Kayna and Kim, but it has taken a lot of patience and repetition in his day-to-day handling to bring him to where he is now.

Kayna says: “When I first assessed Dougie, one of the first things I wanted to do was create positive training sessions. We did this by offering him a food reward, exactly the same way Rachel first gained his trust.

“I could see Dougie was very nervous of any kind of approach, but he had remembered his training from Rachel. He would stand still and take food from our hands, but he was really reaching for it. He wouldn’t move closer than necessary to reach the food.

“We wanted to teach Dougie that training was a positive thing and rebuild his confidence to where Rachel had got him before his move to Town Barton.”

It took roughly two months for Dougie to learn that Kayna and Kim were trustworthy and he began to stand still and comfortably eat from their hands.

He soon became known to the entire Farms team, as he started approaching other staff working in the barn.

Although he was still nervous of being touched, he was starting to see people in a more positive light.

Rebuilding Dougie’s confidence

Throughout August and September, Kayna began to encourage Dougie to consider being touched voluntarily.

“What I found was that we could call Dougie across the barn and he would approach and carry out the training, but he was still very nervous to accept scratches or any form of touch such as stroking, even though for some donkeys they are a reward.

“At this point, Dougie wasn’t as scared of people near him, but he found it difficult to overcome the thought of being touched.

“To help him make that step, I planned an exercise where I could touch his nose through him voluntarily putting his nose through a head collar.

“I started to scratch Dougie’s face when working with the head collar, and it was almost like a lightbulb moment. From then, Dougie became more and more confident with accepting touch.

“It was a really big moment not just for him, but for me too.”

By the first week of October, Kayna had worked through the training plan until Dougie stood calmly when approached. He even allowed himself to have a head collar fitted and then groomed.

Continued training

Dougie’s positive behaviour has continued into the new year – however, his journey with our Behaviour team is far from finished.

Kayna says: “His fear of people and human touch was significant and his training has taken longer than we would normally expect from a fearful donkey. This shows just how fearful he was.

“Dougie still has a long way to go in terms of his training. We will continue to work with him to help him calmly accept touch to his legs for feet handling and help him grow in confidence with more people.

“I’m very pleased with his progress so far – he has taken some huge strides over the past few months and I look forward to updating followers of his journey of any further milestones he achieves in the future.”