Laurel,
Whoa girl :)

""Don't click the hand touch" when during the CAT process she comes to touch
me, but then you are saying I can now offer my hand to her as target and
click it. What do I do next? would this be the point at which I would let
her out of the CAT yard and carry on with CT play? Say I decided to use the
halter during CAT with her loose in the little yard as usual, I would
approach, maybe extend my hand holding the halter a little, and wait. She
has been CT to touch the halter. If she does this during CAT, what do I do
next? Recently she's been turning her head away from the halter even though
she has freely approached "me carrying the halter" in a friendly way first.
Have I just had an AHA! moment thinking CAT has given her the power to say,
I'm not quite comfortable about that halter, even though with CT she's been
accepting being haltered for some years?"

Jumping ahead to halter may be too big a jump. We don't need to use CAT for
every little thing. You are correct in saying
"CAT has given her the power to say, I'm not quite comfortable ". She can
now choose to take herself away instead of "stuffing" her emotions.

So here we go. She's engaged you in a CAT session. I'd offer her a simple
targeting exercise. Then, I'd leave. I'd come back in C/T mode with the
halter.
It would be a separate event. As with CAT, you looked for signs of
relaxation, now as you bring C/T into the mix, you'll be on the lookout for
signs of
stress.

You want to eliminate/subtract stress. The stress is not necessarally
connected to one event or item like the halter. It could be that the C/T
itself is
the stressor. So, as before when you approached and stopped before she
reacted, now as you posted in the clip from 5Q you'd stop training before
it deteriorated into being stressful. Leave her wanting more.


Dolores Arste
Author: Conversations With Cadbury
www.zenhorsemanship.com
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