Lady is a Training Rockstar

Lady has been a training Rockstar. Some days are better than others, which is normal and expected.

Interestingly, Lady seems to be either into her training session or her treatment each day – but often not both. Thankfully, the task she applies her effort to changes. Some days it’s part of her spunky attitude of “Ok, I’ve done enough for today; I’ll do the rest halfway” or “I’ll try harder later, but I’m not there yet.” Other days it’s very different and it can be hard to tell the reasoning behind it. Sometimes an outside stimulus is clearly distracting or she’s tired. Other days it’s nothing we can put our finger on, we just adjust as we go along. Just like us, we all have our days.

As we’ve mentioned before, her total daily morning routine is around 45 minutes. While Karissa is here, we are adding in a brief afternoon training session at a training wall in the habitat some days, which still leaves her with almost 23 hours each day of free time. Nevertheless, we gladly accept whatever effort she wants to give each day towards her training or treatment program. It’s kind of like living with a human teenager. ?

Usually, Lady’s training is in the stall while we prep her chute, but the other day, Scott asked for her back feet while she was in the chute. We weren’t sure what was going to happen, and we certainly didn’t expect her to perfectly, immediately present her foot. But she did. Perfectly. Immediately. She’s amazing. She presented both rear feet in the chute that day.

In the past few days, we have started asking for her front feet using the target pole. She has presented her right front foot a couple of times now.

These are both fantastic steps towards getting her feet the in-depth work that they so desperately need. We are so proud.

Picture is of Lady, in the habitat, eating her dinner.

March 1, 2020

Comments(13)

Rand Cooley says
March 1, 2020 at 1:35 pm
She’s pretty amazing and obviously very intelligent. She can generalize behaviors so I imagine the front feet work won’t take long & my guess is shes messing with you 🙂
cyrAnn says
March 1, 2020 at 1:37 pm
Indeed our Lady Bug is a rockstar for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tammy says
March 1, 2020 at 1:46 pm
Good girl Lady keep up the great job and before you know it your feet will be in the best shape possible especially with this wonderful team of amazing dedicated caregivers which I wish could be everywhere around the world helping all the other Elephants in need. Thank you everyone you all have so much to be proud of I sure know we are extremely proud and very happy with what you’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time, God Bless
Muriel Servaege says
March 1, 2020 at 1:49 pm
Congratulations, Lady! She obviously does her best and we are all with her.
Carol says
March 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm
Love her little Lady???
Kelejan says
March 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm
Lady must know by now that she is feeling much better and that every day no one is going to do nasty things to her. I am looking forward to seeing before and after pictures of all four feet from the very beginning when I saw her first picture and nearly cried over the condition of her feet as I realise that feet are so important to an elephant. Lady really IS a Rock Star.
Lynne Russert says
March 1, 2020 at 2:33 pm
Wow, I’m so proud of you Lady! You are a rock star sweetie! Keep up the great work!!!! Love you! ❤
Barb says
March 1, 2020 at 2:35 pm
I think Lady likes the ability to make choices and she is showing her spunky side until she’s ready to take the plunge for the rest of her treatments. I imagine she will surprise Karissa one day with a perfect presentation. We love you Lady!
Donna Johnson says
March 1, 2020 at 6:29 pm
She is soo adorable! Thanks for the update Scott!
Sheila says
March 1, 2020 at 7:38 pm
oh sweetie ur a tricky? lil lady‼️ well girl i hope u give up the front feet soon dear‼️ they r trying to make ur bad feet, get real good! hopefully lady will reason this out soon.‼️ praying u get the internal message sweet lil? lady, u r sure a fearful girl in “ feel good” things‼️
Rosie P says
March 2, 2020 at 6:37 am
Lady, you are beautiful inside and out! What a great girl. Slowly, slowly you are able to trust…….so precious, so inspiring.
And a big thank you to all the human caregivers…you are all amazing, too. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nancy Jordan says
March 2, 2020 at 5:23 pm
I can remember how long it takes to trust and commit to tasks or activities after a life of sadness – I used to ‘switch right off’ too when enough was enough and disappear into my own safe space. I’m so impressed how quickly Ms Lady is progressing. Gorgeous phot of Ms Lady eating her dinner
carey says
March 4, 2020 at 3:07 pm
Lovely news, I’m so glad for her and you. and us too! I am also looking forward to seeing the progress of all her 4 feet, those front ones were really awful to see, amazing me how she still walked on them

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