If you are an experienced horse trainer, you may believe you already have what it takes to train a donkey. If you are a very patient, empathetic, intuitive and respectful horse trainer, you may be right. If you are a rigid disciplinarian who trains by rote, you are wrong (and you shouldn’t be training horses either!)
Donkeys and horses are both equines, but donkeys have some very significant behavior traits and tendencies that make training them distinctly different from training horses. In this article, we discuss these differences and provide smart tips and tricks to help you train your donkey. Read on to learn more.
What You'll Learn Today
- Get to Know Your Individual Donkey
- Bonding Is Essential
- Choose Your Donkey’s Companion With Care
- One Size Does Not Fit All When Training Donkeys
- Be Consistent and Logical
- How Do You Discipline A Donkey?
- How Do You Stop Bad Behavior?
- How Do You Get A Donkey To Move?
- How Do You Teach A Donkey To Lead?
- How Do You Train A Donkey To Pull A Cart?
- Why Not Give Treats?
- Healthy Donkeys Behave Best
- Provide A Healthy, Stimulating Environment
- What Can You Teach A Donkey?
- Choose The Right Type Of Donkey For Your Purpose
- Frequently Asked Questions
Get to Know Your Individual Donkey
Good communication and respect are very important aspects of donkey training. You cannot force a donkey to do anything, and if you try to you’ll have nothing but trouble.
If you’re familiar with horse body language, you may think that you can read a donkey; however, this may not be true. Donkeys tend to be more subtle in their communication.
It’s a good idea to spend a lot of time simply observing your donkey. Watch how he interacts with other animals so you’ll be able to read him clearly when you’re working with him.
Bonding Is Essential
Donkeys are herd animals. They bond strongly with their companions, and it is best to have two donkeys to keep each other company. If this is not possible, a donkey will bond with a horse or mule.
Many donkeys will also bond with other sorts of livestock, but you must be careful when introducing them to one another as some donkeys are quite territorial and may injure other types of stock.
Because donkeys need to bond, your donkey will want to bond with you. Bonding is the most important aspect of training. For this reason, you may initially want to keep your donkey separate and spend lots of quiet time with him.
When your donkey learns to like and trust you and thinks you know what you’re doing, you’ll be able to teach him anything.
Just understand that your donkey cannot live without a donkey or other equine companion forever. You may have heard the quote,
“It is hardly an exaggeration to say that a chimpanzee kept in solitude is not a real chimpanzee at all.” — Wolfgang Köhler.
As with chimpanzees, a donkey alone is not truly a donkey. Separating a donkey from a longtime companion can cause a great deal of stress. High stress can result in the development of hyperlipidemia, which is a very serious condition and can kill a donkey.
Choose Your Donkey’s Companion With Care
Donkeys can be quite territorial, and this is especially true of jacks (intact males). For this reason, donkeys sometimes make good guard animals for herds of goats, sheep and other small stock. Donkeys naturally fend off predators such as wolves, coyotes, foxes and roaming dogs.
The territorial nature of donkeys can also cause problems. A donkey may aggress against small stock that enters its area, and this can result in injured or dead goats, sheep and other small animals.
Additionally, a donkey cannot tell the difference between your pet dog and a wolf or your pet cat and a bobcat. For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep your domestic pets away from your donkey.
One Size Does Not Fit All When Training Donkeys
Each donkey is unique. These intelligent animals tend to have very distinct and strong personalities. One size does not fit all when training donkeys.
Donkeys are smart, and they like to learn new things. This is why it’s very important to begin socializing your donkey when it’s very young and make sure that it is handleable in every way.
Donkeys start learning the moment they’re born and continue learning throughout their lives. A donkey that is properly socialized and well handled is unlikely to develop negative behaviors.
Be Consistent and Logical
Be consistent when handling your donkey. Every interaction teaches him or her something, and it is up to you teach the right things in an order that makes sense.
Begin by teaching your donkey to do things that come naturally to him or her such as walking along with you for pleasant, enjoyable experiences such as going to get food.
Always praise your donkey and pet him when he does what you want. When you build a habit of teaching your donkey to do natural, fun things in a positive way, it will be easier to teach unnatural behavior such as picking up his feet for the farrier, pulling a cart, being ridden, etc.
How Do You Discipline A Donkey?
You don’t discipline a donkey. If you try to punish a donkey, he will just get angry with you and will stop cooperating with you. When dealing with a donkey, use a combination of metaphorical sticks and carrots, but don’t use real sticks and carrots.
When your donkey does what you want him to do, praise him, pet him and use his success as a bond building moment. When he tries, but doesn’t succeed, redirect him and try again, or switch to a familiar task and then go back to the new task.
If he exhibits a negative behavior withdraw your support. Tie him up for 10 or 15 minutes and, walk away and then try again. If you are thoroughly bonded with your donkey, losing interaction with you will be enough to make him want to cooperate with you.
Training Donkeys
The best donkey training uses positive reinforcement, which relies on the concept of reward. To reinforce your donkey’s behavior positively, you give him something he desires when he does what you desire.
While many trainers will use treats, I personally do not feel that this is a good idea. Instead, rest periods, scratching, brushing, petting and happy talk are all good things that you can give your donkey when he does what you want.
Positive reinforcement helps you join up with or bond with your donkey so that he is eager to work with you.
How Do You Stop Bad Behavior?
If your donkey exhibits a negative behavior, try withholding something he wants. For example, some donkeys may kick at the fence or barn door in impatience at feeding time. This is an unwanted behavior because you don’t want your fence damaged or your donkey injured.
For this reason, you would withhold the feed until the animal stops and then quickly give him what he desires while he’s exhibiting a positive behavior (waiting patiently).
You can also look for environmental changes that you can make that will simply make your donkey’s negative behavior unnecessary. For example, separating your donkey from another animal is much easier and far more effective than trying to teach two animals not to fight.
Punishment is ineffective. It may force your donkey to do just the minimum of what you are demanding, but it will not elicit enthusiasm and can actually cause the problem to get worse. Donkeys are very tough and rugged, and they can withstand quite a bit. They are also smart.
A donkey who is beaten or whipped may simply stoically learn to live with it. Simultaneously, a smart donkey may very well figure out exactly why you are being so mean and nasty and may double down on his behavior.
You always want to aim for developing a strong, positive bond with your donkey and eliciting join up with him so that he will want to do as you ask. Your goal is to teach him to strive to please you.
How Do You Get A Donkey To Move?
If your donkey plants his feet and doesn’t want to move, look around to see what might be bothering him. He may have a very good reason for not wanting to move. There may be something dangerous or frightening that is causing him to keep his feet glued to the ground.
Once you’ve eliminated any environmental reasons for him to refuse to move, you may wish to try redirecting him by simply pulling his head to the side and walking in a slightly different direction than the direction you were initially headed.
Sometimes just circling a couple of times will get your donkey moving. Circle around and go back the direction you wanted to go.
How Do You Teach A Donkey To Lead?
As with all equines, it’s best to do halter training very early on when the animal is small and impressionable. An unhandled, very large animal who has never known anything about wearing a halter and being led may be difficult to teach.
You can teach an unhandled donkey to want to follow you by spending a lot of time on bonding. Spend time sitting with your donkey, talking with him and grooming him. When you make friends with him, he will want to follow you.
If you don’t have a halter on him, you’ll want to work on bonding and becoming able to pet and handle him and build trust so that you can get him haltered.
Once you have a halter on him, you can simply take the side of the halter in your hand as he’s walking with you and continue walking. When you turn, speak encouragingly, pull the halter and step into the new direction.
While you’re doing this exercise, don’t hold on too tightly because you don’t want to hurt yourself if he decides to pull away from you. Move gently, be patient and take your time.
Once your donkey has the idea that he should follow you as you walk, you can add a lead rope and continue your exercise.
Halter Training
How Do You Train A Donkey To Pull A Cart?
Begin by thoroughly bonding with and halter training your donkey. Establish a regular routine of feeding, grooming and walks. When you are thoroughly bonded with your donkey, add ground driving (driving without a cart) to your routine.
Once the animal is comfortable with this, add the cart. Always build on what your donkey already knows when teaching a new skill. Layer new challenges onto established accomplishments.
Donkey Driving Training Series
Why Not Give Treats?
Spoiling your donkey or being too demanding can cause behavior problems. Be sure to consistently reward desired behaviors in your donkey and extinguish undesired ones.
This does not mean that you should give your donkey treats for good behavior and punish him for bad behavior. That is a recipe for ruining your donkey.
Instead, speak happily and positively to your donkey and give him pats when he does what you want. When he does not, redirect him. For very negative behaviors, you may wish to ignore him or separate him briefly.
Every situation is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all way of addressing negative behaviors; however, keep in mind that feeding treats by hand will spoil your donkey and predispose him to nipping.
Hitting or yelling will make your donkey angry and cause him to withdraw his cooperation. Both of these are outcomes that you want to avoid.
Healthy Donkeys Behave Best
Establish regular checkups, vaccinations and hoof care for your donkey to keep him healthy and comfortable. Remember that problems may also be caused by illness or pain.
If your donkey develops a habit that you are not able to deal with, the first thing you should do is call your vet and set up an appointment for a complete physical.
Once you’ve ruled out any illness or injury, you can talk with your vet about behavior management techniques that may help to control and correct your donkey’s unwanted behavior.
Provide A Healthy, Stimulating Environment
To keep your donkey content, happy and able to learn easily, you need to be sure that he has plenty of space. An acre per donkey is ideal, but in situations where you do not have this much space you can enhance the space you do have by providing toys and activities and mental stimulation.
For example, donkeys really like large, sturdy play balls.
Donkeys enjoy pulling their hay out of a hay net rather than simply eating it off the ground. Donkeys like to go for walks on days when they not worked, ridden or driven.
Establishing a regular schedule of feeding, grooming and visiting can go far to help keep your donkey happy, ready, willing and able to learn.
What Can You Teach A Donkey?
Donkeys are smart, and they can be taught to do anything a horse can do. They can also learn to do quite a few things that dogs can do. There are really no limits on what you can teach a donkey.
If you’ve got a donkey of the right size, strength and abilities, you can teach it to pull a cart, be ridden, participate in activities such as pole bending, barrel racing and other rodeo events. Don’t underestimate donkeys as a riding and pleasure animal.
Trick Riding With Donkey
Choose The Right Type Of Donkey For Your Purpose
There are many different kinds of donkeys, and as we’ve mentioned each donkey has its own individual personality. Your donkey’s genetics will contribute to his or her behavior.
There are donkey registries and donkey or mule clubs and organizations that you can consult if you’re looking for a donkey that has particular abilities and behaviors.
Frequently Asked Questions
The first, and arguably most important, thing you should teach your donkey is how to stand tied quietly. A donkey who knows how to stand patiently without fidgeting or panicking can be staked out to graze. He can wait for you patiently as you tend to other things, even if he finishes his feed before you finish your chores. He can stand and cooperate for grooming and tacking up. He is more likely to be patient with the farrier and the vet.
It is never a good idea to leave a halter on any animal. It presents a tangling and choking hazard, and a halter on a horse, donkey or mule makes that animal easy to steal. If you have a lot of trouble catching your donkey, you may want to keep a halter on him for a few days as you establish a feeding routine that includes you taking hold of his halter and tying him, but once he has come to expect being caught and tied in order to eat, you should be able to catch and halter him without any trouble.
Fast training is never a good idea. Remember that every time you do anything with your donkey, you are teaching him or her something. You are far more likely to make mistakes when you rush and set deadlines. It will be a lot harder to untrain your mistakes than to simply take your time and train right the first time. Be certain that you have a solid, trusting bond with your donkey before you move past halter training. Be advised that thorough halter training can take as long as a year – longer if you are working with a donkey who has been abused or badly trained.
Donkeys are very strong, and most can handle riding as long as the rider is not too large. A donkey’s back is not built quite as ideally for riding as a horse’s, and any “beast of burden” can pull more than it can carry, so driving may be a better activity for some smaller donkeys.
Donkeys don’t laugh in the same way as people and other primates, but if you know your donkey well, you will learn to read his expressions and body language. You’ll know when he’s amused!
How to o make donkey to mate with horses. Pls help.
I would suspect a little Keith Whitley and candle light on a starry evening should do the trick.
Omg! Hahahahaha! Donkeys do love a good Keith Whitley love song! Hey Ditiro, Don’t purposely mix a horse and donkey.
A year ago I adopted a 1-year old John, from the Bureau of Land Management. He is the only donkey at a stable of horses and lives in a large outdoor stall next to my two gelding. While he is always excited to see me, is very affectionate braying loudly when I come every day and loves getting his face rubbed and kissed, stands nicely for me to pick his hooves and groom him, and I can easily halter him, he is now starting to push his head into me when we are walking to turn him out or just go for a walk around the property. When he does this, I use my body to gently push him out of my space. If it continues,
I stop moving as to not reward the behavior. If it happens right out of the stall, I will turn around and put him back while I do other things and then come back and try again. Usually this works but lately he has become pushier as we are walking out of this stall towards the turn outs. I don’t like to give any treats to my equines just positive rubs when they do the right thing.
When Niko encounters anything new, I always give him time to assess it as I talk him through it. I try to act as leader to encourage his confidence in a positive way and this usually works. Generally just by stopping and taking things slowly to give him time to figure it out only takes a few moments and then he can continue on.
If you could give me any insight into why he is pushing into me and how to effectively stop this behavior so he is out of my personal space, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
I need help training my jack please help me understand what I am doing wrong. I have had him for a week and the guy I adopted him from did no training at all. All I want is him to come to me and be able to clean his feet out and brush him. Is there any pointers to give out please. Thanks Jennifer
I need help training my jack please help me understand what I am doing wrong. I have had him for a week and the guy I adopted him from did no training at all. All I want is him to come to me and be able to clean his feet out and brush him. Is there any pointers to give out please. Thanks Jennifer
He is 10 months old