Chance Goes Right Brain

We started out with lots of Friendly Game, I rubbed him all over, ground some of the mud into his hair even deeper, got him to lift his tail and rubbed under his tail. He was relaxed, calm and happy. We then started with the rest of the Seven Games, Porcupine, Driving, Yo-yo, Sideways, Circling and Squeeze all around the big yellow ball.

He was really good, he would look at the ball every now and then, we played the Squeeze game between it and a log, he would walk right by it sniff at it, even touched it with his nose a few times. Perfectly fine with it on the ground, so then I picked it up and walked around with it under my arm, he followed along even bumped the ball with his nose a few times. He seemed to be okay with it, confident even.

So then I moved onto something else for a bit and came back to the ball, I picked it up and he bumped it with his nose again. I then started to rub it on his neck, he got tense, but kept his feet still, blinking and listening but as soon as I moved it towards his back he exploded. He began jumping backwards wildly trying to escape. I had to abandon the ball, there was no way I could hold it on him as he leapt backwards. I then had to get the situation under control so I made his moving backwards my idea and got him to move backwards in a direction I wanted, and further then what he wanted to. Once we both stopped out feet we were out of breath, both or chests heaving. I was frustrated, upset and on the verge of tears at the time. After I calmed myself down, started breathing properly and tried to wipe away all the frustration from my mind we moved on.

We then went and did a lot of circling game over the sundial, making him think about where his feet were and get him focused again. Then some Sideways along the fence, he was perfect, side passing beautifully. We then started a lot of Approach and Retreat with the ball, he was now absolutely petrified of the ball. We would Circle closer and closer to the ball, I would get him to stop on the same side as the ball was. Then ask him to move forward, bring him closer to the ball, and ask him to stop again. Eventually he would stand right next to the ball or right behind it, slowly but surely his confidence and curiosity began to rise. He was licking and chewing, would reach down and bump the ball with his nose and eventually started using his feet. He would bump it with his knees or lift his foot up and rest his foot there. Towards the end of the session I had him walking forward and bumping it out of his way with his knees or pushing it around on the ground with his nose. Licking and chewing, even taking treats off the top of the ball.

We had played for an hour at this point and he was getting more and more confident so I wanted to end it there. So I started to roll the ball up the hill, ignoring him, and he walked alongside me, looking at the ball but licking and chewing the whole time, letting out big sighs, relaxing.