Its Not About The Ball

Today was better, much better then yesterday. I started by rolling the ball out to the field and resting it up against a log so it wouldn’t blow away. Then I went to go get Chance, he was easy to catch so I don’t think I hurt our relationship too badly with my lapse of judgment from the day before. He eagerly stuffed his nose into the end of the halter and stood relaxed, leg cocked, lip drooping as I began to rub him all over, causing a large dirt cloud to surround the both of us just like that character from Charlie Brown.

We then proceeded to work our way through the games, no where near where the ball was sitting, but Chance would still look over at it nervously from time to time. So I tried to do things that would get his attention and keep him more focused on me then the Yellow Saber-Toothed Ball. The Sideways Game seemed to be the best game to really grasp his attention, as well as the Hide-Your-Hinney Game which he is quite good at. When we did the Yo-Yo Game he would get unfocused and start looking around for the location of the ball just incase it were to jump out of the grass and attack him while his back was turned.

Once I was happy with the focus I was getting we started moving closer to the ball, we played the Squeeze Game between me and the ball, starting out with at least 30 feet between us. When Chance would start to get nervous and cock his head towards the ball I would take a step back, taking some of the pressure off of him. We did this for sometime, slowly working our way towards the ball, one tiny step at a time. Then Chance did something that surprised me, there was still about 6 feet between him and the ball for the Squeeze but as he went towards the Squeeze he decided to drift closer to the ball, walking right up to it and sniffing it. I told him what a good boy he was and relaxed, going into the neutral position and waiting until I got some licking and chewing from Chance. It didn’t take too long for him to start smacking his lips, once he was done with that we moved away from the ball.

I then walked around smacking the savvy string on the ground, whipping the ground. Chance at first wasn’t sure if I was asking him to do something or not so I relaxed more and he quietly followed behind as I randomly walked around whipping the ground. Once he was comfortable with that I turned to face him and played lots of Friendly Game, tossing the rope over his back, “hugging” him with it, he stood there relaxed so I began to whip the ground, starting far away from him, but still standing facing him. Gradually I would move closer and closer until I was whipping the ground right beside his back legs, every now and then I would again “hug” him with the savvy string, then go back to whipping.

Next was some Helicopter fun, I would start off with a slow casual Helicopter motion with the savvy string and carrot stick above mine and Chance’s head, if he moved his feet the swinging would get more severe and I would follow him until he stopped moving. As soon as he stopped moving the Helicopter would stop and I would again “hug” him with the savvy string. It didn’t take him long to get the hang of this.

We then went back to the ball, I did some travelling circles until we came close to the ball, and Chance aimed himself towards the ball stood there quietly. Then he began to bump the ball with his nose, and then lift his feet like he was going to paw at it, but paw at the ground beside it. Eventually he worked himself up to bumping it with his knees and rolling it around a bit with his nose. He moved it so much that it rolled away from its safe and secure spot next to the log and down the hill towards me. This worried him a bit, but I just rolled it back into place, ignoring him as I did and after a few minutes he approached it again.

I thought this was a pretty good place to end the session with the ball for the day so I slowly and carefully rolled the ball up the hill, left it somewhere secure then took Chance away from it. We then did some Figure-8 pattern around a raise clump of dirt and a pile of manure; he was really light and responsive, traveling and following the draw and drive easily and with little effort on my part. He began to lick and chew, so we stopped and relaxed. I removed the halter; he stood with me for a few moments before I sent him back to the herd. Once he was with the herd he started to lick and chew and even yawn.