March 16th was Zelador’s birthday and he gave ME a really neat present. I placed the red cloth box with the number 1 on it on the bridge. I placed a blue circular, thin cushion on the southern pedestal. Zelador was on the northern pedestal. About twelve feet north of him hung the sign on the arena wall saying, “Be kind to animals.”
When I called out one of the two portable items and asked him to touch it he left his pedestal and brought it back to his pedestal. With the sign on the arena wall, he went to it, touched it and returned to his pedestal. I switched the location of the cushion and the box. He had no problem going directly to the item and bringing it back to his pedestal (although just touching it would have been fine with me).
The day before, he gave me a “day before his birthday present”. We practiced playing soccer. Haven’t done this for about a year and we might have done it six or so times in his life. Initially, he picked up the soccer ball, however, he quickly figured out that the click/treat happened only when he pushed the ball with his nose. We progressed to “my turn, your turn”. Now we need a harrowed arena that has a smooth surface to see if we can increase the distance between us and still pass accurately. The divots in the arena do mess up the rolling of the ball.
