K9 Kamp Part Deux: Playing with my balls

Hi gang, it’s me Pocket reporting from K-9 Kamp glad to say that Daddy and I have completed our favorite challenge: Play with your balls. In fact I think Daddy and I helped name this challenge last year because we have two minds that have not expanded much beyond pupdom.

Now there is nothing I enjoy more than chasing my own balls. Or, should I say my own ball, because I am a one ball girl. For those of you unfamiliar with how particular I sm with balls I have several balls of various shapes and sizes but there is only one ball I will chase. I will chase it until I have gutted it and it doesn’t bounce anymore. We will then have a small ceremony to honor the ball, then put it out for the men who give it a proper burial in what the humans call the landfill, then Daddy lines up my brightly colored balls, and I sniff them, paw at them, and then choose one with my paw, pull it out of line and nose it to Daddy. He puts the rest back in my playpen and I play with that one ball for months. If it is lost we cannot play with another ball, we have to find that one. The only way for me to move on to a new ball is for me to destroy it. My balls are like horocruxes. You must rid the world of one and move on to the next.

Now for me this challenge is easy. All I do is chase the ball. And, being such a small dog, I chase the ball inside. Now, you might comment, this seems quite an easy challenge for a biped. Well, my friends, you would be wicked wrong, because, when we play ball inside the house, I darn near kill Daddy.

For a human to get the most benefit from this challenge they must strictly follow the Daddy rules. First, like flat on the floor. Then throw the ball....and wait. Sometimes I bring it back. Sometimes I don’t. And that is where the challenge begins.

Because I have hidden my horocrux ball and Daddy has to find it. And because I am closer to the ground than hedgehog who is retaining water it is going to be on the floor under something. First Daddy has to lift himself off the floor (push up) then crawl along the floor (cardo and good for arms strength). then get back flat on the floor to look under furniture, then back up to crawl to the next spot. There is no running done but this up and down, crawl and lay down, and the peering is a great work our for him.

So play with your balls is the best of all challenges, it is great fun for me and a great workout for Dad. In fact I think it the best workout any human can have: Except for the standing and moving.

This is a bog hop