I watch that, glance over at Little Bear, and just sort of sigh.
LB and I have a game called “Go around” in which Little Bear, having wrapped his cable around a tree or the sawjack or a tiny clump of grass or some damn thing again, tries with all his mental might to suss out what I mean as I point in the direction he needs to go to untangle himself and command, “Go around!” And he’s really paying attention, and he really wants to get this right, and he gets it completely wrong at least 60% of the time, often not only making things worse but hopelessly worse, but we keep at it.
And when at last he frees himself he gets his reward. “Good boy!” I cry. (insincerely)”Smart boy!” And he reacts pretty much like the border collie in that video, like he’s just won some sort of Best Dog in the World contest against heavy competition. He loves the Go Around game so much that sometimes I think he’s having me on.
“sometimes I think he’s having me on”
Indeed… sometimes I think they do that. 🙂