Red Ball

There are a few things that our family has already decided will be gifted to Haddie's Forever Family. The one that tops the list is her Red Ball.  This has been the best, destructive-proof toy of Haddie's. We will purchase a different color of this identical ball for Puppy #2.

If we take the ball out, hide it, and tell her, "Find Red Ball" she will search the house until found.  Her cute factor goes up even higher during this mission as her ears are pushed forward, her eyes are soft with her brows perked with focus, as she goes into every room, corner to corner, in search of her forever-love.

Games with Red Ball include:

Tag: my son will set the ball on the floor after commanding Haddie in a Sit/Stay. Then he will take off to go hide, and while he is running away, Haddie waits for the "Release" command. As soon as he shouts it, she grabs the ball and treks through the house trying to find her favorite boy. Once found, my son will run away, and Haddie will follow him with Red Ball still in her mouth as she tries to catch him by touching him with her Red Ball. Once touched, my son falls to the ground and praises her for a great game. And then they repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

Catch: one of us will sit completely still on the couch (trying to replicate one who can not move as freely as we can), and we will toss the ball up in the air, and Haddie will catch-it. In order to keep the game going, she has to bring the ball back to us and Drop the ball in our hand - because remember, we can't move so she has to be accurate. This has taken Haddie a long time to learn. First, she was hit and miss on even coming back with the ball. Then, she was hit and miss on getting the ball into our hand, not just dropping it at our feet.

Tug: self-explanatory. One of us has our finger looped through the ball, and Haddie has her teeth looped through the ball, and we tug. When we say, Drop, Haddie has to immediately drop or she looses. Haddie is a rock star at this game. She always has dropped the tug game when we command. Always. So proud of that!  (and happy that we can keep playing because she follows the rules so perfectly).

Hide and Seek: we hide the ball, and then tell her "Find Red Ball" and she searches until found.

I'm curious what she will do upon being reunited with Red Ball after being apart from it while in College. I hope her Forever Family enjoys playing Red Ball as much as we do with Haddie.