The best part about building a dog’s confidence is that it’s usually fun for the dog AND owner! Most recently, Otis and I ventured back to our neighborhood playground for some work on the idea that “new things are fun!” Similar to agility, getting Otis to go up and down and up and down the playground steps helps to teach him that he can in fact try new things and nothing bad comes from it.

Here are some videos of Otis totally rocking the jungle gym! Not only did he quickly get over worrying about the steps, he even warmed up to the slide! This first video is of him making it over the whole thing in one try.

Then, just for kicks, I asked him to go back UP the slide – and he did it! I was surprised about that because it wasn’t something I’d helped him practice before, and it certainly wasn’t easy to do. But he just barreled right up it.

He LOVED playing on the playground! I really think he would rock agility if given the chance – something to put on my to-do list. I guess in the mean time we’ll just go around conquering all the playgrounds in the area. No complaints here!

For more information on adopting Honey Bunches of Otis, go to his Adopt Me page to learn more about him and how to get in touch.