A video post for some very special people

The sight of Star navigating her Pilates ball is so adorable to me, I can't resist posting a few videos of it here.

In this one, I love how she  works so hard to stay on the ball, then loses her balance, crashes on the floor, and gets right back up on the ball again. 

In this one, she is a little too eager to get that treat. Then I love the standing on hind legs, and then the utter calm and focus as she climbs back up on the ball herself and waits for her reward. Then that little two-legged jump!

There are some other people out there who will also I think be interested in seeing these videos. These people were interested in how I trained Star to do things like climb up on the pilates ball. It was really just a matter of tapping the ball a couple of times, and then rewarding Star for looking at it, sniffing it, or putting a paw on it. With a curious, intelligent little thing like Star--and especially since she'd been doing clicker training and had been rewarded for trying new things--it was very quick before she started climbing up on the ball and doing all the courageous things she did. 

She's been rewarded so heavily for interacting with a pilates ball, that now all you have to do is out one in front of her and she jumps right on it. 

Here is another video of Star amusing herself with a rope toy.

I just love how when given a new toy, she has so much joy in whipping it over her head and making those graceful aerial twists. Florian and I were at a ballet competition last weekend, and I don't think we ever saw anything quite that impressive.

I think certain people out there will enjoy seeing this too. No time to say a whole lot about who these mystery people are now, but I'll have a full update next week!

Suffice it to say for now that Star has had some very good news! And not just that her Pilates skills have grown by leaps and bounds.