River learned to bat at a balloon on a ribbon, so we used that with both kids we visited. Sometimes the ribbon is too hard to hold, so we either tie a loop into it or I hold the ribbon above where they are gripping it. River hits it with one or two paws. Sometimes he pulls it from their grip. He has only popped a balloon once so far. It is a bit tricky because they need to hold the balloon out away from their body (so he doesn't paw them) and while the therapists like a straight arm as a goal, the kids can't always quite manage this. I would like to modify his trick and have him "touch" the balloon with just his nose - less likely to scratch anyone that way. He does know "touch" but prefers to "paw" the balloon, so we need a little refresher and practice.
Other tricks that we have used are mostly for entertainment value. Sit up, catch it, stand up(on 2 feet),roll over, play dead, spin are all reliable and have hand signals that the kids can mostly manage. Of course, we stand behind them and signal River, too. So far, they don't seem to mind if he is mostly watching us, as long as he does the trick. Usually they walk a distance and get to rest and be rewarded with a trick.
This week we also had Pink Girl brush River, using a plastic "massage' type brush. Her therapists liked that the handle required her to open her hand. ( We also had a narrower handled brush if that was preferred.) They did struggle to get her to use her less preferred hand to brush. Not sure how we can use River to encourage that?
River will listen to whoever has the treats. He transfers very well. We have used this extensively at our Acadia visits; I'll detail that in another post.
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