I have a 9 week old puppy who loves to play.
The other day we were playing in the yard with one of those plastic/rubber soccer balls for dogs. I was kicking/dribbling it around and she was chasing me.
Well I went to kick it and she unexpectedly jumped where I was aiming, and the result was accidentally hitting her with the ball right in the face/head from about 5 feet away.
Yes, I should have been more careful and I obviously felt terrible about it immediately.
She yelped and ran away, but was otherwise uninjured. I felt terrible and gave her kisses pets, and tried to reassure her.
Her behavior after has otherwise been completely normal, no fear/cowering or anything like that and she is just as playful as ever with every other toy.
However, today when we were in the yard I knocked the ball (not towards her!) for her to chase like she used to, but she immediately started shaking and ran towards the door to go back inside.
I then put the ball away and tried to coax her back out but she didn’t even want to go outside after that.
Is there a proper way to overcome this so it’s not a long term issue? I’d love for her to be happy playing with the ball again like she used to, but I don’t wanna make it worse by trying to force the issue, so the ball is put away for now.
Anyone have any tips?
submitted by /u/Latter_Cake7700
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