I have a confession to make. Sometimes when I write an article, I might give the impression that I always know exactly what to do, and that I don't make any mistakes. Unfortunately, the reality is that I often blunder along until I figure out what I'm supposed to do, and then distill that knowledge into the final article.

In fact, I blundered so badly while writing How to Train Your Dog to Play Soccer [0] that I had to ask for several extensions! So when you read my articles, I hope you can appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears that sometimes go into them. I hope that I save at least a few of our readers the same dead-ends and detours.

For the soccer piece, I made the mistake of beginning the training by clicking any interaction with the ball, rather than setting up a limited range of options and selecting only nose touches to click. I clicked when my dog pawed at the ball—not many times, but that particular response has not been extinguished yet.

Every time I change the picture a little, one of my dogs goes back to pawing at the ball. Perhaps it is more fun for her? It certainly looks like more fun! Check out the superstar Labrador in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcmWhSOA7AI&feature=related [1]

Pay attention to the details in the articles on this site; chances are they are there because the author learned the hard way how to avoid problems that might pop up! My dogs and I had a great time writing How to Train Your Dog to Play Soccer and we hope that you enjoy—and learn from—it, too.