Building a Brave Dog with a Hula Hoop?

On the way home from yesterday's Fun Run, I stopped and bought a hula hoop.  My plan was to make a sort of "tire" for Perri to practice jumping through, since she seems to have forgotten what the tire is.

I brought our new hoop inside the house though and decided to acclimate her to it first and build up her confidence by getting her to walk through it, and eventually jump through it (with either me holding it, or with it mounted on some jump standards.)

Ein and Molly were ecstatic about it and were willing to race through it for treats.  Perri took one look at it and looked horror struck.  I went to pet her and she stood up and laid her head on my chest and sighed.  What was that about?

I pulled out one of her squeaky tennis balls and did some throws through the hoop to encourage her to try it out.  She did!  Perri was nervous about it and would approach it slowly and then race through it quickly to get her ball.  We ended on a good note last night.

Today I got the hoop back out and she approached it more eagerly and was actually offering me some walk-throughs instead of being lured with her ball.  Progress!  Another fun little trick to work on together.  It helps a whole lot to have Ein to look at.  Looking at Ein is looking at the future.  Ein would have been terrified years ago to do a simple hula hoop run through, but these days he could not care less.