Until Willie Came, This was My Trouble Maker

She is tiny and cute and fluffy and EVIL: She is Milly!

All speed and bite and absolutely no manners. Every time Sadie went after a tennis ball, Milly would chase and bite Sadie on the bum. Now, Sadie wants a ball thrown almost a quickly as she retrieves it - she sometimes has a problem with releasing the ball to me and that is the only thing that slows down her game of fetch. I thought Sadie was going to let Milly just have it one of these times and in fact she did. In the past, Sadie showing her teeth, growling and generally looking pissed off has deterred every other dog that messed with her tennis ball. Not Milly, she went right back to treating Sadie's right flank like it was the tennis ball and needed retrieving.

Needless to say, Sadie and Milly don't get to be on the same side of the play yard now.

Milly treats all the other dogs in pretty much the same way as she did Sadie, a lot of chasing, a lot of nipping, and WAY too much barking. Fortunately, I have Tessie and Davey, who both suffer from the exact same style of playing.

Terry just plays with everyone

Terry and Moe

Terry and Harley

Terry and Shadow

He even gave Daisy a try. The only dogs he does play with are Goofy and Roo - they don't play.

And when he plays with Davey there is just too much growling for me to stop and take the picture, I too busy running interference.

Since I couldn't get pictures of them in action....

I will just have to find pictures of them that are in focus.

Daisy, much quieter with a tennis ball in her mouth. I have to remember that.


Davey, he looks like the first dog I ever baby sat. Her name was Molly and she was owned by my neighbors back in Chicago when I was a kid. I never thought my job as house and pet sitter in high school would become my career.

This is Roo. This is not how he normally looks. He is usually much furrier. This must be his summer cut. I keep telling people, "If you can't put your tomatoes out until after Memorial Day in Utah, don't shave the dog until then!" It has been snowing, sleeting, and generally back to winter this weekend and I have 4 dogs with their summer cuts just freezing.

This is Moe. I know you can barely see her, but this is her favorite spot. She has claimed a toy and is hiding it and herself from everybody else. This is Moe's hobby, toy hoarding and hiding.

This is Shadow. He is a love bug. I have to get the story on his name from his owners. Most Shadows are black dogs, but I do have one other that is a beagle. She got her name because she was a little boy's 'shadow' when they first got her.

And Harley, always the MOUNTER, never the MOUNTEE, and lets all try to remember that!

Once again, No Photos

I wrote up that post about how Terry has been wrestling with anybody and everybody. I figured that I could fill in the photos at the next play time. Easy, right? No, for the first ten minutes of play time, Terry, Miss Daisy and Moe just ran in great circles with any one of them in the lead with a toy in their mouth. Everyone else was just milling around not doing much. I was actually getting some photos with THE WHOLE DOG in the picture because the dogs were actually standing still.

And then my camera turned itself off. Oops, no batteries. Within seconds, Davey, Terry and Moe were in a wrestling match that sounded like a war. Tuck the camera into my pocket and break out the tennis balls.

See, sometimes it is not my fault that I miss the great pictures.

Then again, I am the one who forget to charge the darn thing.

I Have Found a Solution

Tennis Balls!

Terry likes to chase them and he brings them back to my general vicinity. Moe likes to chase the balls and even brings them back near to me. And Davey, Harley and Roo don't care about the ball and just want to run with all the other dogs.


Happy Day! No more growly wrestling matches that make me nervous.

Back to Are You Playing or NOT?!

Terry just wants to wrestle with anything on 4 legs and will settle for my two legs if he can't get a game going with the doggies.

I know he is harmless, but his energy level, shear persistence, and puppy lack of manners, means that the older dogs get tired of playing with him pretty quickly.

He started yesterday with trying to mount Harley. Harley considers himself the Mounter and not the Mountee, so I got close to make sure nothing happened. Nothing did, Harley just ended up boxing with Terry and having a good time. Well, a good time to a point. When I noticed that Harley added a growl to the play time, I stepped up again and broke it up. Harley march over to his kennel door and I got the message. Grandpa is done with the baby.

He moved onto Shadow. When Shadow ran out of steam, he just walked away and laid down.

That is when Terry teamed up with Miss Daisy. I thought this would be a good match of size, speed and skill. One problem, Miss Daisy growls when she plays. I know she is not fighting or wanting a fight, but I have not been able to get her to stop the growling. What I worry about is the dog that assumes the growl means FIGHT! and matches her growling.

Well, I have that today. Not only is Miss Daisy growling, so is Davy and so is Moe. Moe seems intent on dashing in growling and breaking up any wrestling matches as soon as they start. I am spending a lot of time just stepping between dogs and in my best 'Mom' voice announcing, "ENOUGH!"

That always seems to reset the group and they break up and start again with someone new. I tried separating them into different side of the fence, but I could come up with any combo that would work on both sides of the gate. I have to try something else or I am going to freeze over taking each dog out for its very own 15 minutes of play time. Besides, if I do that they will all have a terrible play time and the barking will be even worse.

Think, Think, Think...there has to be something that can make this group gel together better.

Maybe I can call BB owners and have her come over for the afternoon and show these idiot how to play together.

Daisy, Daisy

Again with the duplicate names...the owners are just trying to drive me crazy, right?


The other problem is that I think dogs only here the ending sound of their names. So Terry, Davey, Harley, Daisy & Daisy, and even Goofy tend to come when I call any of them. This is not helpful when I am try to get them to un-clump.

"Mingle, Mingle, No Clumping Allowed!"

Don't laugh, they must understand me - it works.

Are You Playing or Not?

I was just asking myself that question with the dogs I have this weekend. I just can't decide if Harley, Miss Daisy, and Davey are playing with Terry or getting sick of this non-stop motion, and puppy lack of impulse control, steering and manners.



It made me think of the week with Hank and Bandit. By Friday, I knew they had made friends but for the first couple of days I kept separating them. I knew the Hank was just playing but I also knew that Hank was oblivious to the fact that Bandit was not.

The little bit of a dog is Cuddles, Bandit's little sister. And like any little sister worth her salt, she would dart in whenever Hank and Bandit were wrestling and bit her big brother on the ankle.

I have stuck the camera in my coat so I won't forget it for the next play time.

I was thinking that Hank and Terry would make an excellent match. I hope that works out sometime. I won't forget the camera for that match up.