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.

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.

Remy is one of my big ball chasing dogs.

And this is how she stares at her toy until I throw it again, or until BB or Daisy steals it away.

I am thrilled that I can now play ball with Remy, Sadie, Daisy and sometimes BB since they will ALL now return balls to me. BB still needs some work, but I honestly think she prefers to chew on a toy over chasing after it.

I just had the best play time, ever!

That Dog Whisperer stuff really works!

I have been 'one with the couch' for most of this week. When I could wrestle control of the remote from the kids, who where also home sick, I would switch from Nickelodeon to episodes of the "Dog Whisperer".

He was helping a family with a beagle that grabbed everything and anything and just ran with it. Remotes, phones, magazines, newspapers, glasses, toys - if it wasn't nailed down they were chasing him to get it back. This transformation was something I really wanted to see. I have so many dogs that won't release a toy back to me.

I know I can't yank these toys out of the dog's mouths. Tug of war is not a game I am ever going to win. What I didn't know was that I shouldn't even try to pull the toy out, the dogs should be giving them to me voluntarily. The pack leader doesn't snatch something out of another dog's mouth, they expect the dog to drop it and relinquish it to the leader. This I am going to try, but after I am feeling better. I figure that I am tired, sick, and not cut striking figure as the Leader of the Pack this week.

But an opportunity presented itself. I was sitting and BB walked up with a toy in her mouth. I tried Cesar's 'claw' technique. You make you hand into a claw and poke the dog in the next just under the jaw line. This is like a 'bite' from us and that is how a dog would communicate to another dog. One poke and BB dropped that toy into my lap. I could not believe it. I thought it had to be a fluke it happened so fast. When it worked a second time I knew I was onto something.

I had a dog that wanted to play fetch, but whenever Remy would bring a ball back, Daisy or BB would steal it. This makes for a very short game of fetch. I did my best Cesar impersonation, I touched Daisy and said, "SHHH!" and she dropped the ball. This has never happened before. BB got smart and started to stay out of touching range, but I had Daisy bring the ball back to me over and over again.

Best part, they were still releasing balls the next day. Now, I have to get the owners to continue my good work.