Balls, Balls, Balls

The other day, HC brought a plastic bag full of stuff out of her car. I smelled something really familiar and gets excited and followed her all the way home with my nose sniffing the bottom of the bag.

And when we reached home, she opened up the bag and showed me what I have suspected they were all along..

My favourite balls - all 15 of them!















(HC : I am surprised Joey can recognise the smell of this particular brand of ball.I have brought home stuff i.e. other toys and even food, and he has never followed that closely ... guess he really really love this particular brand.)

I realised that I am not the only dog who love this particular ball. A few dog owners have actually told HC that they introduced this ball to their dogs, and they went crazy over it.

However, sad to say, this ball had also triggered a few dog fights. I. myself had fought over this ball when another dog tried to take it away from me. (HC : that's why Joey only plays ball when the park is not crowded. And new balls are reserved only when he is alone cos he gets really uptight over it)

Recently, there was another dog fight at the park over this ball. Bear, a rottweiler wanted to take the ball that belongs to another GR, and growled. The GR doesn't want to give up what was his, and a fight erupted. Then a few other dogs decided to join in the fun too. It was quite a funny sight (oops) to see a group of dogs jumping and growling, and the owners were screaming and trying desperately to catch their respective dogs. It took quite a while before all the dogs were restrained. I think Bear is still sore over it, cos I heard from other dog owners that he continued to growl at the GR.

Long ago, HC had forseen that I, being a ball freak, may fight over balls. She doesn't mind if I had fought over MY ball, but felt that it will be rude of me to try to snatch balls that does not belongs to me. So, she has taught me to only play with my own ball and ignore other dog's ball. Once in a blue moon (maybe 0.01% chance), I may show some interest in other dog's ball, and HC just had to say, "No, leave it" and I will do accordingly. In that aspect, I am a good dog (grinning proudly).
(HC : it took me a while to teach him that as it is not easy to stop a ball crazy dog to leave a ball alone, and to also bear in mind that the punishment is not too hard and severe that he might decide that playing balls = punishment).

My dear young friend - Helios has also shown some interest in balls. So his M is trying to teach him to respect other dog's ball so that he won't be seen as rude. The good thing is, Helios has learnt how to bring back balls so it will be a easier task than to have to chase a dog around the park (I have seen some dogs doing this to their owners... a disgrace, I should say. A good dog never runs away from his/her owners).

Anyway.. me going off to play with my new balls!