T-ness

Every once in a while Taenzer takes to scoring goals by flipping her ball into the compost heap. She can jump in after it, but I discourage this, and in fact, when the ball goes into the compost heap, Mom puts the ball into the garage. It usually only takes two or three repeats of that for her to give up shooting goals, at least for a while.

But tonight she did, and so I took her ball and put it in the garage. She stood there looking wistfully after me--she never believes me when I tell her that's what's going to happen. Then she trotted around the pen a couple of times. Then she rolled in the grass. I was working on the heel of my Cannon Beach Sock, so I wasn't paying a lot of attention until I heard this double-dog noise.

Looked up. Taenzer's trying to take Timber's ball. He's standing over it, clearly saying, "Look, just because you were stupid enough to get your ball taken away from you doesn't mean you can come over here and take mine!" She'd circle him a couple of times, then go in, and they'd rear up like a couple of ponies, making the sound that made me look up. Mostly boxing, not much mouth. But he kept knocking her over, hard enough that I could hear the air go out of her. He doesn't weigh that much more than she does any more, only about 5 pounds, but their build and center of gravity is so different that he can just knock her off her feet pretty much at will, and she really doesn't like it.

After about 3 or 4 times, she started to get peeved, and things got a little noisier and she got a little mouthier, and then her hackles went up. She hackles pretty easily, actually; she's one of those dogs whose hackles go up with excitement as well as with fear or anger, and probably her excitement level was rising, but that was the point where I hollered at them to knock it off before someone got hurt. You know, like two kids wrestling, and first it's all fun, then somebody gets a little too rough and the other person loses their temper and then it's a real fight.

So they broke it up--Timber in proud possession of his ball--and Taenzer brought me a tennis ball. I threw it for her, then ran her through some of the things she knows. Finally I got up and stood between the three tunnels and started directing her through--I'd step toward, look at, and point toward the tunnel I wanted her to go through--very exaggerated body language--and say "Tunnel!" If she went through the right one I'd throw the ball so it was there when she came out. She didn't do too badly for the first time we've tried it with 3 tunnels. She has a tendency to get excited and then she stops thinking and starts guessing, so I have to call her in and get her focused, then send her out again. And she's so proud and happy when she gets it right, she just prances.

I wish Timber was interested in this stuff. Timber's steadier than Taenzer is and even if he gets excited he doesn't stop thinking. He was awfully cute--I felt bad that I was interacting to much with Taenzer, so I'd toss the tennis ball at him. He wasn't about to put his Jolly Ball down, but he'd move his head somehow so that he bounced the tennis ball off his Jolly Ball--not a swing, more of a punch forward, very quick and accurate, very focused and intense. I wish I could figure out what his metier is.