I have made a grave error. I bought a new toy for Hamish, it’s a round, red squeaky ball, but it has feet. I foolishly believed he would love this toy, since his friend at the park has one that he really liked playing with. Well, it was not so. He was simultaneously interested, terrified and obsessed. I threw the ball; he madly chased after it, but wouldn’t get too close. He stood a few feet away and barked at it. When that didn’t work, he started to growl. Frustrated with the lack of response, he circled around, and tried barking at it from the opposite side. He couldn’t understand why the “creature” was just sitting there passively, despite his efforts to coax it into play. So I got up, and threw it again, only for him to repeat his barking. I’d had just about enough, so I took the toy and put it away. His response was to lie down and whine constantly in front of the drawer I put the toy into. So I got it out, and we started the cycle all over again. A little while later I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I hid it from him. He must have a great sniffer - because he found it every time. Then he’d lie down where it was hidden and cry. I finally had to take it, show it to him, and make him watch while I opened the front door and put it outside. He finally stopped carrying on. Good-bye $7, it was nice knowing you!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 20th, 2005 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Bad Dog Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.