Black Doggerel

Since I did my angsty dog behaviour post a little while back, I've been getting back into the habit of taking both dogs to play football every day instead of expecting them to make do with lots of on-leash walks - and oh, such a difference. I've not been Spiked since the tit incident, and although he still does his bouncing maniac leash-tugging thing, he's doing it now from habit and not from intolerable internal 'splodeypressure, so he'll calm down again when I tell him to stop fucking around. He's quieter in the house too.

There's just one tiny little issue left over now, and we seem to have come to a workable compromise on that. He's very reluctant to give me back the ball when it's time to go home. I can get him to put it down, I can get him to back off from it, but he always knows when I'm picking it up to go home as opposed to picking it up to throw again, and he leaps in and snatches it just ahead of my fingers. Every. Damn. Time.

It never used to be a problem when we lived at Mum's and had a routine of going every day, but I think the memory of the long underexercised spell is still too strong this time round. I don't allow toys in the house (they start fights) so he's reluctant to let go in case he doesn't see it again for weeks. It's very guilt-inducing.

...but this is our compromise. He gets to carry the ball till we get to the door of the flat, and lies down with it outside the door. I reach down for the ball and he springs up and humps my arm. Then he'll let me put it away in the rucksack without a fuss.

Yeah, I know. But it works. Hey, I could always alpha roll him instead...