Thank you to our blog hop hosts SlimDoggy, To Dog With Love, and Peggy’s Pet Place!
This hop is all about staying fit, and one of the ways the dogs stay fit around here is playing fetch. But lately the rules of the game of fetch have changed!
I’ve included three short videos in this post. This is my first attempt at sharing videos, so please bear with me….they may not be that great! Or they may not work at all, so please let me know if they don’t!
In October 2012, early on in my blogging “career”, I wrote a post called “The Rules of the Game”. The post was about the games of fetch we played with our three dogs at the time; our younger beagle Cricket and our Golden Retrievers Sheba and Moses (Moses has since passed on). Basically, Cricket does almost all of the retrieving. If Sheba catches the ball, she runs up to the bottom stair going up to the deck (where I’m usually throwing from), and passes it off to Cricket after chewing it several times (we’re not sure what that’s all about). Sometimes Cricket screws around just touring the whole yard with the ball in her mouth, while Sheba barks at her to “hurry up already”.
Cricket screwing around from Janet Keefe on Vimeo.
If Moses caught it, he would quickly pass it off to Cricket….often without the ball even touching the ground in the transfer. Once in a while he would circle around a few times and make her work for it, but not that often.
Our new puppy Luke is still finding his place in the family in different ways. He likes to chase a ball sometimes, but is still not able to catch it himself. He won’t chase it when I throw it, but he will hang out close to me and wait for Cricket to bring the ball back to me. Then he will try to snatch it up if he can. If he does get a hold of it, he does not pass it off to Cricket like Moses used to, but runs away with it, with both girls in hot pursuit.
Clearly the rules of the game have changed, and we weren’t sure how Cricket was going to handle that. Cricket can be possessive of her toys, and she is used to being in charge and getting things her own way. Luke doesn’t know or care about all that, and she has handled his antics far better than we thought she would. At first she’d get impatient with him and maybe bark or snarl at him a bit. Now most of the time she takes it in stride, and happily chases after him and does what she can to get the ball away from him. Sheba follows along doing the same thing. Luke will most of the time run under the pine tree, or up under the deck where the patio furniture is stored, and weave in and out of the furniture to try to keep away from them (I see agility in his future). Eventually he’ll give it up and one of the girls will bring it back to me. And the game goes on.
Follow the Sheba from Janet Keefe on Vimeo.
One day I think Cricket was deliberately dropping the ball several feet away from me so Luke could get it. She knows the command “hand” which my husband taught her, which means she delivers the ball either directly into our hand or drops it at our feet. Even when I gave that command she’d drop it further away from me and there was no way I could grab it before Luke did. On the other hand, yesterday she was delivering it closer to me, or guarding it between her own paws until I could get it. I guess she was more serious about playing that day, and didn’t want any screwing around. I still let Luke get it a few times and she accepted that and chased him.
It will be interesting to see how the game changes as Luke gets older and begins to chase and catch the ball himself. After all, rules are made to be broken, right? As long as Cricket gives her approval, that is.
Luke Keep Away from Janet Keefe on Vimeo.
My parents dogs have there own game, and Charlie isn’t a fan of joining. One will swim out for the stick, and the other one will steal it at shore causing an uproar everytime. Charlie will swim or for it, but if he doesn’t get there first he does a but of a creeper stare until the stick us dropped and than does a few circles before bringing it back.
They all have their own way of playing, that’s for sure. In the past we had a couple of fights break out over toys, so we have to keep a close eye on things!
So much fun in the snowooooowooooo! Wish I could join you! xoxoxo, Ku
We wish you could come have fun with us in the snow too, Ku!!!
This would be great for #ThrowbackThursday blog hop too! Love Dolly
I didn’t even think of that, Dolly! I’ll keep it in mind from now on though!
Those videos are adorable. The dogs are having so much fun. I think Luke is fitting right in. 🙂 I cannot remember if you know about his parents. He looks like he might have pointer in him. His markings and that tail remind me of pointer.
Thank you! I think he is fitting in too and he really has livened his sisters up. We only know that Luke’s mother was a Lab or Lab mix. Since he came from the south, we feel pretty sure he has some sort of hunting dog in him. Our vet thinks hound dog, and he definitely seems to have a hound nose. We had a DNA test done though, and I’ll be sharing about that when we get the results…I hope to do a giveaway with people guessing his results!
Luke is so cute! Diesel takes the ball from our other three dogs, runs away and won’t give it back. We have to chase him down and pry it out of his mouth! Puppies are so much fun!
Apparently keep away is a much more fun game for puppies than fetch. They really are so much fun, and Luke has really gotten the girls moving more too! BTW, I haven’t been able to catch Luke myself! 🙂
We enjoyed the videos too and that game looks like lots of fun…except for that cold snow!
Glad you enjoyed them, Brian! We don’t mind the snow too much…as long as the temperatures stay near or above freezing. We’ve had a good spell lately, but the cold is coming again we hear.
I think you did a nice job with your videos! They were all really cute 🙂 I need to start doing more videos again too! Anyways, looks like everyone is having fun. Shiner’s idea of fetch is to go get and run really far away. She has never returned the ball or stick in her entire life! lol
Thank you, Ann! I also wrote a post once about how Cricket (the beagle) does all the retrieving, and the two goldens would never bring the ball back. But actually, Sheba does bring it back sometimes now. Kobi would never dream of it though!
Great job on posting up your first videos, they were great, you even added a title! See you will get there! Great photos, love the ones by the pine tree, just something beautiful about the green pine trees in the photo. Have a great day.
Thank you! Luckily the software I have on my computer made some of that easy. I just need to take a bit more time with it. The pine trees do look beautiful in the snow! Hope you’re having a great weekend.
It’s not always easy to watch dogs work things out, even in play, but your gang is doing great. Ike tries to play with Kelly but she gets easily overwhelmed. She also doesn’t like to share any toys. But Ike has a great nature and doesn’t get bothered by any of it.
I’m glad Ike and Kelly are working things out too. We do have to watch Cricket closely especially inside the house with toys, she can get a bit wound up sometimes, and forgets to be gentle with Luke.
I guess the disadvantage of having 3 dogs. When I was young many dogs at the beach park take my toy. I was taught not to chase my toy … I just Woof and request for a new toy to throw. Happy FitDOgFriday. BTW: we followed you on Vimeo, which we love as the quality is Pawsome. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
Cricket would be happy to play by herself. In fact today, my hubby let her play her own game and played another with Luke and Sheba, and that seemed to work well.
Thank you for following me on Vimeo…I hope to do a lot more with it and I’m glad to hear you like it too. I wasn’t sure if that was the best one to go with or not, but I like the fact that there are no ads.
So cute! How funny that Cricket used to always get the handoff.
Wish we had a nice big yard like yours. It’s hard to play games with Rita in our backyard. Most of it is a VERY steep slope, and once a ball goes down there, it’s rare to see it again, so we mostly have to play in the house. And she’s not crazy about the hardwood floors. Oh, what a rough life she has!
Cricket really does run the game!
The only problem we have with the yard is if the ball bounces out. Cricket gets obsessed with getting THAT ball back, and won’t play with another one!
Loved the videos! 🙂 Your dogs look like they were having a blast! It’s always interesting to see how a new pup changes the play dynamics!
Thank you! It is so fun watching them….and it has also been fun watching their relationships grow too.
I think your videos were great! A wonderful post today to!!
((Husky hugz))
“Love is being owned by a husky”
Thank you so much!! 🙂
The videos came out great – well done. What a nice yard you have for them – lots of space to run around. I love hearing about how Luke is fitting in and how the others are reacting…educational as I contemplate the whole 3rd dog idea.
Thank you! We are very lucky to have our big yard…it makes life much easier when having multiple dogs. I was a little nervous about getting another dog but so far we are very happy with how it’s been going. Jack and Maggie seem pretty easygoing and would probably do well with another sibling! 🙂
Love the Beagle sniffin’ in the first video,that would be Bailie and I. None of us girls play with a ball, no interest. If a friend is around and playing ball, Katie will catch it and play keep away to get chases since we all love to play chase and wrestle. Mom is actually happy that we aren’t dogs that are fixated on balls or toys, but she enjoys it when cuz Lena the Lab visits and she can use the tennis ball flinger for hours, but she is happy it is just for a few days. One day Luke will show the other two who is boss. He will be big before you know it and possibly take over the job of master of the dog herd.
Kobi is the only dog we’ve had who didn’t like to play ball. He might have chased one a little bit when he was younger, but he basically has never had any interest either. Yes, having dogs that are fixated on balls is definitely not always a good thing….sometimes we feel like we never get a break from it! Your Mom is lucky she can just enjoy it for a little bit and then be done with it.
Oh boy, you are probably right about Luke, he is really growing fast!
Just love all the pictures and video’s. I love my ball more than anything xxoxx
Mollie and Alfie
Thanks! We wish you could come play with us too, Mollie!
Love the pics, Jan. They came out great! Good job with the videos too. It’s nice to see Sheba & Cricket playing so nicely with Luke! Lots of happy tails in those videos! 🙂
Thanks, Sheryl! It is great to have the dogs all playing together, and I’m so happy to see Cricket and Sheba enjoying themselves more. I hope to do more better videos soon too!
Some of the funny things happen when you get your dogs out and throw a fetch toy across the yard. It is some of our best times with our dogs!
Our weather has been much better lately (not frigid cold) so we’ve been able to get out there more too!