Rosco finds the tennis ball

The other day at lunchtime I was playing with the tennis ball with Sheridan in the back yard. This may not sound that exciting, but it’s a great way to exercise both dogs at once since Sheridan chases the ball and Rosco chases Sheridan. We have done this a lot in the past few weeks, and after a little while of this Rosco got brave enough to steal the tennis ball! He held it up proudly and was charging around with it. Before Rosco joined us, when any other dog came near a Sheridan toy, you could bet on a fight breaking out. But to my surprise Sheridan did not attack him; she merely watched him (looking amused, I thought) and waited for me to return to the game. I was really impressed at his gumption to steal the ball, and her ability to let him play with it. Now the game has a second layer as every so often Rosco gets the ball and streaks off across the yard with it!

Later that night I was sitting on the floor with the dogs, and Sheridan was playing with the Quail toy. This is another situation where a fight would have been expected. She has always been super protective of her toys and would not permit any other dogs near them. On this night, as Rosco watched her rolling around and chewing a wing he slowly got closer and closer until he finally grabbed hold of the other wing and started backing up like a crab. It was a stand off, with the quail suspended by the wings. I was laughing too hard to do much, but I did manage to get a poor quality picture of the event. Again I was very impressed by his spirit to grab the toy while she was chewing it, and by her for not biting his face off!

I’m not sure what this all proves, but it sure is fun watching them learning to live together. KJ