Psycho Dog

For those of you who have been keeping up to date, I am puppy-sitting a Boston Terrier for a friend while she's on vacation. Her dog, Spud, is just as spoiled as my three dogs, and that is saying alot.

Just by happen-stance, I found out Spud is very tennis ball motivated. I do mean VERY MOTIVATED. The other day, my son suggested we all go to the tennis courts to hit some balls back and forth. Good idea. So, we all went; my son, my daugher, my three pups and Spud. Now, Jake (the westie) gets excited when others are excited and Sydney (the schnauzer) couldn't care less about chasing balls. She was perfectly content to sniff around the fence and keep a look-out for squirrels. Annabelle (the scottie) does love chasing balls and tennis balls are more interesting than regular playground balls. Tennis balls have fuzz that must be ripped off at all costs. Little bits of electric green fuzz get stuck in between her front teeth and she looks, well, silly. But, Spud, he is obsessed with the tennis ball.

For two hours, he ran and chased and sprinted and retrieved and begged for that tennis ball. Even when he had one in his mouth, he still needed to chase after the one being hit back and forth. Whenever one of us missed a hit, he was there. Tennis turned into an energetic game of keep-away.

Together, my three pups and Spud, drank 1/2 liter of water during the rare rest. Okay, it was mostly Annabelle and Spud who drank the water. After about 1 hour and 45 minutes, Spud started to slow down. He was so exhausted that a lone tennis ball rolling gently past him received a mere longing look. I really didn't think the poor guy was going to be able to walk the three blocks home. He was pooped.

On the short walk home, Spud needed to take a break. He stood still, panting. I think he would have collapsed right then, if I had not forced him to keep going. By the time we reached home (a 3 minute walk that took nearly 10 with 4 pooped pups), Spud crashed. He sprawled out on his belly allowing for maximum skin contact with the hardwood floors.

Too tired to even drink more water, Spud passed on eating his dinner. He normally eats sometime between 5:30 and 6:30. It was nearly 8:00 by the time he raised his his head high enough to eat. Immediately following his meal, Spud went to bed.

He snuggled down under the covers in the bed and didn't move until 10:30 the next morning. Wow.