Callie talked me into playing soccer with her when she was eight weeks old.  In this photo, she’s a few weeks older, but not many.  As you can see, she’s not much bigger than the soccer ball — which is only about 2/3 inflated.  I would kick the ball, and Callie would race across the yard to trap it under her tummy.

As Callie has grown, her soccer skills have improved.  She still invites (begs!) me to play soccer at least once a day — and sometimes more.  She still races across the yard and traps the ball.  Sometimes, she puts one of her front paws on the ball and poses, as if to say, “I am the conquering hero!”  The other difference, now that she’s older, is that she does “nosers.”  If she were a person, you’d call it a “header,” but Callie’s nose gets in the way of her forehead, so it’s a “noser.”  Here are a few photos of Callie doing nosers.

It’s amazing to see the ball literally “pop” off her nose.  It makes a loud sound, because the ball in under-inflated.  I try not to overdo it, because I wouldn’t want Callie to hurt her nose.  It was never a problem until about ten days ago.  I kicked the ball high for Callie to do a noser, and she jumped up, but turned her head away from the ball.  After she did a few of these, I decided her nose needed some rest.  Fortunately, it rained so hard in Southern California that we couldn’t play soccer for a few days, anyway.  After things dried out, we tried a few gentle nosers, and, sure enough, we’re back in business.

To fully appreciate a “noser,” you have to hear one; we’ll get some noser video up on this blog in a few days.

The thing I love most about my soccer games with Callie is that it’s her thing.  I love playing with her, but it was her invitation originally, and she still invites me to play every day!  What better form of dogbonding?

The “Dog Appreciation Lessons” CD, eighteen “best of the best of” clips from the “My Doggie Says…” radio talk show (KFNX 1100 in Phoenix) is up now on CD Baby.  Click on this link to see it.

Because of Jamie’s (the heroine of “My Doggie Says…), gentle dog nature, my granddaughter Lauren had a wonderful relationship with her.  Check this out:

In the above photo, Lauren is about one year old.

Now, Lauren is almost five years old, and her sister, Amelia, is almost three.  And they are trying to learn how to get along with Callie, a two-year old puppy who has a wonderful doggie nature but is so rambunctious she scares Lauren and Amelia at times.

It’s been a bit of a struggle to have the girls around with Callie off the leash, so we enlisted the dog training help of Brian Lee, an expert and experienced dog trainer (who appeared on the “My Doggie Says…” radio show on March 18, 2009).  In one session, Brian helped Barbara and me “adjust” our relationship with Callie in order to command a little more “doggie respect.”

Then, Brian brought his dog whispering skills to Lauren and Amelia.  He helped them have more confidence around Callie — and to know how to react to Callie’s enthusiasm.  And he taught Callie to be calmer around the girls and that their “stinkies” (security blankets) and snack food are “off limits.”

After the session with Brian, Callie’s Golden Retriever dog nature came to the fore, and she performed like a champ.  This one-minute video shows Callie playing soccer with Amelia (who had been afraid of Callie) and then both Lauren and Amelia in our Jacuzzi with Callie bouncing around the edges.

Thanks, Brian!  You worked a miracle for us!!!  It was a great example of dog behavior modification.

Sometimes doggie-messages are pretty easy to understand. Here’s an example of some dog-talk that was not hard to interpret.

Callie, as you know, is a soccer dog. She just loves to play soccer with me. And the thing I love most about it is that it’s Callie’s “invention.” When she was still a puppy, she would invite me to play soccer by standing behind the ball, as if to say, “OK, Fred, show me what you’ve got!”

Here’s an update on Callie’s soccer skills, photographed recently by Barbara:

That’s all by way of background so you can understand what happened yesterday, when Callie went for a walk with Lauren and Amelia, our two grandchildren.

As we walked along, we could hear a brother and his sister practicing soccer in their driveway. They were kicking the ball to each other, and, occasionally, kicking it into a “goal” on their garage door.

When we got to the driveway so we could see the two soccer players, Callie froze in place. She sat down and watched the two kids with so much intensity that she started to quiver. At that moment, there was nothing in the world she wanted more than to join in the soccer practice. It showed in every bone in her body.

My heart really ached for her, because I knew exactly what she was thinking and how much it meant to her. For a minute, I truly wished I could just take off her leash and let her run & join the soccer game. She would have chased the ball down and trapped it under her tummy. Or, she might have done a few “nosers,” doggie versions of the “header.”

But then, of course, reality set in. Dog off the leash. Scared kids, who don’t know that Callie is a good soccer player. And so forth.

It just made me vow to make sure Callie gets to play soccer more often and to honor her very polite requests for a soccer game in our back yard.