Is your dog just an animal that eats, sleeps and obeys your commands? Or is it really a part of your life? Do you have a good relationship with your dog? Is it one of your best friends?

Well, however you think about it, your dog probably has an opinion of its own. Here are a couple of ways to know how your dog feels about you. I work hard at having a “relationship” with my dogs, so I’m always looking for doggie feedback.

On the mornings when Barbara takes Callie to the side yard for her bathroom business, I often stay in bed for a few minutes. Or at least until Callie comes running back into the bedroom, leaps (we’re talking about 10 feet or so here) onto the bed, and smothers me with frantic, juicy doggie licks. It’s a fun expression of friendship, and I try to encourage it, so long as she doesn’t chew off my ear or nose.

The other recent expression of Callie’s friendship came when I returned home from a business trip. When I walked into the house, Callie broke into a frenzy of leaping, woofing, and spinning around in circles. She let me scratch her head and ears for a few seconds, and then she erupted into another leapathon. She’s gotten pretty good about not jumping up on people (including me), but she enjoys jumping straight up in the air to show her excitement.

The celebration lasted for several minutes, and it left me with the good feeling that Callie really sees me as her friend.

Barbara here (Fred’s wife, Callie’s mom) telling a tale while Fred is up north at a board meeting.

CalPal and I were running—-she with her beloved best ball in her mouth. It was a great run, out there in the early morning…

We approached the famous horse shoe curve on a local street, which has about a 9% down hill slope. All of a sudden, this cute golden retriever decided not to retrieve her ball but to gently release it from her soft mouth.

However, gravity took hold and as we watched in horror, it gathered speed, to almost 25 miles an hour, rolled across the yellow line and headed down hill. We did our best to catch up, but neither us can run at that pace.

I asked a cyclist going uphill, “Have you seen a ball rolling all by itself?” He said, “No, I can’t say that I have.”

RATS!

We checked every storm drain; they are quite big and would swallow a large cat. Let alone a small ball. We got to the stop sign, about 400 yards downhill, and no ball. Callie was really quite frantic, (sending those “lost ball” messages with all the doggie body language she could muster up).

Being a gracious dog lover, I looked at my watch (having to get home to go to work) and said to Callie, “Let’s walk back up hill, along the far edge and see if we can find your special ball.”

Sure enough, it had stopped in some overgrown weeds along the curb.

Hooray!!! The day is saved. I’m not sure that Callie really understands gravity, but she sure does know she got her ball back. No question this is a ball dog.

Until next time,

Barbara.

Well, so much for the “doggie trust” I wrote about a few days ago.

Yesterday, Callie found a slightly chewed up (rubber) baseball which she fell in love with. We ran to Callie’s favorite bridge, where she voluntarily “touched the bridge.” But she wouldn’t let go of the ball so she could eat a puppy treat. What, no puppy treat? This is unheard of.

The other day, with the tennis ball, she trusted us to hold the ball while she gobbled a puppy treat.

Then, on to Callie’s “jumping rock,” where she always stops for a puppy treat. She hopped right up on the “jumping rock,” but she wouldn’t let go of the ball to accept a puppy treat. No amount of prying was going to get that ball out of her mouth. So much for puppy trust.

We jogged a slightly different route so that, if Callie dropped the ball, it wouldn’t find its way into a storm sewer and the Pacific Ocean. Callie held on for dear life. Actually this ball is pretty perfect for holding on tight. Callie can really wrap her mouth around it.

Finally, we got home, and we stopped to get the mail out of the mailbox. Callie put her baseball down just for a second — the first time in three miles — and, sure enough, it headed downhill toward one of the storm drains. So we did a quick one-hundred-yard dash and rescued the ball before it disappeared into a drain.

Inside the house, Callie still wouldn’t give up her ball. The ultimate answer? Puppy bribery! Four puppy treats in a bowl.

Golden Retrievers are bred to retrieve, so we’re glad to support Callie in her retrieving. It’s fun for us, and we know she appreciates our encouragement. It’s good for our doggie – people relationship.