Dog Speak

Sebastian and Howie are starting to discuss certain aspects of their budding relationship.

In spite of being the smaller dog by about 35 pounds, Sebastian has this puppy-brained idea that he is going to grow up to be Howie's boss. Here, in spite of the fact that Howie had just finished knocking him down and taking the eviscerated cloth duck away from him, Sebastian has the unmitigated gall (gall is always unmitigated, isn't it?) to stand stiffly beside How and put his muzzle on Howie's right ear. Note the upraised tail and straight posture. How rude!

Howie's tail has an answer for him: namely, that Howie is quite ready to leap up and thump him again. (And did, in point of fact, only seconds later.)

Clicking on the picture shows you a larger version, one in which you can see that Howie is not at all amused, and catch a glimpse of Howie's tongue moistening his lips for the next major showing of teeth.

It's only this past week that they've started tussling and physically playing with each other. Up til then, Howie seemed to consider Sebastian too much of a pup to do more than just ignore, and would just hop up into a chair and pretend he couldn't see the puppy yapping at him. A milestone has been passed, and now the playful posturing begins.

Well, maybe not all playfulness. From the sound in the next room, I believe Howie just instructed Sebastian why it's not a good idea to try to take Howie's dog cookie away from him.