Monday, July 18, 2011

The Old Dog

We've had a change in policy recently.

Howie is no longer allowed to play "ball" in the pool with his younger buddy Sebastian.

Six years younger, Sebastian combines all the verve of a younger dog with the obsessive need to rule of his border collie daddy. Howie has herding instincts, too, and Order hard-wiring from his Queensland heeler ancestry ... but keeping up with his brother pup is a problem.

A couple weeks ago, skidding on the concrete, trying to keep up with Sebastian, Howie ripped up one of his hind feet pretty severely. It's just now healing up.

Yesterday, we let the dogs out to play in the pool and Howie fell twice as he was racing around the pool deck. Bad falls, not stumbles.

Today we had How chase the tennis ball in the pool without Sebastian's competition. Howie leapt into the pool ten feet at a time, over and over, while Seb was in the house. Howie had good exercise, but didn't have to be competitive.

I know Howie loves to best the pup, but the fact is, the pup outweighs him by 25 pounds, and is 6 years younger.

When the time for pool play was past, Howie was ready to rest on one of the chairs on the back patio, just hangin' with his Daddy.

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