Rekindling his love for ropes and tugging

We went on a long walk yesterday after work and we met a 17 month old corgi named Tug. He was a cute tri-colored foxy looking corgi bailey played chase with. Tug was on a diet and couldn't move as quick, and Bailey easily took advantage of this. Bailey would lay down in a *oh look im not doing anything but just munching on grass* fake-out, and Tug would run over thinking he could ambush Bailey.. well... not so easy Bailey would say. Bailey would jet off in the other direction and lay down again *munches on grass*, and as soon as tug would get within a feet, bailey would jet off again. It was so cute and hilarous. They did this about 10 times, then ran over to one spot together and took turns rolling in whatever they use to feed the grass. How cute!. We hope to run into them again sometime soon. Bonnie & Tug. Tug reminded me of TUG-o-war and Bailey's rope toys. We have a two tier toy box in the living room. Naturally, bailey cannot reach the second tier.Yesterday, I went over to browse around (he came running becuase the handheld vac was right next to the toybox and poor thing was freaking out and attacking it like i was going to use it)... and instead of grabbing the vac, i grabbed an old rope toy. He was so excited! Nearly at the bottom of the bin, he probably hasn't seen the toy in over 6 months! He has always loved to play tug-o-war. I think it might be a manly sorta thing with bailey - he grunts and woofs and likes to show off his strength. Boy.. for a dog less than a foot high at the shoulders.... he is strong..hahaah. Look how happy and excited he is to play with the rope!

We were advised against tug-o-war when Bailey was a puppy since some sources say that tug-o-war leads to dog agression. In intermediate obedience class, Bailey and I learned the proper way to play tug-o-war. You essentially grab the toy so that you have complete control of it (i.e. in case of a rope toy it would be both ends of the rope), and the dog learns that in order to continue playing, the dog needs to drop the toy on command, and will get the toy back as a reward. The dog is never to "win" the game of tug-o-war (thus the need for complete control). Anywhoo, bailey and i do quite well at this except when I'm trying to film him while playing tug-o-war, but he does pretty well with the drop-it command.


The pictures are a bit dark. I took them last night indoors without flash! I also took a video in black and white mode on my digital camera that you can watch here. Enjoy!

Yesterday night I was trying to play peek-a-boo with bailey and he had that bewildered look on his face like... WTH!. :) and, i let Bailey on my bed last night and the first thing he had to do of course was cut some cheese... then jump off. WTH is that?!?!?