Play

Brea is starting to come out of her shell, and we're learning how to play together.  A few days ago, at the bottom of the hill on one of our walks, she looked at me with a rare doggie smile, panting, looking like she was laughing. She started acting silly, grabbing the leash in her mouth, and we started running together.  Now that's become a part of the routine.  She takes the leash, play bows, and starts running - up the hill - until I have to stop to catch my breath.  Then she leans against me while I rub her.  If I'm using a 20 foot lead she gets really silly, jumping and running around me, sometimes getting both of us tangled up.  She's also very fast and very graceful.  I wish I could run and hold the leash and take pictures at the same time.

We've also been on the ball field twice.  There, she'll run with me and chase the ball that I throw, but she doesn't seem to know what to do with it when she gets to it.  Sometimes neighbor cat joins us, but she has even less of clue about what to do with the ball.

This change in her is truly amazing.  She seems more relaxed, and is coming out of her safe place next to or under my bed more often.

Out of pure laziness and selfishness on my part, I'd like to be able to phase out the running up the hill part of our routine, and increase the amount of playing ball on the little league field.  She's wearing me out.