Teaching Chloe

First off, we want to give lots of get well kisses to Daddy who has an eye infection and isn't feeling well. The Vet, err, Doctor, gave him some antibiotic eye drops to use. We hope he feels better tomorrow, or he may have to go to another Vet, err, doctor for his eye.

Although Chloe isn't technically a puppy anymore, she still has a lot to learn. Yesterday, during the Bills game, Chloe decided to play with my tennis ball. Nice idea for some new fun, but she had a few problems. At first, she wanted to chew it, but couldn't find a place to start. I know, small dog, small mouth. But, Chloe was able to pick it up and roll around with it, so I believed that chewing was still possible. After all, Chloe can rip apart a chew toy with the best of them.

So, since Chloe often turns to me for help and guidance, I took it upon myself to show her the finer points of ball chewing.

Chloe's a very smart girl, and a very attentive pupil. I don't think her looking at me had anything to do with my taking the ball from her. She'd put it down for a little while and was staring at it, so I knew I had to do something to help. In this photo, I was showing her how to rip off the cover of the ball to find a good chew hole to get the squishy part.

Well, I suppose I should have let her practice chew, but I got so wrapped up, I chewed the ball up before Chloe could get her chance. Hey, I thought we had more. We always have more. Aunt Pat or Daddy go into the cupboard and pull another one out. It's like magic! But, as she was cleaning up the mess, Aunt Pat said that the ball I chewed up was the last one in the house. She promised to go get more soon. So did Daddy. I know Chloe is a smart dog, but I may have to chew one of the new balls up just to refresh the lesson I gave her. Everyone can benefit from a brief review of what they learned before they put those concepts to use in the real world.