Insanity

No matter how much I love my golden retriever Copper, I must admit that he is completely insane. Seriously. He is the best dog though. Copper doesn’t bark, he is always happy to see us, and he just plain listens and responds when we call him.

The insane part though is what is called his ball drive. Copper loves to play fetch. No, loves is not a strong enough word. Throw a stick and you are his best friend in the world. Throw a ball however, and you have been raised to the status of icon in his eyes. We don’t have to throw it far to have his giant wagging tail going full bore as he crashes into the wall in his excitement to find the object you threw for him.

While this is fun at times, it has gotten out of hand! He will bring a ball to you at all hours of the day, the only thing I can do sometimes is ignore him. If I am sitting on the couch, he will plop a slobbery ball right in my lap. If I ignore this, he will push the ball with his nose till it is in my hand. If I ignore him still and get up out of my seat for a moment, I will have a ball waiting for me right in the middle of the seat when I get back. If I take away a ball, put it high up so he can’t get it, there will always be another one found in the house. There is always another ball.

When chasing something, the rest of the world does not exist. My children could be standing right in front of him when a ball is thrown, and suddenly the girls are flat on their back because he ran full boar into them. All that exists is the ball.

Last night though, SH and I were sitting on the couch when Mr. Ball drive came over begging to play. SH made the statement that Copper would chase anything we threw for him and I decided that we should test that theory. We threw small boxes, balls, even a shoe. Each were returned by a very proud dog. The best one though was when we rolled up a small piece of string and threw it. We laughed so hard when the big lug came back with the string hanging out of his mouth.

My favorite all time Copper moment though came while we were up in the mountains cutting down our Christmas tree. There was about three feet of snow on the ground when I threw a snowball for Copper. He sniffed and hunted for that “ball” for ten minutes before I felt bad for him and called him back. I wonder if he still dreams of the one that got away.