Ball Story

Togo has been, from a small pup, fiercely attached to toys. Not only doesn't he share his toys with the others (especially not his pet blue ball), he forcefully takes their toys and hogs them, not letting anyone else play.

Little Togo and his fav ball

 

Like this time I got them each a teddy bear. They took their toys and ran to a corner each to play. For a few minutes, at least. Then came Togo the tyrant - he bullied Tagar and Gamby in turn, snatched their bears and piled them up with his. And then he sat down guarding 'his' toys the whole day, while the girls sat some distance away staring mournfully at their bears.

The girls always in deference of Togo

 

Which is why I stopped buying the furry tyrants any toys, because Togo hoards them and nobody gets to play. The girls don't fight back because Togo is the alpha male*, and his word is law.

Kid has an assortment of toys, of course, but Togo has had no interest in most of them. Except for this lot of little brightly colored balls which he's constantly trying to collect and hoard.

Kid's colorful balls

So anyway, Kid has just morphed from baby to toddler, and after learning to be steady on his feet in the safety of his playroom he's now allowed to toddle around in the hall, amidst the 3 furry rugs lying about. Yesterday he was doing just that, toddling about playing with this toy and that.

He picked up a little blue ball, and immediately Togo sprang up and went to bully him into surrendering it. Babies are essentially self-centered creatures, for they are in the center of their limited world. Kid didn't want to give up the ball, and Togo tried to take it from his hand**, puzzled that Kid is not backing down like the girls usually do. It was interesting to watch the clash of egos, both staring eye to eye, being the same height, haha. Kid then threw down the ball and laughed gleefully when Togo danced maniacally around it. So Togo kept the ball and played with it after that.

Togo victorious with the blue ball

 

Then they all settled down for a nap (not together, of course!), the ball left forgotten on the floor. Much later Kid was again toddling about and found the blue ball. He pushed it around here and there, crawling after it. Kid was playing for some minutes before Togo noticed, and of course he leapt up, took the rolling ball and retired to his corner making the ball 'his'.

Uh-oh. Now you should know that taking anything from Kid while he's focused on it will set him off in a whine. Kid set off after Togo, whingeing his most annoying whine. He tried taking the ball from Togo but Togo fended him off. Kid then when into full tantrum, stamping his foot and whining whining whining whining whining whining ...

Two annoying minutes later Kid is still whining and stamping his foot. I wanted to intercede but I thought to let it be, partly from interest, and partly from trying to ignore Kid and teach him that tantrums don't get you your way. So kid annoyingly continued on stamping and whining whining whining whining

And Togo rolled the ball back to Kid.

Kid happily took the blue ball and continued playing. I think Togo gave up the ball just to make him stop the terrible noise. I laughed so hard at this - Togo the tyrant finally met a tyrant to match!

Who's the tyrant now?

* Alpha dog, that is. In this house I am the Alpha. You should never let your dog be the alpha in your family, in your place.
** Under very close supervision. Regardless of how much you trust your dogs, they still have teeth so always be careful around kids.