Seriously.

The other morning, I had both Ella and Captain out to wander/play in the downstairs living/tv/office room. I was in the bathroom with the door open, putting on my makeup. Keeping a close eye on Captain (he puts everything in his mouth), and an ear out for Ella b*tchiness.

I hear Ella doing her 'angry whine'--it alternates between a growl and a whine and goes with anxious dog protecting something.

So I come look at what's going on.

Ella has a spiral Bully stick. Where the heck did this come from? I gave it to her 3-4 weeks ago, and hadn't seen it in 2-3 weeks. And I looked for it, but couldn't find it, so I figured she'd eaten it. It's like she hid it JUST for such an occasion as this.

What is Ella doing with the Bully stick?

Chewing on it, and telling a nosey Captain to back off, like a normal dog? No.

She's ROLLING IT TOWARDS HIM. Then she backs off a few inches, and sits, and half looks away. An invitation for him to take it, practically.

Then Captain goes to investigate yummy smelling object.

Ella lunges forward, grabs the Bully stick, growling at him. 'How dare you take it! That's mine!'

She then shoves it (holding it in her mouth) towards him, and does an extra loud MINE! growl. She literally shoved her Bully-stick-full face into his, as he was backing off, just to make her point. Like it hadn't been made already.

doG, she is such a B*tch.

(don't worry, said Bully stick was promptly removed by ME. And Ella was given a time out)

I shouldn't laugh, but I can't help it. Ella is SUCH a character!

Ohhhhhhhhhh, she's something else isn't she? Would have been a priceless video!

Oh, it's all about the princess gene. I love it. You go, Ella!

That is hilarious!

You don't think it was Ella's way of *gasp*...playing, do you?

I had the exact same reaction. I shouldn't admire Ella for that ... but I do. !

Don't think I didn't start laughing after I'd put her away in the room. She has such ATTITUDE! If we could just channel it a little bit better. I mean, to taunt a dog 3x your size with a delicious treat, that takes some balls.

'Ella! Stop being a $*it' is a commonly heard phase around my house.

Sounds like her attempt at playing. Too funny.

Ok, I'm going to have to get this on video. I'm sure she'll do it again if I give her a high value object.

Could this seriously BE playing? And not just evil rude taunting dog? Is this a totally inacceptable form of playing (ie--too possesive)? Or one that I could thoeretically let occur, as long as I monitor it?

I just told the rescue coordinator Ella still was refusing to play with Captain. Perhaps I just totally miss-defined 'play'

It could be play. I occasionally walk a sweet 10 year old golden and her 1 year old Lab mix "brother". The first time I met the dogs I thought the golden was going to kill the Lab puppy when he wandered close to her while she played with one of her gazillion toys. I'm looking around for a blanket or bucket or something to throw so someone can grab the Lab, but the golden just lay there and growled and growled. He wandered away and then came back when she squeaked the toy and it happened again. I was just over there last week and they play the same game with toys in the backyard. They do NOT play like this with Havana, only with each other.

Normally I say put the kibosh on growling, even during play, but in the golden's case it works and she's got lots of friends in the neighborhood so either she doesn't do it with them or they don't care.

my golden is a grumbly talky thing too. (Although I also call her my blond b1tchy one often too) - she growls all the time when she's playing. And she's been known to do the toss the toy at them, then growl at them game.

I pay more attention to pitch of growl, and the body language, than the growl itself. If it gets really high pitched (like a revving motor boat) and the tail *poofs* and stand up over her back, she is asked to leave the situation. If she is bouncing and shaking the toy and growling, and playing tugs, etc. I just montior....

My mom's dog can't read her. My dogs can. My mom's dog is REALLY submissive. Cassidy holds the toy out to her, and woofs. Georgia will grab it to tug, but as soon as Cassidy growls she drops it. The Cassidy will shove it in her face again..

Ella is too much! Bella sometimes grabs a toy and keeps shoving it in Roscoe's face 'til he grabs an end. Then she snarks at him, and he drops it. Then she rolls on her back and squeaks the toy.

She does the same thing to me and DH without the snarkiness - shoves a toy at us and then whips it away when we go to grab it.

Hahahahaha!!!! I TOTALLY know how she feels!!!!!!

I swear Ella and Bella are either long lost non-identical twins, or they sneak up at night and call each other with these ideas!

Ella totally does it to us (minus the growling). Especially to boy.

I'll bet they call each other at night. I was up way too late the other day, and Bella was really agitated. I'm sure it was because she had a call to NC to make after everyone was in bed, but by the time I went to bed, you were already at morning.

That is so funny, Ella is such a funny little girl.

I have seen Pepper do this with our other two dogs; particularly Bodie. She'll taunt with a toy and then lay it just in reach--then grumble and run off with it if her tauntee tries to get it. She doesn't do it with Abby as much because Abby plays dirty (I know, can you believe it??) Abby will either be fast enough to get the toy, or if Pepper grabs it away she'll make a beeline for Pepper's back legs and nom on her until she has to drop the toy to nom back. Then Abby takes off with the toy. I suspect this may be Ella's way of warming up to Captain a little, but still trying to be a little in charge of the game rules. She's like a crabby little old lady when the kindly old widower asks her out on a date--makes it really hard on him even though she might kinda like him a little!

Ella has officially adopted the "older sister, younger brother" routine at your house. Sounds exactly how I sounded towards by brother who is 3 1/2 years younger

Oh dear doG, i think she's *playing* with him.

Last night, she had a toy on the couch, he had a toy and was laying on the floor, and she kept pushing her toy off the couch (practically ONTO him), and then going to get it, with a little 'my toy! ha!' growl. Over and over again, for nearly an hour.

She took a squeaky toy this morning, and did the roll it to him, grab it back routine with it, then followed him around squeaking it in his face. There was less growling, and her tail was in a 'good' wag, and no hackles up.

Weirdest. Dog. Ever.

At least it seems she doesn't hate him as much as I was thinking

I think it's guarding but done in a way that hopefully will be non-confrontational. She's telling Captain, see this, this is mine. Zoe did a lot of it when Whisper was younger. She threw a toy on top of her and when Whisper tried to get it, Zoe would take it and growl at her. But of course Whisper didn't care and still takes things from Zoe and Zoe doesn't care. She's just establishing her territory. I don't mean to say she's being dominant but she's showing him what stuff he can have and what stuff he can't.

When Rigal was staying her, Whisper did stuff like that to him a lot. He'd walk in the bedroom, he wasn't really allowed and Whisper would run in the crate - telling him it's hers and to stay away. In the agility tent, she did it with her water container and the cooler with her treats - not his cooler or his water but with stuff she knew was hers.

They're so fascinating.

Yeha, i think there's definitely some guarding in there--I don't think it's just 'play'. More teasing. When he first got here, any time he walked near a toy, or near her if she had a toy, she'd posture and put her hackles up and do the stiff wag while growling. That I consider 'serious' guarding--ie she's willing to back up the growls. That got her time outs (and for a while, we had no toys out with two dogs).

I'd like to just have no toys out when they're out together, but Ella seriously mopes if she has no toys (though she can deal), and Captain *must* have something in his mouth at all times. He is a one year old lab mix, after all. If there are no toys, he considers the carpet or couch legs or the metal knobs on my desk equally acceptable chewing objects So I pretty much have to have something out for him so I can redirect him. And that means Ella also needs something, or she'll steal his...

It's still not a kind of play guarding I really want to encourage, but it's still definite improvement.

maybe she's setting up some lessons for him. You know just in case he's not clear on: what's mine is mine, what's yours is mine, anything I can see is mine, in my house it's all mine, if you have it, it's mine ......

Sammy---

Well, Captain's personal verdict is that she's playing with him. At least, he's decided to play with her.

She brought a toy to him, did the growling holdong toy in his face thing, he playbowed, popped up, and then smacked her across the back with his ginormous paw. He had this ridiculous grin on the whole time, and was wagging his little quarter tail.

Ella was *not* amused at being play-thwacked I personally found it awesome.

Perhaps she is doing her play growly....KaeJae does that when he wants to play tug...bring toy, smack me in the face with it, growly growly....hold it mama, tug...growly growly.....touch me and find my growly button and I will do it even louder. He plays the same way with other dogs...maybe she's just being vocal?

She always was/is a very vocal/growly playing dog. She was like that with Bonnie, and is like that with me. Of course, when she's truly pissed, she's also very vocal--it's a different growl, plus the hackles go waaay up, tail goes stiff, etc.

I'm thinking, since the tail and hackles situtation has changed around Captain, that it is more 'play' guarding/vocalization. There are also no angry teeth going with it.

The whole 'na-na na na naaa NA!' thing with the toys is so hilarious, and totally obnoxious at the same time.

So If they spoke English, I think this is what we'd have:
Ella: 'oh, this toy I've got here, you like my toy?'
Captain: 'uh-yep'
Ella: 'here, let me move it closer for you to see it.'
Captain: 'umm...errr...'
Ella: 'you want it, don't you?'
Captain: 'well, yeah, but...'
Ella: 'go ahead, give it a sniff. I don't want it anymore.'
Captain: 'sniff sniff'
Ella: 'HA! MINE! NOT YOURS! MINE!'
Captain: 'We're playing! yay!' (bows and paw thwacks Ella)

I think Ella and KaeJae are alot alike like that...KaeJae is such a tease...he loves to thwap Gina with a toy, she turns around to look and he does a sass growl and runs, as if to say, "I bet you cannot catch me"...to which, I believe she says "I can't be bothered with a dog...I am a princess"

I play a game with KaeJae, where I say, where is your growly button? Then I poke all over his body..then he does his play growl and puts his mouth on my hand...I say, oh, there it is, he takes his hand off and I go looking again.....yes, he is a spoiled monster.

Ella, Ella, Ella. What a card! Alissa can I put in a request for footage of this, pweeeeeeeeeese

I second the request!