I was walking the dog today, and some kids were playing with a tennis ball that got away from them and bounced right up to Brio. Now, you have to understand that Brio is extremely fond of balls and will play fetch for hours. If you go to the park without a ball, he will bring you twigs and leaves and old water bottles, placing them before you on the ground and then waiting tensely, eyes on the object, waiting for you to throw it for him. He'll hold that pose for minutes on end, hardly breathing, waiting to explode into action. So when the tennis ball rolled up to us today, I loosened the leash and figured he'd go fetch it.
Only he didn't. He didn't bat an eye, just walked past it as if it wasn't there.
It made me wonder if dogs have a sense of ownership. This was clearly someone else's ball, not his, so he left it alone. And I recalled that when my grandkids were living with me, Brio wouldn't ever touch their toys left on the floor. He'd only play with his own. No one ever told him to "leave it" or taught him not to touch. He just did it on his own. So...yeah. I think dogs understand the concept of ownership, of mine and not-mine. Interesting! I hadn't pondered that before.
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