You might ask yourself, “Self, what do the Mush Puppies DO on their day off?” It depends on the day, but often there is lots of free play in the backyard. This not only provides them with non-repetitive exercise that works different muscle groups than mushing, but they bond and get to just have fun and be dogs.

This is a typical warm up. We hardly ever put tree trimmings out for city compost to pick up because they love to do stuff like this.

Next, some wrestling. You can see (hear) that I’m not joking when I say I’m half-expecting AC to show up on my doorstep to investigate an anonymous tip about my dog-fighting ring any day now. Don’t worry, even though this video makes their play one sided they do actually switch roles regularly and they really ARE just playing.

Eventually they go their own ways for awhile. When Squash feels like playing again, he will usually start to dig a hole. This is actually Maisy-bait, and when she falls for it he does this…

And then, when she’s really REALLY done, he just zooms around for awhile.

They get free play without Pip for awhile first, because he has taken it upon himself to be the fun police. After everyone has settled down, he comes out and everyone does their sedate thing… a stick for Pip, and just smelling/ listening to/ watching the world go by for the youngsters.

We can all only hope to have as much fun today as the MPs. Happy Fourth, all!