What does the above image look like to you? A baby doll? A plastic version of a human baby? Right, that's what it looks like to me too.
The dog's perception is rather different to ours. Bender does not see the above object as a baby doll.
Can you guess what Bender thought it was? When we let the dogs loose at the Yardie Creek Caravan Park in Exmouth, Bender immediately started searching the yard for balls. He retrieved a couple from the kid's sand pit, and they were quickly confiscated. We were trying to have an adult conversation, and he was more disruptive than the kids.
Starved of balls, he found the youngest girl's doll and picked it up by it's head. It looked a little disturbing, him carrying a baby around in his mouth by it's head.
It was met with laughter and cries of "the Dingo got my baby!" (for those who aren't Australian, context of the quote here).
We also confiscated the baby doll from him, but from then on he was obsessed. He picked up the baby in preference to the boring old tennis balls every time. L joked that when her girl grew out of the dolls, we might be getting a very strange package in the mail full of baby heads.
Can you imagine throwing one for Bender in the park or at the beach?
