Belle is the “sneakiest” of all our dogs.  She loves to taunt the others by getting a tennis ball, and arousing them to chase her to try and get it.  She will keep the ball all day, and act like she is not watching so they will sneak up on her.  I have never seen her lose a ball to one of the others this way.  When she was a puppy, we nick named her “Sharp Tooth” after the T-Rex of cartoon fame, for her propensity to chew things up.  As an adult, she is the very best mother dog one could hope for. (She quit being so destructive at about 2 years of age when she had here first liter of pups.)  Daisy and sam are her parents, by the way.  daisy is retired and sam died in the summer of 2008.  gracie is her full sister (although about 5 years different in age) and they look very much alike.

belle is shown “guarding” a ball below, from some of her pups.  In the last photo, one of our granddaughters is trying to get Belle to pose for the camera.  Belle’s interest is elsewhere.