Our one-year old tri-colored Collie, Douglas, loves toys. Specifically, he loves stuffed dolls like this one we purchase for him. This particular one squeaks when squeezed in two separate areas...he loves it! He'll walk around the house with his doll du jour in his mouth, gumming it, playing with it, just having a great old time with his plaything.

His real pleasure, however, is when he can rummage at leisure through the wooden box where we store balls, stuffed dolls, chewies, etc. for our three Shelties...

It was Tuesday, 5/2/06 and Declan, our alpha Sheltie (from whence he earned the nickname The Little King), was scheduled that day to have his teeth cleaned at our Vet's office.

My bride makes a concerted attempt to brush the teeth of all FOUR of our dogs. But Declan always is the most difficult, most irrascible of all of, constantly jerking his head away, growling and altogether making the expeience most unpleasant for all involved. Although at one time this included trying to take out his frustrations on the other dogs by attacking them, my bride very quickly learned to separate the pack. We're adherents to that old tenet "divide and conquer."

And so, Declan's aversion to teeth cleaning earned him the distinction of taking a ride to the beloved Vet's office to have his teeth cleaned. Read on...