At least once a year, we have a specific visitor who stays a week or two. Winslow is a beagle, and a tolerant one given that once he is at our house, his world changes from his usual sole dog role to our world where he becomes dog number ten.  He is pretty quiet, gets along with most of the herd of dogs and isn’t really any trouble. Just before he arrived, I mowed our “play yard,” an area of about 100 by 100 feet that is fenced with chain link. Winslow likes wandering around in that yard, being a beagle and sniffing the ground for any forgotten dog toys or other things that might interest him. He is easy to spot out there since the tip of his always wagging tail is white, resembling a small flag up in the air.

When Winslow is brought into the house, he’s fed separately just to avoid possible food fight issues with the other dogs and then let out to sniff the floor and conduct his own private investigation to make sure there have been no changes from the last time he was inside the house. Then, he checks the big German Shepherd’s food dish, presumably to make sure the food quality is acceptable, and that is the approximate time that one of us needs to discuss how this quality management role is not in Winslow’s best interest, since the Shepherd is busy doing some talking of his own.