With Her ADHD
One of Ginger’s quirks, which I share with her, is ADHD. We both have issues with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The only difference is that Ginger’s hyperactivity is physical; she is always in motion. My ADHD is that my mind is always in motion.
Ginger’s ADHD is clearly seen. It is especially true when someone else is visiting our home. My daughter, Michelle, visited us for several days last week. Ginger could not stop racing around between Michelle and me. She would dart from where Michelle was sitting with a toy, then back to me with a toy.
Ginger does that circular motion over and over again. Then she will drop the toy and pick up what I call a chewy, and begin racing again between Michelle and me.
Sometimes, Ginger is so excited that bringing us a treat isn’t as important as wanting physical contact with us. Ginger is a 72-pound Irish Setter who thinks she is a lapdog and wants to be cuddled. If Ginger would lie still long enough to measure her length stretched out, she would be 5 or 6 feet long.
Michelle and Ginger attempt to stare each other down.
Ginger absolutely loves Michelle.
If we didn’t divert her darting around between us, she would continue for hours. One of my distraction techniques is to say, “Ginger, do you want to play marbles?” I put 2½ cups of her dry dog food into plastic water bottles, one for breakfast and another for dinner. I take a bottle and lie down on the floor, and use the small dog pellets as marbles. Ginger will attack the marbles as if they were animals in the wild. Again, she will continue to devour the predators as long as I provide them to her. Michelle played marbles with Ginger.
After an afternoon of hyperactivity, Ginger had dinner. For several hours, she will be relatively settled down. Around bedtime, Ginger knows the procedure. As I was getting ready to hit the sack, she was sitting at the door to Michelle’s bedroom. I went to bed, but Ginger remained wanting to see Michelle. Finally, in the middle of the night, I got up and quietly opened the door into Michelle’s room.
Ginger looked at me, as if to say, “Really, I can get into bed with Michelle?” I responded by telling Ginger not to make any noise and to get into bed quietly. She did. The next morning, just before dawn, I took this picture of Ginger lying next to Michelle.

This was one of the rare occasions when Ginger was able to control her hyperactivity as she waited for Michelle to wake up to play again.