An introduction in three parts. Introduction for students of animal-human interaction ; Introduction for students of ethnomethodology ; Why I studied playing with Katie -- Playing with Katie. Personal history ; The Welsh Pembroke corgi ; Locating the phenomena of play: structures, orders, and motifs ; Locating playing ball with Katie ; The routines of play ; Vocalizations as part of the orderliness of play ; Vocalizations in play: March 23, 1997 ; My vocalizations during play ; Initiating play ; April 25, 1997: chance observation: "tennis anyone?" ; The field surfaces and boundaries of play ; Contingencies of play ; The subjective meanings experienced by players on a field of play ; Temporality of play ; The inner states of play ; General notes: what is playing ball with Katie ; The social situation of play: showing off ; Reactivity to the videotaping of play ; Field notes on Katie's stopping play ; Katie's hiatus continued ; Summary and discussion of autoethnographic and videographic data -- Mitchell and colleagues' videographic research about dog-human play. Mitchell's definition of play reflects this intentional approach ; Relationship of playing with Katie to Mitchell and colleagues' research -- On the use of natural language to describe dog-human interaction. "Piteous, hopeless dejection": the re-emergence of Darwin's anthropomorphism ; Language and behavioral operationalism ; A general phenomenological model of intersubjectivity ; Vicki Hearne on intersubjectivity between humans and dogs ; Latour's automatic door groom ; Mitchell and colleagues' treatment of anthropomorphism ; Anecdotes ; Concluding remarks -- At play and work: some reflections on companion dogs and working dogs. The social invention of companion ("pet") dogs ; Working dogs ; The dog-guide ; The trainer's dog: Vicki Hearne ; Conclusion: all dogs are socially constructed animals -- Continuities and discontinuities with other observers of dog-human relationships. Do dogs have minds? ; Understanding dogs ; The symbolic character of dog-human interaction ; Dogs as persons ; Dogs are disabled, symbolic-interactionally speaking ; Shapiro's empathic and bodily understanding of one's dog ; Sabaka's sense of space and place ; Conclusion -- What we learned.