{"id":47215,"date":"2026-08-27T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/?p=47215"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:23:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:23:46","slug":"the-tennis-stars-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/the-tennis-stars-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tennis Star\u2019s Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Desiree is a two-and-a-half-year-old German shepherd, and much of her life revolves around tennis balls<\/a>. She will play fetch as long as someone keeps throwing them. She keeps a stash of the prized objects behind the couch. Fittingly, her person is Jessica Pegula, a top-ranked pro tennis player. <\/p>

But their bond goes far beyond a mutual fascination with hollow, rubber, felt-covered spheres. In fact, one thing that keeps Pegula close to Desiree and her other dogs, Maddie and Mabel, is that they don’t know anything about tennis—beyond the joy of chasing the ball itself. In her professional life, Pegula constantly has to perform under pressure. At home, her dogs keep her feeling grounded and loved.<\/p>

\"A<\/figure>

“They don’t judge me on my wins or losses.”<\/h4>

Pegula’s three dogs are always waiting for her once she sets her racket down for the day. And, no matter how her training session or match went, they give her the same reception.<\/p>

“The best part of having dogs is that they love you no matter what,” said Pegula. “With them I can totally turn off. They don’t judge me on my wins or losses.”<\/p>

In addition to her tennis ball obsession, Desiree “wants to work constantly.” She answers to the nicknames “Des” and “Ray” (or “Ree,” if you prioritize spelling over pronunciation). The latter is “her crazy alter ego name when she’s all over the place,” Pegula said. “‘Des’ is a little bit more formal.” Desiree is named for Pegula’s friend and podcast cohost Desirae Krawczyk. (While “podcast cohost” may not quite match “dog” in life’s closest relationships, it’s surely up there.)<\/p>

Maddie, a 13-year-old mini Australian shepherd, was Pegula’s first dog—and, she said, her “first real big responsibility as a pet owner.” Per Pegula, “she’s always everyone’s favorite.” Nicknamed “Maddiecakes,” she’s a sweet dog who loves being toted around enough that Pegula calls her “Portable Mads,” and who goes with the flow enough to earn the moniker “Adaptable Mads.”<\/p>

In the past year, Mads has had to adapt to vision loss—a common problem in older dogs. This has required some adjustments in her day-to-day routine and how she navigates her world—she needs some guidance to avoid bumping into objects, but still reliably sniffs out her food at mealtime. But, in keeping with her personality, “she’s still always really happy.” <\/p>

Mabel, the baby of the trio, is a year-old German shorthaired pointer puppy who came to Pegula’s family in November 2025 when her previous owner had to surrender her. Mabel immediately bonded with Des. “They are very much big sister-little sister energy,” Pegula said. Still, Mabel is her own dog and prefers staring down birds in the yard over hoarding tennis balls.<\/p>

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Serving up love<\/h4>

As an athlete, Pegula takes her nutrition seriously; as a dog person, she knows she has the responsibility to do the same for the pets who depend on her. That’s why she feeds Maddie, Des, and Mabel The Farmer’s Dog.<\/p>

She’s seen the difference real, minimally processed food makes, in the short and long term. As her dogs get older, keeping them healthy is a priority. “The Farmer’s Dog has been shown to support healthy aging<\/a>, which I think is great—because all my dogs are at different stages of their lives,” she said. “That’s also really important—to make sure that they feel good as they get older.”<\/p>

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A Lending Paw<\/h4>

Because Pegula knows the way the human-dog bond can transform lives, she and her husband started A Lending Paw<\/a>, a nonprofit that raises money to train service animals for people with disabilities. <\/p>

“We wanted a way to help people, but also help animals—and dogs specifically,” she said. A Lending Paw also funds organizations that rescue and rehabilitate dogs who have been abandoned, abused, or surrendered, ultimately rehoming them.<\/p>

She’s seen firsthand all the amazing things service dogs can do for their people. She recalled a former tennis coach’s young daughter who was diabetic, and whose service dog could even smell her blood sugar levels as she slept.<\/p>

Giving back has been worth it. “It’s been so fulfilling to see all the people we’ve been able to help,” she said.<\/p>

\"A<\/figure>

Partners for life<\/h4>

Pegula has been on TV, traveled the world, and played in Grand Slam matches in front of huge, cheering crowds. But none of this brings her the kind of joy she feels when she’s with her dogs. When she’s without them, no matter what else is going on, something is always missing. “If they’re not with [me and my husband] for one night, we’re like, ‘This is so boring,’” she said.<\/p>

Disclosure: Jessica Pegula is a paid partner of The Farmer’s Dog<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s how Jessica Pegula\u2019s three dogs keep her feeling loved and grounded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":47218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dog-people","category-featured-sidebar"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47215"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47329,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47215\/revisions\/47329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefarmersdog.com\/digest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}