One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

I had to be at work early so I was downstairs by 6:30. Ray was frisky. When Ray is tired, mornings are peaceful. This morning was not one of those mornings, I could hear him whining while getting ready for work. He met me at the bottom of the stairs with a rawhide bone in his mouth, tail wagging, looking over his shoulder to entice me to play. I grabbed the bone and tugged it and he took off for the living room, his usual route around the coffee table into the hallway and back again. I followed, then headed to the kitchen for breakfast. Ray settled down briefly in the hall with his bone, gnawing the end, then standing to toss it around some, then back down for a gnaw, then rolllling around on his back, feet flailing the air, groaning and growling and snapping his teeth, his bone just out of reach at the end of his nose. I could see Hugo on the stair landing, watching.

Ray settled down for a moment or two and Hugo appeared on the arm of the couch next to me. I went to get him a dish of milk. The black cat lapped at it while I held the bowl for him. Ray got up and ambled over to see what was up. Hugo hissed and growled. Ray took half a step back, his tail started to wag gently (uh oh). He put his butt in the air, front feet on the ground. Hugo growled.
"Don't do it Ray," I said, but I knew he would.
His tail was really going now. He wanted so badly to play with the cat. Ray let out a high-pitched bark (he rarely barks - actually I've only heard him do it when he wants to play with the cats and, sometimes, me). Hugo hissed one last time and ran for the stairs followed by Ray, his tail still wagging.

I wondered how this would affect the progress he had made over the weekend.