Dogs--just like kids, only worse.

So this afternoon, I cook up a bowl of beef chunks and mushrooms for lunch. Murphy comes into my office while I'm eating and commences to stare at me until I tell him to lie down because the staring is just "begging lite" and it annoys me. When I finish, I set the bowl down on a chair and resume reading the news. Murphy walks over and takes a swipe at the bowl and I yell at him give him a correction and send him out of the room. He goes over to the window and stares out for a bit, and then he commences to whine softly. I look at him but he just looks out the window and whines.
Well maybe he wants to go out there. I get up, go over, and open the patio door for him. He doesn't want to go out. I close the door and walk back to my office. He whines again.

Maybe he wants to go out to his run. I walk through the library and call him to the back door that lets out into his corral. He comes, but stops short. I open the door and again, he doesn't want to go out. I look at him and he just sits and whines again.

"What?" I exclaim. "What do you want? Show me."

He stands up and walks back into my office and stops before the bowl, where he whines again.

He wanted the bowl. He was whining because he wanted the bowl.

He was WHINING because he wanted my bowl.

Where do they learn this stuff?

And why did I subsequently give him the bowl before I pondered this? THAT'S not going to reinforce anything annoying.





Ya, but I got the bowl. Yum!