Thursday, December 16, 2010

If you give a dog a peanut...

So I'm having some peanuts for an after-dinner snack. Roasted in-the-shell peanuts. I'm eating them in my office and New Dog walks in.

N ow I have yet to give him any people food, and I don't plan to get him hooked on that vice like every other dog I've ever had has been. He watches me crack open shell after shell, and as usually happens, I drop a few on the floor every now and again.

New Dog does not beg from me--his manners are very good in this regard. He just lies on the floor and watches me without even trying to get a morsel.

Finally, I've had enough. I put the bag of peanuts on a small table behind me and I clean up the shells and such that have missed the bowl and fallen to the floor. For some reason, I put the peanut bits into New Dog's dish. Why not? It's just a couple of peanuts...what can it hurt?

I resume reading and typing, and a few minutes later, I hear crunching behind me. I don't pay it much mind at first, because this dog is always chomping on the bones that I've given him, but then I hear what sounds like cellophane. WTF? I turn around and New Dog is caught in the act reaching into the peanut bag for another mouthful of peanuts. And on the floor behind me is not a bone, but rather the broken, wet shells of a couple dozen or so peanuts that he's already helped himself to. I guess that he likes them now.


Aaarrrrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

3 comments:

  1. So much for "not" feeding him! hehe!! ;)
    Despite Kira eating home-cooked food every day, she really doesn't beg. If I tell her "No. This is mommy's," she just walks away and does something else or lies down to watch me eat.

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  2. Did he give you the "beagle stare" -- watching every morsel as it moves from your fingers into your mouth? Our late beagle taught that move to our black lab and he uses it on my husband during his daily peanut/pistachio fix. The lab has added his own technique, though -- he stares AND drools.

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  3. No, he's been remarkable in that as soon as I come out of the kitchen with a plate of food, he goes and lays down in the other room and rarely even looks at me. I can even mess with him by taking my food to where he is...he'll get up and move again. I guess the peanuts didn't register as the sort of food that he's not supposed to beg for.

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