She's my shadow and my constant companion whenever I'm home. She follows me everywhere except into the shower or the pool. For some reason she's a rare Border Collie/Mc Nab Dog since she doesn't care for water. But all this following has me watching what she does as much as she watches me.
The image of a dog in the kitchen with doe-eyes staring back at you wanting what ever it is that you are eating is a common one. Lettie is food motivated. If there's a shop, she'll sniff around for attention but if you give her a cookie (COOKIE!!!!!!) she'll stop by even if the place is cold and shuttered. She did that when I lived in Philadelphia, she does it here. Being arguably one of the most beautiful working dogs I've ever seen, people tend to want to pay attention to her and pet her even while drunk. So needless to say there is a tendency for the food-feedback cycle to work.
Even with me. Lettie knows that if I say "Not For Dogs" not to bother. When I bake, I have to say that and she will curl up into a dog ball and watch with half an eye open as I bake or cook. And cook I do!
On the other hand, in the morning, after I walk her, all I want to do is go on auto pilot and make my Chicken Pattie on a Biscuit, Grits, and Yogurt and not think about it. I don't have that every day but easily four out of seven, that is what is on the menu. She knows not to beg in the morning, and while I am a morning person, I'm not a particularly cheerful one until after I've eaten. She gives me a little room until I open that one drawer in the refrigerator where I keep the pots of yogurt then she's glued to my calf and BEGGING! for some. I have been told a teaspoon a week keeps them regular and I do it infrequently so I do give in. Yes, Pavlov, you can have some so stop drooling on my right boot, OK?
Lately I've been getting the cases of Activia from BJ's wholesale. Its fruit flavored yogurts are good, not excellent, and they're fairly cheap and low calorie if you get the "Light" variety sweetened with Something Artificial and Cancer Causing. When I have Activia I have two little pots of the stuff for a total of 140 calories. I find that their Vanilla flavour is EXCELLENT. Apparently so does Mrs Dog because when I have the vanilla, she's practically climbing the wall for a taste.
As an experiment, I left more blueberry in the pot and less in the vanilla side. They come attached in a sheet of 2 by 3 pots and I have them attached. She would sniff at the blueberry then attack the vanilla not returning to the other until the vanilla was well and truly licked.
I guess good tastes are universal. I'll have to give her some of the vanilla more often since she likes the stuff, but now I'll have a Beggy Dog. There goes my Dog Training Award, right down into the bin with the empty pot of Vanilla Activia Yogurt!
No comments:
Post a Comment