Dog of Routine

I know that all dogs have routines of one kind or another. Shay likes to have her dinner right at 6:00pm, which is 5:00pm when the time changes. We have a very hard time pushing her back to 6:00 and convincing her we are not cheating her. It does not matter what we are doing at 6:00, she comes and finds us and insists we get to the kitchen.

After she has her chicken and kibble course, which she only eats the chicken out of she nudges us for her second course, which is a tablespoon of shredded cheese on her kibble. Somehow she is able to vacuum out just the cheese and then asks for her second cheese course where she will eat her kibble. Such a continental dog who has cheese as her dessert.

Then, we are allowed to have our dinner. She usually doesn’t beg for our food, but the second Russ puts down his fork she is all over him to get up. It is time for him to play with her in the sun room where her basket of toys are. He might not have finished dinner, but she drives him crazy to go in the sunroom where he lies on the floor and throws toys into the air. Shay will either catch them mid air or bounce them off her nose.

The ones she catches she might play with for a moment before digging in the basket to get a new toy for Russ to throw to her. This toy routine is as strong a habit as her dinner routine. She feels like she has not been payed her attention due without the toy time after dinner.

Who says you can’t teach a old dog new tricks. Russ was in his fifties when Shay taught him to come and play with her after dinner. There is nothing sweeter than a boy and his dog at play.