This is the routine in my home. I get up in the morning, make coffee, read the paper, feed birds, give dogs each half a treat in the kitchen while making toast. Sometime late morning or early afternoon I come down to my office. The dogs each get half a treat in the office from a different container. And that is pretty much it for treats as Rizley is getting a bit of a potbelly.
Today, the morning routine was followed up to the point where I went to my office to work and the dogs got a treat before I started. Today I didn’t come right downstairs as I was working on my part of the Thanksgiving dinner and didn’t have much waiting for me on the computer.
About 3, I fed the dogs their usual meal of dry dog food with some fresh turkey and then decided to come down to my office and check on email, etc.
The same dogs that had just eaten a very fulfilling meal but minutes before raced downstairs with me and haunted my every move in the office. They were getting frantic. I asked if they wanted to go out. Nope. I took this answer as permission to start giving the birds their afternoon treats since the dogs clearly had no pressing needs.
If anything, they grew more frantic as I left the office. They followed me into the bird room, almost tripping me at every step. They crawled under the birdcages so they could stick their heads out from under there and stare at me. That’s when the answer finally dawned.
I went into the office, gave them each the half treat they’d not gotten that morning and after eating them, they went off to their respective spots and fell asleep.
Try to tell me dogs can’t count!
