My pumpkin biscuit?

We usually give Ray his dinner and meds while we are preparing our dinner. It therefore follows that he has finished his before we start ours.

He knows that it is futile trying to beg for some of our dinner, but he also knows that if he leaves us alone, then when we take our plates to the kitchen, he will get a pumpkin biscuit! The pumpkin biscuit is very significant because it is always the final event in our dinner routine!

It gets complicated for him when we do not eat immediately after him (‘How do I get my pumpkin biscuit?”). Typically this scenario will play out because while he is used to eating around 5:15-5:30pm, we sometimes have other priorities and will eat around 6:00pm or a little later! Ray can be very patient, given the right incentives, and will get himself comfortable in a strategically good position to observe us…….. and he’ll watch every move!

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Above: “Are they ever going to get their dinner? I want my pumpkin biscuit. Hmmph!”

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Above: “Wait … did Colin just move? Perhaps not!”

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Above: “Yes! They are both moving! I can taste my pumpkin biscuit already!”

29 thoughts on “My pumpkin biscuit?”

  1. Since grad school – many years ago now – Shih Tzus have been my pick of the VERY few breeds I’m not allergic to, and every single one of them that has graced my home does something similar to Ray’s behavior. I swear they have a router on Rainbow Bridge that spreads info throughout the species.

    My dogs don’t get fed from the table, but if they will allow the two-legs to eat in peace (i.e., no begging!), they get to lick the plates when I clear the table after dinner and before they are washed (the plates, not the dogs). Not to worry – I scrape the plates first, but they have all loved to lick even the driest platter clean. It seems to have been what the dog trainers refer to as a high-value treat for my guys Took practically no time to train, and only one or two corrections to make it stick with the first one, who taught the next, etc., down through the years.

    While I’m eating they shoot “dog being good here, don’t forget there’s a dog here” rays out of their eyes, but they each learned, practically immediately, that if they bugged me more overtly I’d rinse the plates and they’d get nothing (besides their own dinner, of course, and a lot of love).

    I said all that to say this – even though he has always been an only dog, I never had to teach Tink. Even as a teeny-tiny newly home with me, he waited until I was ready to walk into the kitchen with my plate, watched me scrape it, then followed me excitedly to the side of the sink and sat looking up expectantly, wagging his little puppy tail.

    Since I picked him up from his doggy birthplace and saw the setup first hand, I promise you he didn’t learn it there. All puppies on solids were given tiny bits of broccoii, carrots, sweet potato, banana (etc.) as treats, but they were all raised on a premium puppy food from a dog bowl.

    Could have been the smell, of course, but still . . . he’d rather lick my plate than have me save him a piece of veg all his own. Dogs are incredible!
    xx,
    mgh
    (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
    – ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
    “It takes a village to transform a world!”

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      • And now he looks like he’s a very healthy sweetie pie. I’m a pacifist at heart, but I swear if I were to kill it would be anyone who neglects, abandons or is cruel to animals and kids.

        I wish I could rescue, but I have to choose between that and breathing, so I need to stick to purebred Shih Tzus. It would kill me to have to “return” a dog if I turned out to be allergic after a few days of exposure.

        I have told the animal rescue person here that if a situation comes up where a Shih Tzu must be re-homed (old age, mil. svc., etc.), as long as there are papers, I’d be a great choice.

        xx,
        mgh

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    • They never cease to amaze! Their abilities may be very limited compared to ours, but what they can do is rather impressive. If I were ever in “survival mode”, I think that I would look to Ray for guidance! 🙂

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  9. He’s like Hazel, my food-centric cat. Starting around 4:30 to 5, she stares or will sleep with one eye open to track us. It’s almost like she is trying to get us to eat telepathically. The cats eat right before we do. If she sees me open either the refrigerator or the pantry, she is there and ready. These are great shots of Ray.

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