[nagdu] Re Annoying Behavior

[Elizabeth Rene]

I was touched, yesterday, by the story of the German Shepherd dog guide who 
didn't want to eat her dinner without her human companion nearby.

This seemed so sad to me as I thought of my seven Labrador guide dogs.  The 
owner needed to be busy outside the kitchen at feeding time, and found her 
dog's refusal to eat alone to be a problem.

NB: If this story is about you, gentle owner, I apologize for not 
remembering your name.  You deserve to be addressed directly.  Let me just 
tell you about my own experience and thinking about feeding dogs.  If you 
want to write directly to me, please feel free.

I love to cook and to feed people.  It gives me great pleasure to savor 
their company and enjoyment of what I've made, and to express my fondness 
for them through food and a relaxing evening.  For most of my professional 
life, I have worked a 50-60-hour week, and have known what it is to be busy. 
So these evenings of cooking and entertaining have been oases from  stress 
for me.

My Labradors have all wolfed their twice-daily meals, and have not minded if 
I stepped away as they ate.  But they've all wanted me near while drinking 
water, to the extent that they've  stopped drinking if I moved away.

Each of them has shown me some way--by stopping to lick me, by flipping me a 
splash of water, or by washing me when they were done--that they wanted to 
share the experience of "dining" together.
I've always seen this to be a tender and sweet expression of my dogs' love 
for me, and have found deep peace in these moments.

Though sometimes I'd like to be doing something else, I've learned that 
mealtimes and watering for my dogs signify nurture just as much as they do 
the slaking of hunger and thirst.

And so I try to consciously offer my dogs' food and water with praise, and 
with the same loving attention that I give my friends.  And I do so with 
gratitude.

Praise and regular attention to their needs is all our dogs ask from us, and 
they work so hard for us in return.

How lucky we are that our dogs communicate so clearly that we matter to 
them, and that they want us near.

Best to all busy humans and your dogs.

Elizabeth