This page was last revised on 7th January 2007
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"Ever consider what dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul -- chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!"
(Author: Anne Tyler)
According to me (but not Ian or Julie), my favourite food is just about everything! I can see food, and smell food and hear food from a great distance, even where it's a new food I've never seen or smelt or heard before!
The photo above was a photo opportunity arranged by Ian. We don't usually eat together because, at the moment, we have different types and quantities of food. However, we do drink the same kind of water. That isn't as silly as it sounds! For Gemma's first three days here, Ian and Julie had to boil her water and let it cool right down.
Some human foods can make dogs very poorly indeed, and some can even kill! My pets Ian and Julie know this and make sure that I have a balanced diet. That doesn't mean I have to stand on one paw while my food rests on top of a stick - it means I get the recommended intake of specially recommended dog food each day, with carefully dispensed treats, which I have to earn by sitting and dancing and twisting and turning and, most of all, feeling abit daft!
I suppose this is what humans mean when they talk about "Trick or Treat" - except that in this case, it's more like "Trick and Treat"! My favourite treats are those that are edible, including a little bit of hard cheese, one or two flakes of cooked chicken (white meat only) or a piece of apple, if I can make Ian take pity on me: a good tip at this point is to sit there looking like the most hungry dog in the whole world!
Here is a list of foods that are bad for dogs. Be very careful (taking your vet's advice too if necessary!) The relevant House Rule here is "If a Woody dog sees something, and wants it, and his pet is so disinterested that he turns his back on what a Woody dog sees and wants for just a few seconds, then it becomes Woody's by default so long as he can reach it!" My pets are getting very bad at complying with this rule. Now, when they make or buy something tasty, they put it on the kitchen table. If I put my front paws on a chair, I can just get my nose above the table top, and comply with two of the three doggy rules of food possession. In other words, I can see it and I want it, but I can't reach it! If only I was a little bit bigger!
Perhaps the most attractive, but yet most potentially deadly human food, to us dogs is chocolate. I repeat, chocolate can kill dogs, so don't even be tempted! OK, lecture over!
Sometimes I eat my tea out of a dog bowl but, my preference is to take up the challenge of getting every last piece of food out of my Buster® Food Cube, which Santa Paws brought me for the 2001 edition of Christmas!
When it comes to drinking, the easiest way to drink loads quickly is from a dog bowl - obviously not the same one as the food is in, otherwise the food would get soggy! Gulping a bowl of water in seconds flat, with or without coming up for air, is an excellent way of getting Ian or Julie to open the door for me (well, where do humans need to go when they.ve had alot to drink!!? However, the most fun way to take on water is either to try and catch it in mid air as Ian squirts me with a water pistol to stop me barking at the birds, or to lick it off the plants Ian has just watered, or simply slurp it out of the watering can itself! Muddy puddles taste good as well!
Gemma will remain on puppy food for some time, but now munches away on dried food - there is no need anymore to make it soggy for her because her teeth are strong enough now! Strong enough in fact to crunch ice cubes! Gemma and I both have food balls from which to get our food - great fun - but we have to use them at separate times, otherwise we'd get in a terrible tangle, eat each others food, and probably annoy each other! We share our water bowls though - me Gemma's and Gemma mine!