A tail About Habits
Our Dog, Jasmine, has learned many things, and we are sure she knows more than the 100 plus words that are claimed to be the extend of a dog’s vocabulary. It is interesting to see how she learns from repetitive actions. Some, of course, are carefully planned, like calling her to “come” produces the reward of a small treat. Some, however, have just happened, and then there are some that she has developed through her own observations.
Debbie (doggie mommy) has consistently taken Jasmine out in the back yard to run every time she hauls the kitchen trash out of the can and deposits it in our large trash container. So now, if Jasmine is in the kitchen, and one of us goes over to the kitchen trash and pulls out the bag, she jumps up and heads for the door. And the list goes on.
Jasmine has been crate trained since she was a pup. It is her space, her den, and she sleeps in it every day. However, she really doesn’t want to miss anything in the evenings so she is always with us, even at late hours. She has formed her own habit about going to bed in her crate. It is located in the family room, the same as our TV. In the evening, Debbie and I typically watch a program prior to going to our room. Jasmine will lay on the floor next to us – of course – and maybe snooze, maybe roll around looking for a pet or try to eek out a treat. It is a perfect “Norman Rockwell” family picture. However, as soon as the TV is clicked off, she pops up and goes straight into her crate. Doesn’t make any difference if it is 9:30PM or 2:00AM, that is the drill. Then as we are leaving the room, she rolls over and waits for the nightly belly rub. Many are the times I have said “That dog has us exactly where she wants us”.
They don’t tweet, they are not on “Facebook”, nor do they put their resumes out on “Linkedin”, but somehow, dogs seem to do social networking just fine, and way more personal. WIFI is not one of the built in features for dogs, but who can argue or miss that happy tail just Waggin’ Delightfully.
