A veterinarian at some Web site recommended that dog owners not give their pets typical commercial treats. You should give them baby carrots because they’re healthy and dogs love them. Carrots are cheap, so we thought we’d give it a try. I offered Zeke and Lucy some pretty little carrots. Zeke is polite, so he took his to his bed and spit it out. Lucy doesn’t give a hoot so she just dropped it immediately.
This came as no surprise to me. I’m not a veterinarian or a dog behavior expert, but I know what dogs love, and carrots isn’t it. What dogs love is human treats. I’ve seen the intense stare when I stand in the kitchen eating one of those giant marshmallows (Each one is a meal!). Zeke switches his gaze between me and the marshmallow. As I said, he’s polite. Lucy, on the other hand, stares single-mindedly at the marshmallow, opening and closing her jaws when I take a bite, willing the marshmallow to be in her mouth instead of mine.
Lucy can recognize the particular sound that a plastic bag of marshmallows makes when a twist-tie is being undone. It is basically impossible for me to eat an entire marshmallow when they are in the house.
Here are Zeke and Lucy working Leah over to get a bite of marshmallow.
Watch your fingers
This is a setup, of course, because I wanted to document this behavior if either one of us ends up accidentally eaten while holding a marshmallow.
It’s pretty much the same thing if I get ice cream. In either case, they come and stare. Zeke drools. Lucy has better lip control. Or maybe she’s better at conserving vital digestive fluids.
They also like peanut butter. Each one has their own appropriately-sized peanut butter bong. Lucy gets as much of the peanut butter as she can out of hers, and then when Zeke is finished, she tries to climb into his bong.
Does my head smell like peanut butter?
Maybe Leah and I should make our own doggie treats. I’m thinking peanut butter flavored ice cream with marshmallows.
This post was inspired in part by Pablo’s post about his two dogs’ intent stare at food.
You speak the truth about dogs!
The two pieces of carrot stayed around all day. The next morning I cut them up and put their breakfast (dog food with some leftover pasta) over them. When they were done, their bowls were empty. Leah thought maybe they liked the carrots with the pasta sauce. No, they just got in the way. It could happen with a finger if you aren’t careful.
One of our indoor cats will “kill” for chicken. I don’t know what is so distinctive about cutting-up chicken on the cutting board, but the cat can distinguish the sound from cutting absolutely anything else, and she will go berserk if I don’t give her some. I try to be quiet, but it’s all for naught because she’ll come running into the kitchen and meow plaintively and vociferously until I “give it up”!
I’m much less familiar with cats, despite having lived with them for eight years. Sometimes one of them bugs us continuously when we’re fixing meat, but when we put some of it down, he will sniff it and walk away. What’s going on with that?