A funny thing happened on the way to the kitchen.
It was one of those light bulb over the head moments.
A full 150 watt incandescent-bulb type of realizations hit me.
My dog is smarter than I am.
You see, for the past month or so, when Ivy's been out-of-control-naughty, which is pretty much whenever Michael isn't home and she isn't asleep, I've gone to the kitchen to get a bone or a treat to distract her. Last week I noticed that every time I stood up to correct her behavior (ever tried wrestling a St. Bernard off the couch?), she high-tailed it to the kitchen.
Do you seeing where I'm going with this?
Yup.
That's right.
My dog had me trained to reward her with a treat every time she was crazy naughty.
Sigh.
Now it's Monday morning and I've been interrupted half a dozen times while trying to write this post as Ivy rampages through the house.
Michael is at work, Sarah is at school, Melissa and Wally are dozing peacefully, the cats are hiding out upstairs, and Ivy is wreaking havoc.
At least I've learned my lesson.
I'm no longer rewarding naughtiness and Ivy is now sleeping in her kennel.
Hey, I'm nobody's fool...
3 comments:
Smart dog! All this while to have the humans thinking they are on top of things, managing and running the household, only to discover.... :-) Now of course, how to avoid their pleas after knowing the game is up!
How right you are!
We had exactly the same experience with Blue when she was a puppy. Those smart dogs are a much greater challenge than the "dumb" ones. But now after 2 1/2 years, she's an excellent farm dog and companion and we wouldn't trade her for the world.
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