Cheating on Your Dog

Here's the German Shepherd I wrote about a few days ago, with the nice big rawhide bone that my mother bought for him today.



I definitely got the impression that he'd never been given such a thing before. His first reaction, after sniffing it a little, was to pick it up and go put it on the other side of the tree, clearly out of our reach. Every time he picked it up to chew on, he looked around tentatively.

Later in the evening, we saw the children out in the yard. They don't seem to acknowledge the dog, although the youngest one did empty his water bowl and put some black object in it. I haven't seen the adults acknowledge him, either. They have been going out and feeding and watering him, but they don't pet him when they do; they don't even seem to greet him.

This is Daisy.



Daisy had to stay in the house while we sneaked the rawhide bone out to the other dog in case she might not understand why my mother was giving such a thing to another dog. I suggested that it was a good idea to teach her sharing, and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Dogs aren't like that." It may be true--my perspective may be skewed by this whole raising a child thing.

It made me think about dogs sharing, though. I'm just sure that they do. I can think of examples of dogs offering things to their human companions, but on some level where I currently can't come up with any evidence, I'm just sure that they share with other animals too. Any stories to share out there?