I am making my dog neurotic

"Back away from the bully stick."

All of our dogs have always allowed us to take things away from them. Always. Food, chew toys, even high-value delicacies such as bones--if we ask for it, they relinquish. Always. No problem.

They might have the occasional food aggression with each other (very occasional) but they have never guarded their food from us.

Why do I not leave well enough alone?

One day in puppy kindergarten, the teacher talked about the importance of making sure your dog will let you take things away. She suggested to the class that when our puppy is eating dinner or chewing on something delicious, we take it away very briefly--and then give it back to the puppy even better. Add some kibble. Dip it in peanut butter. Whatever.  That way the puppy learns that if he lets us have what he's got, no problem--he will get it back improved.

Frankly, I think that is giving the puppy too much credit for deductive reasoning.

And yet, I did it anyway, and all I have done is make Angus neurotic.

The other night we gave each dog a bully stick. You know what a bully stick is: it's a dried bull penis. But nobody's going to buy them if they're called that. They're essentially sticks of chewable petrified leather. The dogs love them.

So Angus was cheerfully gnawing away when I decided to try the puppy teacher's plan. I sang out, "Ang-us, drop-it," and he did, immediately, but he didn't look happy about it.  I gave him a fistful of kibble and immediately returned the bully stick--the original thing but better, right?

He resumed chewing but he gave me the stink-eye.

I did this two or three times and each time he relinquished it without a peep. But he started to look a bit haunted.

So tonight we gave him a bully stick, and he dashed off to the front hallway to chew. Every time either one of us happened by, he'd flee to a different room.  It took a while for me to realize what the problem was--he thought I was going to take it away again.

So I tossed him some kibble. I didn't ask for the bully stick; I just tossed him some kibble. But this presented a new dilemma: to eat the kibble, he had to drop the stick. Which he did, briefly-- gobbled the kibble, grabbed the stick. I did this twice more. He wolfed down the kibble after putting a big protective paw over the stick.

"He's got a pretty good thing going on," Doug noted.

After that, I left him alone. He curled up on the couch and gnawed away, and we kept our distance.

You know, he was just fine before. Why did I mess with him? 

But I did learn a couple of things: My instincts are good. The teachers know what they're talking about, but if it's not a problem, I should just leave it alone.

Oh, and a third thing:  I spend waaaaaaay too much time with my dogs.