Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Little Daisy gets really worked up at meal time.  She gets so excited she acts like she’s going to blow a gasket.  She also gets terribly bossy with the other dogs who are crowded around the dining table where we fix their bowls.  Daisy couldn’t get care less that she’s the smallest dog in the house … actually, the smallest animal on the ranch!  One minute she’s barking and growling at all the dogs around the table ("Back off, bucko, that food’s for me!"), and the next minute she’s jumping up and down on my shoes, urging me to "Hurry up!" with the food preparation business. "Hey, mister, what’s taking so long up there?!"

So we came up with a new routine to keep her occupied while we fill the dog bowls … I toss one piece of dry kibble across the floor.  She’ll race to track that thing down and gobble it.  Because Daisy is so small, she can follow the kibble anywhere — under the chair, under the cot, wherever it goes — and retrieve it.  The only place that stumped her was when an errant toss on my part landed the kibble under the stove.  (Oops — had to fish that one out ourselves.)  As soon as she hunts down one kibble and starts heading back to the table to give the other dogs what-for, I toss another piece of kibble in a new direction … and off she goes!

(Most of the other dogs in the house are blind, so they’re a bit mystified by what’s going on around them at this point.)

Because of her spinal problem Daisy walks with a distinctive clump-clump-clump sound, her rear legs sometimes fishtailing sideways on her.  Thus even with my back turned I can tell when she’s found her piece of kibble.  The clump-clump-clump sound is replaced by a crunch-crunch-crunch sound, and when I hear the clump-clump-clump start up again, I know it’s time for another kibble toss.

I took this photo of Daisy this evening to show you her expectant pre-kibble toss look.

(Click on photo for larger image.)