For months now we have had trouble keeping Duker T. out of the dog food. The other day, what I like to call a stroke of genius hit me about the same time a stroke of hunger hit Duke. He was once again snacking on dog food and making a mess. I looked at the clock and noticed it was about his snack time. Perhaps he is able to pass up the temptation most of the time, but maybe when he gets hungry he just can't pass up the delectable, tempting dog food dish sitting out in the open like an all you can eat buffet. Now, I thought to myself, my son barks like a dog, he scratches on the door when he wants to go out, he chews on dog toys, he crawls in Jax's dog kennel....why in the world would he not exhibit a strong urge to munch on appetizing, Purina One, Chicken and Whole Grain, Healthy Weight Formula, Dog Chow? I couldn't think of a reason either.
We have some bowls for table training that have a suction cups on the bottom of them to prevent both spilling and the ability to hurdle bowls of spaghetti through the kitchen. They are fabulous! Lucky for me, Jax doesn't like Whole Grain Cheerios because I suction cupped a bowl to the tile next to Jax's food and water; then I filled it with Cheerios and said: "Look Duke! This is your dog food!" Much to my amusement, my cutie's sober expression slowly evolved into a look of wild excitement and delight, he dropped from his standing position to his hands and knees to crawl over to his bowl; then full aware of the dog only area, he put his face straight into his bowl of cheerios rather than using his "paws" to assist his eating. Before I had stopped laughing he lifted up his head frustrated that the bowl was too small for his face to fit into. Then, a stroke of genius hit my little puppy wanna'be. He carefully placed about five Cheerios onto the tile and then put his face down to the floor to eat just like a little puppy would.
The next morning upon giving Jax his dog food, I did the same routine. Duke, never to disappoint, did the whole doggy play over again. He has done it several times since then. Now if I could just figure out how to keep him out of Jax's water...
