Saturday, August 14, 2010

Progress...

It seems, shocking as this is to me, that Katcha and I might actually be making some progress. Last night Mark went out with a friend for awhile, leaving me and the dog alone together in the house. This isn't something that happens very often. And if it does she usually hangs out under a blanket somewhere, but this time she decided to stick by me. She had some intensity issues going on, but I knew she didn't need to go out because I'd just taken her shortly before Mark left.
After petting her a while, and giving her a little food treat, I was very curious why she still seemed so intent about needing something. She's quite spoiled, as I've said before, more interested in food off your plate than her own food, and I didn't want to just keep feeding her piskoty (which are little cookies kind of like Nilla Wafers, only not as sweet) where are her favorite snack.
Suddenly I had the strangest idea that she might actually be hungry for real. I've never seen her eat her dog food, and as usual her bowl had quite a bit in it. I tried to get her to eat it, but she didn't seem exactly interested, but just kept looking around and whining. Then I got the bright idea that, if I showed interest in her food it might mysteriously become more appealing to her. Lo and behold, I hit the nail on the head with that one. I then spent the next ten or fifteen minutes pretending to eat her food and then setting it in front of her where she would eat a piece and then whine again until I would pretend to eat some and then she'd eat another piece. I've got to say it was pretty hilarious, and I felt quite ridiculous. Fortunately no one was around to see me shaking her bowl in front of my face as though it was an exciting treat for me.
After she ate quite a bit she seemed to calm down some. I still couldn't get her to drink any water, but at least I knew she wasn't starving or anything. She was much happier then and came and curled up by me on the bed while I played Pacman on Google to keep myself entertained. Not exactly how I generally prefer to spend my Friday nights, but at least I feel like I did make some progress with the dog. And when Mark was home later he said he thinks she's starting to like me better. She didn't bark at me at all that day, and even curled up with me for a while at night, although I prefer having the bed dog free. She's not quite my Kori dog from when I was a kid.
Well, I think it's about time for me to take her out once again. Gotta keep up the work if I want to make her like me after all :)

2 comments:

Rebekah said...

How does food enjoyment translate for a dog? Does one lick her lips? Smile? I don't think "yum" and rubbing one's stomach would work...and "open wide for the airplane" wouldn't fly...lots of panting? wagging of one's pretend tail? Anyhow, bravo.

Transient Drifter said...

It's more like I put the bowl up to cover my face from her and shook it around making "mmm" sounds, then I put it down for her and she took a bite. Pretty pathetic in a way, but at least she seems to like me better these days.