Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Current mood: nostalgic

Do any of you remember the “dog intelligence test” of years ago?

You would give a piece of gum to your dog. If they chewed and swallowed it, or just swallowed it without chewing… dumb dog. If they chewed and chewed and finally spit it out… intuitively knowing that something that can’t be chewed to nothingness… smart dog.

When I was a little kid we tried it on our dogs. Our mamma dog, Mogi, chewed the gum for a while and finally dropped it on the floor. The daughter dog, Panda Bear, was an adult but dumb anyway. She swallowed the gum.

Dogs react differently to all kinds of foods. Today I found a box of popsicles in the freezer. I decided to reconnect with my childhood and have one. All 3 dogs clustered around my feet to see what I was eating. I took out a second popsicle and offered them each a lick.

The pit bull sniffed it and refused to touch it.

The chihuahua sniffed it, tentatively teethed it, then decided only to lick it.

The american eskimo sniffed it, licked it, and then bit off a chunk and ate it.

I continued to offer it to each of them in turn until it was all gone. Even though the pit bull could see that the other two dogs were enjoying the popsicle, he never did touch the thing during his turns. His true love is liver. Yuck!