A DAKOTAism

A DAKOTAism

It has been fun watching Dakota over the past year and a half become
more comfortable living with us and gradually expand his world in some
fun, interesting ways. This is one of them and since I haven't found a
good name for these wonderfully funny escapades, the above will do.

I have always kept water upstairs in the bedroom for my dogs. There are
a number of reasons for this habit that I won't go into at this time.
Most of my dogs have started out as puppies so they learn this extra
benefit as they grow up.

When Dakota came to live with me, I continued the habit of having water
for him in the bedroom. In order for him to get used to the fact that it
was there, I would offer it to him at night when I went to bed. I set
about establishing our little routine by letting him out for the night
and then taking a couple of treats upstairs with him. I would give him
his treats, he would then jump up on the bed and I would bring the bowl
of water over to him to see if he wanted a drink. It would then take the
bowl back to the little stool I kept it on. Every afternoon before I
went down to fix dinner, I would put fresh water into the bowl. Many
times he would sneak a little drink before we went down to get his
dinner, so I was assured he knew what this was all about.

Most evenings he would reject the offer for a drink before I climbed
into bed. At best I would say he took up my offer about one out of four
or five nights. But I kept up the routine as he has arthritis and
getting up and down would be tough for him. My husband said of Dakota as
he has of all of the other canines, they were the luckiest pampered pets
in the country.

Recently Dakota started taking a drink from his bowl in the kitchen
before we went upstairs. I continued to offer him one, which he kept
refusing. At one point I thought there was no point in doing this ritual
anymore since it wasn't easy for me to keep bending over, picking up the
bowl, and having to put it back down. So I started to back off giving
him the water bowl when he'd get a drink downstairs before we came up.
The evenings he didn't drink, I'd go back and offer him the bowl.

One evening my arthritis was especially bad and I passed up getting his
water bowl and got myself into bed to watch some TV while my husband was
still downstairs. He finally came up, crawled into bed, turned out the
lights and all was quiet. Suddenly, Dakota was up, jumped down off of
the bed, went over and got himself a drink of water and then didn't know
what to do. He finally jumped back up onto the bed. I sat up and reached
over to give him a pat on his hip as I started to laugh quietly.

In the morning my husband asked me if I knew what his unusual move was
all about. I said that I'd thought about it through the night and
decided that Dakota was making a statement and reminding me that I had
forgotten my duty of bringing the water bowl to him. He wasn't about to
let me get away with ignoring him He wanted to make sure that he was
aware of how this routine operated. It isn't as funny as I try to
explain it here, but if you sit back and think about it and run the
routine through your mind like a movie short, it was quite precious and
special.

I love to just watch dogs on a daily basis. As I've stated before, I
have always talked to them throughout the day...chatting away like they
understood or even cared. Through the years I've caught them looking at
me and actually listening but I figured it was only because I was a
human making voice noises. One thing I do know, they had huge
vocabularies. I'm not convinced that Dakota had a life like that, but I
did know from the beginning that he was a very smart dog. He was not an
animal that was found in a corner day after day and being ignored. He is
sharp and very much seems like a thinking dog. Many things he does start
with look on his face that he's debating something in his mind. Then
comes a decision and he's off to complete the process.

Needless to say, I'm back as Dakota's personal valet providing him with
his bowl of water before he goes to sleep. He deserves all of the
attention he can get.