Make Good Choices

"Make good choices!" Suzanne says this to me a lot.

Mostly when I find something interesting on our walks.

I sniff it, of course.

Then I decide – sometimes I leave it and walk on. I have learned what I want to know by smelling it

I know way more about what is going on in our neighborhood than Suzanne does.

She rarely stops to smell anything. Maybe a flower now and then, but nothing important.

If the interesting thing smells like it might be food, I taste it. This is when Suzanne says “make good choices”

The Trouble Starts

She thinks I will eat it just because I picked it up. And well, I might. But I might not.

It took her a while to figure out that if she told me to drop it (as if!) or tried to take it from me, I would quickly swallow it. After all in a beagle pack if one dog finds something really delicious, the others will try to take it.

My instinct tells me: if she wants to take it from me, it must be good. So I eat it.

Mistakes

Sometimes I make what I think is a good choice. And I am wrong.

No problem though. My body knows what to do.

If I’m wrong, I’ll puke it back up. Or it comes out the other end, very efficiently.

If Suzanne leaves me alone to do my beagle-thing, I often spit it out after tasting it. Some of the stuff I pick up is not food, or it might have been food a week ago but now all the good parts are gone. So I spit it out.

It’s a simple process, but sometimes Suzanne gets so upset that our walks are not fun.

Suzanne tries to help

Worse, If I make what she things are really bad choices, especially if she has told me “drop it,” she will not give me a treat when we get home.

So I weigh my options. I know how good our treats at home are. I know how good the prize in my mouth is, so I make a good choice. Suzanne might not agree with me, but I know it is a good choice.

Unless I am wrong. I already told you what happens then.

Bribery

For a while she bribed me to make good choices by bringing treats on our walk.

If I picked something up and then spit it out because she said drop it, she would give me a treat. I liked those walks.

I would find so many things to pick up so she could say drop it and I would get a treat.

Suzanne decide that wasn’t working but I think it was working just fine.

My tummy was full of treats after those walks!

My Good Choices

Suzanne has a lot to say on this subject but this is my corner of the internet, not hers.

She will have to do her own post if she wants to tell her side of the story.

In the meantime, I will keep making good choices. Mostly.