Michael & Liz are Bloggable

It's tough to admit, but my saint of a dog is not as saintly as I thought he was. Most of the time, Gryffin is a very well behaved, attentive, and loving dog. But there is a particular stunt he pulls that reveals a different side. It's devious yet intelligent. I thought I'd share since it is funny.

One night, about a year ago, we were going through the night routine like we normally do. Make our way upstairs with the dogs running behind us, give them about 30 minutes of bed time, and then put them on the floor when it's time to go to sleep. But this night, when we put them on the floor, Gryffin ran to the door and sat there. Daisy has learned how to knock on doors so she starts slapping her paw whenever she wants through but Gryffin will sit there quietly without making a peep. We let him sit there for 15 minutes to see how motivated he was to go downstairs. He won, I got up.

So I got up thinking he had to use the bathroom. I put on some warm clothes and sluggishly opened the door. When it opened, he jolted downstairs running as fast as he could. Me being tired and can barely see in the dark, I took my time. By the time I got downstairs, Gryffin was sitting in the sweet room looking like he had no good reason to be downstairs. "Do you want to go out Gryf?" I opened the door, tried to coax him out, but he wouldn't budge. 5 minutes of puzzling behavior later, we head back upstairs for bed.

Gryffin does this a few more times over the span of a couple weeks before I decide to pick him up to take him downstairs in the middle of the night. When I set him down near the back door. He slowly turns and walks over to Daisy's bowl for her leftovers. AH HA!

Daisy is not a big eater. She'll take her time, leave it and come back to it. There's always something there. Most of the time she finishes her dinner right before breakfast, and her breakfast right before dinner. Gryffin on the other hand, INHALES his food in seconds. He doesn't chew, just swallows. He's always hungry for more, so naturally he's constantly torn on having to deal with his sister who doesn't care.

A few years ago I built a bowl platform for the dogs. Having to fill two water bowls for the dogs was annoying so I built a platform with two food bowls and one water bowl. It also keeps the floor clean.

Gryffin KNOWS not to touch Daisy's bowl. When we are in the room and food is in the bowl, he walks around it like it has a force field. If it's empty, he's allowed to lick it for flavor. But he has learned that when we are not in the room, anything goes, her food is fair game. If we don't know, we aren't mad. So running down and finishing the bowl in the middle of the night is a PERFECT situation for him.

Tonight, Liz and I are talking upstairs and all of a sudden I see Gryffin rip around the corner and run down the stairs. By the time he reaches the bottom of the stairs, in the middle of my sentence, I take off down after him saying "gryffin gryffin gryffin gryffin gryffin". I make it right when he's about 10 feet away and the second I walk in, he puts his tail between his legs and hovers close to the ground with his head down. "YEAH! You know what you were about to do".

My little saint isn't as saintly as I might think. I gotta keep an eye on that boy.