Daisy’s Official Title: Chief Havachon Negotiator, Hostage Toy Relations

I know dogs are smart, but this Havachon is ridiculous!

Nobody hides my blanket from me!

Daisy has become a Master Negotiator.

We noticed that she studies everything we do over and over again, sometimes imitating us and other times trying to outsmart us. We can’t get away with anything more than once with her (like using a particular method to take a toy away that we don’t want destroyed) because she’s studied our technique and adapted (like the Borg on Star Trek!) so we can’t do it again.

Now she’s promoted herself to Chief Havachon Negotiator in charge of Hostage Toy Relations.

Daisy is a blanket freak. She LOVES her blankets. She loves sleeping with them, cuddling with them, playing with them, chewing them, and dragging them from room to room like Linus. She also likes to play tug of war with them and then for us to ball the blanket up and throw it for her to chase. For as far as a lightweight fleece blanket will go, that is.

Well, we’ve been using the “Go Find” method of mental stimulation lately. We hide whatever toy she’s been playing with and point in the general direction, letting her search around and find it.

Don't even bother trying...I'll outsmart you every time.

The other day DD was sitting on the sofa and hid the blanket behind her while Daisy took a water break. When Daisy came running back over, she must have seen a bit of the blanket sticking out, so when DD said “Where’s your blanket?”, Daisy stared at it, stared at DD, thought for a bit, then quickly snatched a paper DD was using into her mouth and backed off with it, just staring at her.

DD was shocked and issued the “Give” command, but every time she said that and leaned forward to take the paper, Daisy withdrew her head just enough so it was out of DD’s reach, glancing at the blanket. This happened several times.

Finally DD, just playing along, said “OK, I’ll give you the blanket and you give me the paper”. She held out the blanket slowly with one hand and extended the other hand toward the paper Daisy was holding. Daisy, in return, allowed her to take the paper. The exchange had been made.

It’s hard to believe, but this scene played out too perfectly to have been coincidence. We’re going to recreate it again just to see if the same thing happens. My guess is that she’s been watching way too many crime dramas with us! 😉

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