Yes, I know you wrote this a week ago but I’ve been too busy to read blogs lately so I’m having a catch up:)

Basically I think dogs know which side their bread is buttered on and act accordingly. Dogs who are abused probably don’t know anything else and think all dogs are treated the same. The clever ones probably run away. I am sure dogs know how to love and have many emotions the scientists say is impossible. I’ve had a few dogs who have been great smilers. They don’t do it because they’re feeling guilty or trying to appease you, they do it because they’re happy. I’d love another smiler:) You can’t help but smile back.

Once, on a group walk with our training club, I let him walk Lu so I could work on loose leash walking with Wally. We were walking ahead of them and somehow ended up out of Lu’s sight. She laid down on the ground, kept looking back for me and refused to walk any further. I was so focused on Wally, that I was completely unaware that they were so far behind. When I realized, I stopped and waited.. and eventually, my husband came trotting along CARRYING Lu! She had completely refused to walk! Maybe she thought somehow we were behind her and she was waiting for us to catch up? Of course, once she saw me she was overjoyed and I took her for the rest of the walk.

We’ve given up and now he only walks Wally, who is anyone’s best friend as long as they have a cookie or a tennis ball. 😉

Everything that exists exists only under certain conditions.

With love, the conditions might come from the outside or from within. But there still will be conditions.

Jasmine is a caring dog with huge heart. She cares about everybody. She also likes getting her own way. And she learned how to make that happen. She gets what she wants when she wants it. But if you get in trouble, she’ll be there like a dirty shirt.

She cares about us. Does she care about us because we are an always winning slot machine? Perhaps. I mean, who’d want to lose that?

Would she love us without that? Perhaps. Dogs have the inner need to bond with somebody. I guess we’ll never know, because the day when I’ll stop spoiling her rotten isn’t coming.

JD seems to be different in that respect. All he seems to know is what he wants. I still think that the bond would be stronger than wanting.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that coming toward you slowly is actually an appeasement display, especially if they’re sniffing the ground as they go. It’s may not be so much “la di da, I’ll come when I’m good and ready” as “look at me *not* charging at you, see, I’m friendly and don’t have any interest in fighting with you at all.” Maybe it was http://dogtrainer.quickanddirtytips.com/.

I agree with you that it’s okay that dogs are self-serving to a certain extent. It’s not so much manipulative as it is being smart enough to get their needs met. If you’re a small fuzzy critter with no opposable thumbs and no credit card, and you depend on the two-legged critters for all your needs, *of course* you’re going to gravitate to the ones that have and share food.

Take my 2 year old Shih Tzu boy, for instance — he’s smart as a whip, bright eyes and bushy tailed. But he’s got an attitude of superiority.

In response to my call he starts out by ignoring me, then looking over his shoulder and then meandering over in slow motion as if to say, “I’ll come when I’m good and ready.”

I’ve taught him quite a few tricks for which I reward him with a trick when he performs them on commend. Lately, however, he started performing them without my commending and then demands his treat with annoying whining. In other words, he shows me that he’ll perform when his mood strikes him whether I’m ready for it or not.

Now that I think about it, maybe he is self serving.

I joined the bloghop, but can’t get the linky tool to work on my page. I admit it; I am a technalogical idiot. I’m sorry!