yes, we spell for our dog. do you?

Dogs are smarter than you think. I know, I know, they lick themselves where they shouldn’t but they really are sharper than we give them credit for.

For instance, to keep something secret we speak in code around our dog: “Has the dog been W-A-L-K-E-D?” we ask often. We think if we spell it out we’ll put one over on her to keep her excitement about going outside at bay.

We forget that we could say the word “drain” to her and she’d get just as excited if we use a certain intonation: “You wanna go for a DRAIN??!! Huh? Do ya??!! Yes….let’s go for a DRAIN!”

Pretty soon we’d be spelling it out. “Have you taken the dog for a D-R-A-I-N yet?”

“No.”

“Come on! Why do I always have to drain the mutt?”

Lately, I’ve been proving my theory by spelling other words in the sentence instead of “the magic word.” I’ll even emphasize the magic word to prove my point.

“H-a-s t-h-e DOG been WALKED y-e-t, question mark?”

She doesn’t understand. She’s a DOG, people. She treats our stuffed ferret like it’s real and still thinks she can catch that dang squirrel out back. How much s-m-a-r-t-s could s-h-e have? Maybe we're the dumb ones.