But will there be war?
Stuck in the middle of a situation. Today’s informal study in animal behavior. We have our loaner dog, here. And for the record, dogs and humans share a lot of DNA and a lot of manners for dealing with a potential rival. The bed, the couch, the food bowls; all the same.
Let me drill down. The two dogs know one other. They’re neighbours, but not litter mates. The skill set required to go through a mealtime dance belongs to the human (me) in the mix. There are separate feed bowls, as I am not a total savage. The menus were carefully prepared by the den mates (me and my neighbour). The meal times were aligned using the closed thing I have to a sun dial (a cuckoo clock). That’s a detail, nothing more.
And now we’re winding down. No warfare. No need to send in the DUN (dog united nations). Soon, I’ll put away the meal space and lay out the sleeping space, because dogs do a lot of that. And I realize that I may have overthought this whole thing. Dogs have eaten, side by side for centuries. Very few famous battles on record, although I don’t have access to the DL (dog library). Maybe there never was a potential for conflict (yeah, right!) I could have used one brand of kibble. Used a larger, shared bowl. It works for pigs. Cows rarely fight for their cud (although jostling does occur). Sheep remain a mystery.
Tomorrow, we’ll go through the same ritual, and the dogs won’t even notice; ritual is a human weakness.
