A Dog and His Bone

Over 3 weeks ago we gave our dog, Basil, a giant beef knuckle in celebration of his first birthday. Whenever Basil gets a new type of food treat that requires "work," he will usually pace back and forth through the rooms of our house with it in his mouth, whining the whole time before finally settling down to gnaw through them — but this was on a whole new level.

He broke the beef knuckle in half and worked on one side of it while we placed the other half in his toy basket. A day later, the other half was mysteriously missing.

This past week, I came across the bone wedged up against the baseboard under our bed where he likes to start out sleeping at night. I guess I should have just left it there, but couldn't help myself and brought it back out into his toy basket for the next day — big mistake.

Since discovering the hiding place of the bone, whenever Basil sees it, he starts obsessing over it, staring at it, pacing around with it & whining, before trying to find a new hiding spot for it. It's so funny to watch him try to hide it inside the house. Naturally, he is trying to bury it, but there isn't anywhere to dig inside, so he ends up trying to wedge it in the couch, inside blankets, behind curtains, and even behind furniture as you can see above. Mary and I will pull it out from the hiding spots and put it on the floor and he'll return with a look of bewilderment and frustration when he sees it. I know, we're terrible.

Above, I caught Basil trying to "bury" his bone behind the baby bathtub catchall we have next to our fireplace. You'll see him trying to wedge it back there, then "cover" it by sweeping the floor with his nose.

Hope all of you are having a relaxing and fun filled Labor Day. Do your dogs have special routines and rituals with certain toys or treats?