Daily writing prompt

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

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If I had a pet, probably a dog, I would try to make it understand that it’s not nice to hover around the kids’ table and wait for handouts or simply steal stuff off a plate. It’s not nice to beg, to sit and wait for scraps. I know dogs and animals in general live in a different world where etiquette isn’t a top priority, and food– any food, any time– is OK with them.

I realize there might be a whole other level of pet ownership, involving trying to understand them and treating them like I would a human member of the family, but I have little interest in doing that.

Daily writing prompt

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

View all responses

If I had a pet, most likely a dog, I would try to impress upon it that I don’t want it hanging around the dinner or breakfast or lunch table waiting for a handout. Nor would a countertop heist or nosing through the trash can be acceptable.

I realize dogs and cats and others would eat all day if we let them, but there’s always been something about this that truly annoys me. Maybe it’s that I feel like the animal really only has a one-track mind, only cares about us as providers of food, and any emotional attachment is one-sided, mere projection on our part. It’d be nice if that wasn’t true.