The big and small of it

Okay; I'm discussing food, giving it to and chewing it with regards to dogs. I have got it all in my house; one who snatches food so bad that if you are left with your fingers then you are one of the lucky ones. She will try to swallow very large pieces of food whole and only if she near chokes to death with consider chewing it; this is Jessie.

Then I have Tilley, Miss polite. She would never consider grabbing and chews her food the appropriate amount of times before swallowing. She will eat just about anything I give her and has the utmost of etiquette. Tilley eats politely, drinks politely and is an all round extremely mannered girl.

And we have Luke who in his eating habits is far more cat like than dog. When you offer him food it takes him a longtime to decide whether or not he should even try it. When it is something I know he likes he might not take it. And I am not above trying the choo choo train routine to get him to try a piece. Waving it around and tossing it seems to arouse his instinctual behaviors, at least enough to give it one tiny taste.

As I've said before Luke is finicky, he is beyond finicky. And even if I put his absolute favorite food in the world down he never devours his food. He is much more a lover than an eater; which in my books is fine as long as he eats sometimes. When you try to give him a morsel of food he likes it small. He will often take a big piece and drop it on the floor. He does not like to eat large pieces of food unless it is something that he has already tried and decided to eat.

The problem with dropping food is that Jessie has programmed the poodles not to touch dropped food. Being that she is much closer to the ground; she is the floor feeder. If they drop it out of their mouth, she is waiting below like a piranha and is not above snapping at their face if they make an attempt at picking up the food they dropped.

I mean what dog turns their nose up at a piece of fresh baked chicken, raw beef or ham? Luke is that type of dog and it makes me weary many days. So I have a dog who will take my fingers off, a dog with amazing manners right in the middle of perfection and Luke; who I have to do a song and a dance to get him to try something.

This morning was some yummy buttered toast. I know how much Luke likes butter so I take these moments to get some much needed calories into him. I butter it up good; the girls have their piece, Jessie gets a tiny morsel of unbuttered crust. Tilley gets a middle piece of medium proportion and then Luke will get the rest. I actually felt a bit of meat on him over the weekend so my fussing is working.

I offer him up a 1" square piece; but know it's probably too big and he agrees. How about a piece the size of a sweet pea? He picks it up, drops it, up again and moves it around his mouth, out again. I pick it up and rip it in half; there we go. Geesh.