Sadie is usually pretty good with her manners. When the family eats at the dinner table, Sadie usually sits quietly on the rug just watching everyone. When I’m in the mood to eat by the TV, Sadie sits next to me hoping I’ll give her a bite. But she doesn’t whine or complain if she doesn’t get anything. However, Sadie occasionally gets into a greedy mood for her doggy treats and begs incessantly next to her treat cabinet. I’ve recently discovered a creative way to get Sadie’s mind off of those treats. I distract her with love.

Unfortunately for me, Sadie has figured out where I keep new toys that I haven’t given to her yet. At some point every day I can usually find Sadie sitting in front of the closet door, wishing that it would open and the new toys would jump out. If she sees me go near the closet, she runs over and looks expectantly from me to the closet, waiting for me to get her a toy. If I don’t immediately comply, Sadie grumbles, whines, and even barks at me to open the door and give up the toys. Sometimes I give in, but mostly I just ignore her in the futile hope that she’ll understand that she doesn’t get a new toy every time I go into the closet.

Like most dogs, Sadie always comes to investigate the smell of food. But unlike most dogs, Sadie often rejects what she’s smelling as something she doesn’t want to eat. For example, Sadie knows and is not interested in the smell of chocolate. That is one quirk I’m very thankful for, especially at this time of year. Sadie will hear me opening a bag and unwrapping something and come to investigate. As soon as she smells that all I’ve got is boring old chocolate, she goes back to whatever she was doing. But if the chocolate is mixed with other smells, like candy with peanut butter or coconut, that is a different story. It always takes some convincing for Sadie to understand that even though it smells like peanut butter, it is still not for dogs.

I had to do a lot of convincing yesterday as I was preparing the house for trick-or-treaters. I always give out candy from one of the traditional jack-o-lantern pails. As I got mine out of storage last night, Sadie came running over to see what I had. I guess the pail smells like all of the candy I’ve given out over the years, so Sadie got very excited. She was running around my legs, jumping up, even barking, trying to get me to give her the pail. I kept telling her it’s “not for Sadie,” a command that usually works to make her understand when something is not for dogs. But this time Sadie would not give up. She was just too excited. So finally I lowered the empty pail down for her to look inside and her confusion was priceless. Sadie just couldn’t understand how it could smell like so many good treats, but be completely empty. Every time Sadie sees that jack-o-lantern pail, she wants to look inside to find the candy that makes it smell so tantalizing.

The moral of my story today is that you need to be careful with candy at this time of year. You probably have more candy around the house than usual, and in different locations. If my picky dog is interested enough to investigate the candy pails, I’m betting your pets are interested as well. Make sure you keep candy well out of reach of your animals, especially if you leave them home unattended. At my house I keep our candy pail on the floor by the door on Halloween so it’s easy to grab when the doorbell rings. I don’t have to worry about the candy on the floor since Sadie won’t go down the stairs needed to reach the area by the front door. But during the hectic doorbell ringing, trick-or-treating hours, don’t forget about putting your candy away out of your pets’ reach. Make sure you look around the house for any candy that may have fallen or been forgotten. I know when I was a kid I dumped out all my candy on the floor to go through it, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one. One lonely, forgotten piece of chocolate on the floor can be dangerous for your pets. Even if that small amount of chocolate doesn’t cause immediate harm, it may give your pet a taste for chocolate that could lead to disaster later. So keep a careful watch over candy this Halloween season and make sure your furry family members stay safe and healthy.

Sadie was a little annoyed with me over the weekend because I refused to share my pizza with her. I’m trying to teach her that she can’t have a piece of my dinner if she refuses to eat her own dinner first. So after lots of begging and sad puppy eyes failed her, Sadie decided to try a new approach. She thought she could just take some pizza for herself.

After watching the humans for a while, Sadie noticed that pizza comes from big square boxes. When I put one of the boxes on the floor by the door to remind whoever leaves next to take it to the garbage, Sadie thought she finally had her chance for some pizza. She ran to the box and after a good sniffing, confirmed that there should be pizza inside. After a bit of a struggle with the lid, Sadie finally managed to get the box open enough to reach her head inside, and found nothing. But Sadie refused to believe what her eyes were telling her, that the box was empty. She could still smell pizza. So Sadie decided to give the box a more thorough inspection by jumping inside. Her efforts were rewarded with a few crumbs and a piece of cheese that had stuck to the box. It wasn’t exactly the pizza she had been searching for, but that’s what you get when you refuse to eat the food that’s good for you first.

This post is part of the Monday Mischief Pet Blog hop.