A Tactical Error

There are perks to having a smart dog. Silas has taught himself a lot of really handy behaviors. Sometimes his smartness sneaks up on me in a bad way, though.

We have a small upright freezer in our dining room. I keep all of Silas’s miscellaneous stuff up there–the nail clippers, his seldom-used hairbrush, a few jars of treats, his medications.

One day last week, something on top of the freezer started to wig him out. I thought it was my camera tripod, which doesn’t usually sit up there. I moved it. The next day, he was barking nervously at the top of the freezer again. I took everything off the freezer, showed it to him, and then picked him up to show him that there was nothing left. That seemed to work.

That evening, I heard him whimpering and got up to investigate. There he was, sitting next to the freezer, whining. There was nothing at all scary left up there–I’d even put all the big boxes down flat.

And then it hit me.

I showed him my secret stash of the extra-special dog chews.

Drat it.