Begging for bites with the food sign.

It is amazingly sweet when Ranger signs food when he's trying to mooch a bit of whatever I'm eating. Yes, I admit it I share my food with my dog. He's allowed to look soulfully at whatever I'm eating and quietly indicate that he'd like some too but he's not allowed to be an obnoxious beggar. Lately, he sits politely watching me eat looking soulfully at my food and if that doesn't work he signs food. If I can be permitted a bit of anthropomorphizing, it's as if Ranger thinks I didn't understand the soulful gazing and so he needs to make it clearer by using our shared language of sign. Of course he gets something to eat when he asks like that just not always what I'm eating. I don't share my expensive dark chocolates with him because they aren't healthy eating for him but, truth to tell, I seldom share them with anyone else either ;-). He did, however, get some tiny pieces of steak last night.

He's beginning to use the sign for cheese more often but still clearly prefers to use the more generic food. He's definitely liking the variety of cheese and chicken treats he's getting as we try to establish categories of cheese-ness and chicken-ness.

Meanwhile, I have a new favorite photo of Ranger.

I actually sent this one and one other to Patricia McConnell as an entry in her "your dog on a bookcover" solicitation. I think Ranger would be lovely on a bookcover. Here's the other photo I submitted.