THE INSIDE STORY

One of my favorite forms of entertainment is what I call ‘Search’.  Jet (my foster mom) places a treat or a few pieces of food inside a plastic Easter egg she then seals it inside a baggie, then wraps it inside a recycled newspaper bag and places it in a recycled food box.  (… Like an empty toothpaste box.)  She uses different containers for this game multiple Tupperware containers she buys at the $1 Store but essentially I have to search through one container (obstacle) to get to the next and so on.  The point is that the challenge of searching through each layer is to get to the prize inside.  It's great fun  and the harder the search, the greater the entertainment and reward at the end.

Jet says humans do something similar.  Cops peel back the layers of evidence to find the bad guy inside.  Hmmm.  I asked if there were more enjoyable ways that humans participated in playing ‘Search’ and she shared some great stories with me.  She said there is a boxed snack called Cracker Jacks with a prize inside and a candy called Tootsie Pops with a gooey chocolate center inside.  I’d like to try both. 

I watched some mini humans search ‘nesting’ dolls one time.  At the end of the search was an itsy bitsy, nesting doll. 

"What was the point of this type of search," I asked Jet. 

Jet asked me, “Why do some dogs search for rabbits?”  Well, I pointed out that some dogs, like me, search for rabbits because we are hunters and they are rodent we are to kill and/or eat; others like my dog pal Nokona just search them out because they enjoy chasing them into a hole or under a fence.  Jet pointed out that sometimes humans and dogs simply find the search itself is a prize or reward.  This is one reason why humans enjoy opening nesting dolls. 

If this is true, it seems more humans would be like dogs and enjoy searching for new jobs, a new date, a new client, a new friend, a new church, a new dog, a new home or apartment, a new car…  What I find however is that most humans seemed annoyed by these searches.

So, here’s my lesson of the day… Humans should be like dogs and enjoy the chase of something as much as they like discovering what’s inside what they chase.  Humans: if you don’t find the search for something any fun, maybe you’re looking for the wrong thing or… maybe you’ve forgotten the thrill of the chase itself.

Okay, the question of the day is from Toodles who asked:  Dear Parker, when does a dog stop growing?  I’m almost 5 months old and dinky.  I hope to get bigger so I’m not always the runt running around the yard with the other dogs.

Dear Toodles: 

What an interesting question.  You didn’t indicate your breed so I’m not sure how big you will get but I can tell you that smaller dogs reach full growth between 9 to 18 months.  This includes growth up and out. Larger breed dogs generally take up to two years for full growth but monster breeds like Mastiffs may keep growing up to their third year. Yikes!  Make sure you are getting the proper nutritional food for your age – every year and you will grow to bigger like your canine pals and remain healthy too.

Don’t forget to keep growing INSIDE too. Knowledge is like nutrition for the brain. I notice that humans tend to grow physically for a long time but then fail to keep growing inside.  Dogs are no different and should keep learning throughout their lives to ensure their brain is bright and their relationships and life are exciting.