Whenever I see Spot having one of those periodic dog dreams where all four paws twitch delicately in the air, I imagine him thinking about the physics of doors and keys. Doors are the great mystery to dogs. If they could just figure out how the darned things opened and closed, life would be sweet. W ith all these odd little rituals and ceremonies, it is sometimes hard to decide whether I have an unusually intelligent dog, or a neurotic one. I suspect the real answer is that he is completely normal.
All dogs have their little ceremonies and rituals.
The only difference is that while most dogs seem content to limit their ceremonial activities to burying the occasional bone in the back yard, Dalmatians have more of a flair for the dramatic. A Dalmatian can almost effortlessly turn the most innocuous of doggie ceremonies into a three act play. C ase in point. While most dogs seem content to just lift their leg and pee to cover another dogs sent with their own, Spot is determined to get the mystery dog's life story. He spends so much time carefully analyzing the scents of other dogs, that I'm convinced he was a chemist in a former life.