The person with the keys has control of the house, with the almost magical ability to open and close doors at will. Keys are the Holy Grail for Spot. Grabbing the keys from a low table or open purse and proudly parading around the house with them has become a ritual of great significance. Sometimes, he will grab the keys and run immediately to the refrigerator with them, fully expecting that he can cause the door to open and provide him with a cornucopia of food. 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.