Paco and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

A little background..Paco and Bailey love rawhide chewies. Bailey will wolf his down within minutes. Paco likes to savor (and torment Bailey), so he will carry his around ALL DAY.

Paco loves to go outside for the simple reason that each trip outside results in a 'cookie' from the treat jar. He would go out 12 times an hour if it meant he'd get 12 little slivers of cookie. Bailey knows this. Bailey disdains this, and from the chewy get-go, Bailey figured out how to make this work for him.

After practically swallowing his chewy whole, Bailey will walk to the sliding door, scratch on it to go out, and Paco will come running ('me too, me too').  I will open the door, Bailey will actually walk backwards, away from the door (if he could, I'm sure he'd be whistling while doing this),  Paco will drop his chewy (''No chewies outside'), bolt down the steps, and Bailey will nonchalantly sidle up, scoop up Paco's chewy and disappear for the minute or two it takes him to swallow Paco's chewy whole..

At first we thought this was just a coincidence...the dog could not be that smart. But when it happened every single time I handed out chewies, we realized that we weren't giving Bailey the credit that was due. So now, when Paco goes out, I pick up the chewy, and boot Bailey's butt outside. Paco then flaunts the chewy in Bailey's face as long as there is a human present. Once we leave, Bailey most likely kicks the crap out of Paco and takes the chewy.

It became quite evident this morning that Bailey has now evolved to the next level of rational thought...

I look up from my desk and there's Bailey, laying on the living room floor, going to town on the chewy I gave him...

And there's Paco, sitting next to him, just staring. No tail wagging, no moving, just sitting there staring at Bailey who is going to town on the chewy I gave him.....wait a minute...AN HOUR AGO. How is this possible?

'Paco, what are you doing?' He looks at me,  looks at Bailey, looks at me again, looks at Bailey.

A quick walk around the house (accompanied by Paco) confirms that the small, thin chewy given to Paco an hour ago, is nowhere to be found.

Bailey, is now sitting behind the chair, going to town on the much larger chewy I gave him an hour ago, while Paco stares. It's now quite clear that Bailey snagged Paco's smaller, identifiable chewy right away, wolfed it down, and moved on to his own large identifiable chewy, leaving Paco to lick the floor that Bailey's chewy touched moments earlier. So sad.

Clearly, Bailey knows what he is doing. Squirming under my glare, he picks up his chewy and heads into the family room. Of course, Paco follows him...waiting...hoping...

Bailey worked that chewy for 3 hours....a chewy he usually dispenses in 3 minutes.  You tell me..the Beagle is a genius.

Poor, pathetic Paco got double cookies for the rest of the day, and a whole Pupperoni..