"Are You Done?" How Our Dogs Get Us Off the Computer

Pip can be a patient dog. She has to be with the amount of time I can spend in cyberspace. If she could be interviewed, I'm sure she would want to know why I spend so much of my day staring at, messing with or talking into boxes: a box to heat things up, a box to speak into, a small padbox to stare at, a medium lapbox to stare at, a larger deskbox to stare at, a picturebox on the wall to stare at, a mapbox in the car that talks.

It is one darn box after another!

Eventually, even my patient dog has had enough. How does she deal with it? She starts to bring me things. She trots off purposively to promptly return carrying something that she places with some care either next to me or on my leg. Then she steps back, staring at me expectantly. In this picture, she has decided to use a roll of packing tape as an invite back to the world she lives in; her electronic box-free world of smells and sunlight, bird song and breeze.

And thank goodness she does!

Thank you, Pip! Good dog!

Does your dog let you know when it is time to log off and join their fun?

by Sarah Wilson

Author of MySmartPuppy.com handbooks: My Smart Puppy (book with DVD) and Childproofing Your Dog