Behavior Modification: Chapter XXI

With Simon I never quite know where to begin.  For example, he just showed up to finish my oatmeal/banana mid-afternoon snack; he'd been having his mid-afternoon nap on the sofa.  I was reading at the table, as I usually am, and eating when I looked down to see Simon staring up at me.  He had, apparently, heard my spoon clacking against the bottom of the bowl.  I finished my last large spoonful, left him a generous taste, and put the bowl on the floor.  The bowl is now clean, except for one oatmeal flake struck to the bottom.
 
This morning all 3 dogs showed up to lick my Yoplait yogurt container.  I gave it to Simon, of course, no contest, but then I had to get up to find some dog "snaps" to give to the other two who also had great expectations.  Guilt is an effective motivator.  Dexter and Frollie had been there before.  We have played out this scenario often.  Like Simon they just stare at me.  I get up and get the treats, by which time Simon is back to get one too.
Simon and Frollie are very clever.  Each has learned how to chew the bottom of the yogurt container until it loosens or comes off.  There is good yogurt left around the bottom and under the edge, apparently well worth the effort unless I am passing out snaps.
Last evening Mary came home with groceries from Walmart.  Simon always comes downstairs to see what we are doing.  He goes into the garage, investigates the car with its open doors, sniffs the laundry room where I am restocking shelves with the 9 bottles of Ocean Spray Cran Grape that Mary just brought home (yes, we drink a lot of Cran Grape; I'm having one now).
Meanwhile Mary had been putting bags of groceries at the bottom of the stairs.  She moves bags from car to stairs, from stairs to kitchen.  While she was making the second trip from car to stairs, Simon found the bag with the leftover chicken drumstick from the Walmart deli.  (Mary had gotten hungry "out there.")  Dexter and Frollie had noted the bag and left it alone as "people business"; they are like that. Simon being Simon stuck his nose in the bag, found the drumstick, hauled it out, and raced upstairs eating it as he went.  By the time Mary caught up with him, he had eaten the drumstick, bone included.
With Simon there is no real distinction between people business and Simon business.  Everything is Simon business; there is nothing he won't stick his handsome dachshund nose into and investigate, and act if he determines the situation warrants it.