Jacques, behaving like a dog

Jacques follows me around like a proverbial puppy.  Unsurprising, since he bears at least as much resemblance to a puppy as a proverb does to reality, especially since there's great evidence that dogs really are in many ways wolves that have been bred to never grow up.  Today though, I was brushing my teeth, and saw that he had dropped a big mouth-full of kibble, and begun to eat it.  He proceded to eat it all, and then return with another batch, and then another.  When I was done brushing my teeth and sit at the table to eat breakfast, he does the same, bringing bite after bite of his vegetarian kibble (tastes like unsalted fat-free Triscuit crackers) to eat next to me, rather than eating at his bowl.  Then he decided that he wanted some love from me, so he put his paw on my leg, and looked at me with puppy dog eyes.  So of course I pet him.

This is all by way of emphasizing how much he really, really, wants me to love him, a desire that is perhaps irrational, but that also makes it really easy to train him.  In all of an hour total work, he now will stand right at my left foot, and follow me around glued to that position, sitting as soon as I stop.  We'll move on to more advanced stuff sooner than later, but for now the important thing is the obedience.  He doesn't do what I ask because I'll give him a treat, he doesn't do what I ask because I'll hit him if he doesn't, he just does it because I asked him to.  As far as I can tell, when we're out there walking in inane little circles on the ground to practice heeling, he does what I ask because he can see it makes me happy, and that's what he wants in life.

Also, an entirely unconnected much earlier observation about his dietary habits:

Tuesday: Spilled steel-cut oats all over the kitchen floor. These are not the soft rolled oats, they're the kind you cook for a half hour before they're edible. Jacques lapped them up, so I no longer feel bad about the unappetizing kibble we feed him.  Because really, he eats anything.