What's up with Clark?

I haven't posted much about Clark. Our dog.

I'm sorry to say that Clarkie became second fiddle when Danny was born, so now that we have Ben, well, I guess the dog's third fiddle. Poor guy. We do, at least, make sure he gets a walk every day and I try to give him some attention when I'm not in the middle of diapering, cleaning or preparing meals.

Ben has a mental checklist that he begins every morning when he wakes up that goes something like this...any cabinets open? No, crap. Bathroom door open? No, darn. Any dining room chairs left un-bungeed from the table so I can climb on them en route to the tabletop? No, oh man! Any crayons in plain view so I can eat them? No, holy heck. Clark's food and water on the floor? Hooray...I can dump them and eat the food and play in the water...yippee!!!!

Clark is becoming a serious problem when it comes to eating. Our mealtimes are fine...it's HIS that are the problem. The only times his food and water can be on the floor are when Ben is in his high chair, outside, or asleep.

The trouble is that Clark doesn't want to eat his food alone, so when we're outside, he won't eat. I have tried putting his food downstairs while we're eating. He won't eat it if he's alone. He won't eat when Ben's eating because he's desperate for the morsels that Ben drops over the side of the high chair. He stalks Ben. He loiters around the high chair. He has started begging for Ben to feed him. Sometimes Ben does and this, of course, only encourages Clark. Here are some pictures I snapped of him...




I have resorted to putting Clark's food down right next to the high chair, in the hopes that he might go ahead and eat his own food while begging from Ben...

No luck. The food just sits there untouched and Clark continues hopefully waiting for a snack. Until, of course, Ben is done eating and out of the high chair...then Clark dives into his food for 25 seconds until Ben realizes..."Alert, alert, Clark's food is down!!!!Dump that food and water!!!!"

Now, what happens is this...Clark does not eat all day. He waits to eat his food until after Ben is asleep for the night. In fact, everyone goes to sleep except for Clark and me. I stay awake until he has eaten.

Is people food that much better than dog food? Seriously, is it so good that Clark would rather starve all day than just go ahead and eat his own food when the opportunity arises? And what kind of personality disorder does he have that he can't dine alone? Some days we are gone for several hours during the day, only to come home and see that he has not eaten anything.

Poor Clark. He's loud, he's clingy, he doesn't play well with other dogs, he has low self-confidence and he is borderline anorexic. But, he's ours and we love him!