How to torment your fruitaholic

By Mir
March 27, 2010

Most dogs will go completely berserk for meat, and while Licorice is perfectly happy to eat that meat out of your hand (or off your plate, or the floor, or whatever), her very favorite thing appears to be fruit. You cannot sit down with an apple or a banana without her pouncing on top of you and sitting there with pleading, velvet-painting-esque sad eyes that speak of years of sorrow and starvation. And a few days ago when I was scooping a cantaloupe in the kitchen I thought she was going to stroke out with all of the prancing she was doing to get my attention. (“Hey! Down here! See me? Me, the starving yet adorable one? So! HUNGRY!”)

Of course, if you have a little dog who loves fruit, and you are us, you see this not so much as an opportunity to be a hero as a chance to have some fun at the poor pooch’s expense. Because it turns out that half a cantaloupe rind is larger than her head, and that it’s really, really funny to drop banana strings across her snout so you can watch her try to slurp them down into her mouth. (No one ever accused us of being kind. Or hard to entertain, for that matter.)

Good thing my husband always has a camera ready.

For the first half of the video: I apologize for the obnoxious voice I use when speaking to the dog. She probably hates it, too.

For the second half of the video: Chickadee did indeed teach the dog to both sneeze on command AND to flop on her side when asked if she has swine flu. This is important information to have to understand why her “obedience seizures” now include so much sneezing and falling over. Heh.

Enjoy!

Licorice Loves Fruit from woulda on Vimeo.

31 Comments

  1. Half Assed Kitchen

    That is so darling. I used to have a cat who was obsessed with baby carrots.

  2. Katherine

    My cat loves green peas, but seems indifferent to all fruit he has begged to sniff.

  3. Flea

    What a happy dog! Mine loves tomatoes. And you not to ever give her raisins, right? Very bad.

  4. Dawn

    I used to have a cat who loved canned corn. He would sit next to me very patiently while I sat at the table eating my supper. After a while, if I hadn’t given him any corn yet, he’d stand up on his hind legs and very politely touch the side of my leg with his paw, as if to remind me he was there. And then if I still didn’t give him any, he’d meow, oh so politely.

    The Beagle who now lives with me worships ANYTHING food like. Will not eat grapes, though. I guess she instinctly knows they’re not safe for her. I ‘m assuming they must not be due to the raisin thing.

  5. Crista

    LMAO. I forgot all about Chickadee teaching Licorice a trick. I love the floopping over to “Do you have swine flu?”!! And I have never heard of a dog sneezing on command. Very original! What is the leading question to that? Just the command “Sneeze”?
    My basset hound likes carrots, but first he has to make a huge mess grinding it into tiny pieces, then lick it off the floor. Strange dog…I haven’t found anything else he likes so far. We just got a new puppy so it will be fun to see what he likes. I love giving them fruits and veggies cuz it’s a treat to them, but feels like healthy to me.

    Thanks for a weekend treat! You always post good videos :)

  6. meghann

    One of our cats LOVES corn. Whenever we have corn on the cob (the mini ones) he’ll steal one and hide it. I’ll see him over the course of the night eating it, and batting it around like a toy. Eventually I get grossed out and take it from him. And then he is very sad. It’s hilarious watching a cat prowl around with a corn cob in its mouth though.

  7. Julie in Austin

    I love that video – what a cutie she is! My cat will do anything for fruit, broccoli, or fruit flavored candy. Apparently not as strange as I thought before reading here today. Thanks for the smile!

  8. Pam

    Raisins bad for dogs? First time I’ve heard that – our dog hasn’t had any I’ll effects. Mind you, she one ate six chocolate bars, wrappers included, without ant repercussions either. Mind you, she did once chew through an electric cable, ditto. She’s a Labrador – did you guess?

  9. Dawn

    That video was way more fun that it should have been.

  10. Daisy

    We had a rabbit who loved, loved popcorn. We would hold up a piece of popcorn and say “Speak!” and that tiny bunny would, believe it or not, grunt a bunny grunt at us.

    That was the same bunny who stuck his tiny face in a cappuccino – once. Only once. I don’t think he liked the froth on his whiskers.

  11. Deb

    Cute! Thanks for sharing. We have a cat that will literally steal a donut out of our mouths if we let him. For some reason he is crazy for donuts but I wish it was something healthier. As a side note, I did look up the grape/raisin thing on snopes and it is true. They can cause renal failure in dogs but they don’t know what about them causes the issue.

  12. Sarah

    So cute! I think dogs teach us to pause and enjoy the truly simple things in life. Our rescue beagle/basset mix LOVES carrots and goes ballistic when I peel them. Maybe its a basset thing judging from the comments above? I like to drape peels over his body so that they magically fall off and surprise him when he moves. Delightful.

  13. Tricia

    The falling over and sneezing is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen a dog do in response to the command “sit”. It cracked up my whole family, too. And the cantaloupe? I’ve never seen anything like that! Hilarious stuff.

  14. Kim

    Our beagle/lab will be 15 in August and she LOVES grapes. She can’t eat meat; it gives her seizures. But she loves all fruit and vegies other than onions, lettuce, and celery.

  15. Catherine

    Not to be a know it all, but grapes are supposed to be bad for dogs. It sounds like Kim’s dog has lived this long eating them, though…

  16. Nelson's Mama

    She’s so cute and I’m so glad that everyone seems to be enjoying her. There is nothing like the love of a dog.

    My parents have trouble with their big dogs eating the corn off the stalk in their garden – they are crazy for it! We also had an Aussie that adored grapes and he’d pick them off the vine; guess he missed that warning about them being bad for him.

  17. carmie

    Yeah no onions or anything in the allium family….that is one cute dog.

  18. em

    Wow. I wish anything excited me as much as banana strings excite Licorice! That is one happy dog! Thank goodness Super kept running away :-)

  19. Becky

    I never knew this, but there are certain fruits that aren’t good for dogs, one of which is grapes and also not surprisingly raisins. My German Shepherd was also crazy for fruit, and only after she’s gone did I find this out. Just wanted to pass that along!

  20. Karen

    OMG, I am coveting your dog.

  21. mamaspeak

    I know you know about the poisonous fruits & such for dogs. But PSA here, “FOLKS! Look up the SPCA site or something, there are lists of foods & plants that are bad for animals. Your dog may have been fine the last several times they had XXX, but it’s likely cumulative.”

    Thank you for letting me hijack your comments there Mir.

    Also, I watched this 2x. Sooo very cute. My dog preferences strawberries and apples. :-)

  22. mom, again

    My cat attacks sweet potatoes. she will attck them in the night if they are not stored inside a cabinet (normal potatoes are in an open basket, but hold no interest for her.) evidently wrestles with them then bites them all over. she also steals ginger candies out of the candy dish and mauls them, but doesn’t eat them.

  23. joaaanna

    My Basset Hound, Hubert, adores fruit. Prefers pineapple and bananas, but will try to steal about anything you are currently eating.

  24. Kai

    This TOTALLY made me giggle! I love that sit=flop on floor and sneeze! When I am playing fetch with my dog Ginger sit=”drop the tennis ball and keep standing”. Obedience is apparently optional when you are that cute.

  25. Aimee

    Now that is one cute dog!

    @Katherine, one of my cats loves green peas, too, and will start meowing for them as soon as I start cooking them. She won’t touch fruit, though.

  26. Rini

    I guess she hasn’t yet mastered the “hold it steady with a paw” maneuver yet…

  27. Fabs

    Too cute! Can you tell us what type/mix of dog licorice is again?

  28. Katie in MA

    Heh. I wonder if my kids will do that for jelly beans. :)

  29. Allison

    We have a gourmet pug who likes carrots, peppers, sweet potatoes, cherries, celery, edamame and any other vegetable or fruit that we will give him. I think he would eat veggies in his doggie dish and be happy! Never thought of giving him melon like this, I bet it would be just as entertaining! Very cute

  30. Lulu

    Our Ella loves Romaine butts –you know, those great big veins that get cut out of the leaves. She also loves potato and carrot peels and even daikon radish trimmings. She loves the crunch, but not if it’s celery. She also relishes bread bits she can steal out of the compost bucket or pile (blech).
    OTOH, she is remarkably picky about dog biscuits. Only the little cheap, multi-colored house-brand ones from Rosauer’s will do. Bummer. I got some from Winco this week. The sad, disappointed refusal is heart-rending. (And a little maddening. I mean, now who else is going to eat those???)

  31. Katie

    My mom’s cat Tawnie loved bread. If we left it out on the counter, even in the wrapper, the next morning it would have holes in it and teeth marks in the bread. She also ate pie and gnawed on unpainted ceramics occasionally

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