I am NOT Smarter than a Basenji!

Yes, the Battle of the Water Bowls continues.  It's a match of wits between myself, a fairly intelligent human, and two crafty little basenjis, and I'm embarrassed to say that I think the basenjis are winning.  As of my last post, http://basenjirescue.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-missing-water-bowl-continued.html, the dogs were taking their water bowl out the dog door and hiding it in the backyard every day while I'm at work, leaving a nice big puddle of water with delicate little pawprints through it on the kitchen floor.  I still have no idea why they do this, but recently I'm starting to wonder if they think of their water bowl as a toy, or maybe a security blanket? 

One day, I came home from work early and caught Biko in the act of water bowl espionage.  The funny thing was, he wouldn't put his water bowl down!  For an hour, he carried it around the house like it was a favorite toy or a security blanket, eventually hiding it in his favorite dog bed atop the living room couch.  I just couldn't stop laughing!

Amusing as it was to learn that Biko thinks of his water bowl as a security blanket, I was still tired of mopping up the kitchen every day, so I decided to try a different tactic.  I purchased a "gravity water bowl" for $12 from Petco, which I imagined would be too top-heavy for them to drag out the dog door. But of course, the dogs outsmarted me again - after two days of leaving it untouched, on the third day I came home to find the water bottle top overturned on the kitchen floor, spilling out water, and the silver plastic bowl was outside in the yard underneath their favorite bush.  Foiled again, by two little dogs!

Finally, in a last-ditch effort to try and outsmart my two sly pups, I found a $2 metal water bowl with a generously sloped rim and a flat bottom edge, which (I hoped) would make it very difficult for the dogs to pick up and/or carry outside through the dog door.  For about a week the bowl was untouched and I declared victory, mentally congratulating myself on being smarter than my dogs.  But then, alas, I came home one day to find that although they can't seem to pick up this bowl and get it out the door, they still can enjoy the sport of sliding it around the kitchen floor and spilling all the water out of it. 

So in the end, I think it's now official:  I'm ready to concede defeat.  I am NOT smarter than a basenji!