About domestication

On Animal Cops they show people conducting a test to see how tame or potentially adoptable a dog is. They take a stray dog or a dog that was removed from a dangerous home. The dog is usually very hungry, or even literally starving. Well, they place a bowl of food on the floor in front of the dog. The dog starts to eat the food. The term "wolf it down" comes to mind. You're watching one very determined dog. It's all about survival.

While the dog is eating his food, a human comes along and pokes at the food with a plastic hand on a stick. The dog may attack the plastic hand or growl a warning at it. The growl can mean anything from "Stop annoying me, can't you see I'm starving?" to "Get away, that's MY food, you moron!" to "I'll kill you if you come any closer!"

These responses are wrong. The correct response is to ignore the plastic hand.

I think I'd fail this domesticity test.

If you mess with my food, I might growl. If you tried to steal my food, I'd probably pretend I was going to bite you.

But my fate doesn't hang in the balance. I'm not perfect. I'm too feisty at times. And yet, I know what I can get away with and what will get me in trouble. Like Dirty Harry says, "A man's got to know his limitations."