I forgot the dog!

Usual routine - Pereg asks for her lunch so off we trundle into the kitchen where she does her road-kill imitation while I get all her bits and pieces ready. Take out what needs to be taken out from the refrigerator, get her vitamin container down, get the supplements down, get out her bowl, spoons and meat-cutting scissors, and all the while there is this imitation road-kill waiting patiently for me to put it all together.

Food ready - put a couple of sheets of newspaper on the floor and put her bowl down, and road-kill gets up and sits beside her bowl.

Put her vitamins and supplements back where they belong, and whatever containers of food back in the refrigerator, and because she had finished one container of her vegetables I got a clean container - took down the diced/blanched/frozen bags of courgettes and pumpkin from the freezer, filled the container with enough for two days, put the bags back in the freezer and the container in the refrigerator.

While the door was open I then got out the lettuce, basket of cherry tomatoes and snuck a cucumber and a sweet red pepper into the basket in the hope that she had not noticed. Put lettuce leaves, cucumber, a dozen cherry tomatoes in the sink while I halved and de-pipped the pepper, and put the rest back in the refrigerator.

Turned to wash and cut up the salad stuff and thought something was not right, so turned round...

...and poor Pereg was still sitting by her untouched bowl, her right front leg up and across her chest in her "please mommy" position - I had forgotten to tell her she may eat

Oh Malka,Lacey does that too...drives me nuts Won't touch a bit unless I say "go on" Have no idea how it started but she only does it with me,feel like a prison warden sometimes Hope Pereg enjoyed her dinner

I now feel deeply ashamed at how badly trained my dogs are.

They start to eat it as I'm lowering the bowl to the floor.

Once upon a time, I had very well trained dogs -I think I've become too lenient in my old age and let them get away with too much.

Jantet,I can't speak for Malka but I defo didn't train mine to do it She's 10 and I guess she was about 5 when she started,will just sit there and wait...forever

Mine are fed in a certain order, they have decided that, not me.
Have never made them wait, although sometimes when I have given someone the wrong dish I'll say Leave It and straight away they back off, apart from that they do what they will and never even say thank you, never mind please may I

Pereg always enjoys her food Eileen! Today it was turkey gizzard and vegetables and she will be having four raw sardines for her evening meal. But usually when I put her bowl down she sits and "asks", I ask for a kiss [which is her nose barely touching mine - she is not a "kissy" dog] and then say "you may eat". And she will not touch it until I say she may.

But today I forgot her...

I've never made any dog wait until I say they can eat before they can touch their food. But also haven't ever had a dog that tries to eat it before I get the bowl onto the floor (or the meat onto the mat)!

Is this some sort of hierarchy thing - making them wait to eat until you say they can? Or to show you are pack leader or the dominant one or what?

Tang,I think with Lacey its just habit.Although have had a few say its respect,not sure about that though.Anyone else sets the bowl down she just eats it,not with me though.She waits.Don't believe in all that pack leader nonsense nor do I or my family eat first.I couldn't be dominant over her if I tried,but it seems to be in her nature to please.Never had a bother with her behaviour,she stays right next to be mostly,seriously laid back

No. It is just part of the "Look at me" and then "Kiss" thing that we do. I did not tell her to wait - she just waited because our ritual had not happened!

Although mine are so greedy they can't wait to eat, I have to say that there's no question of them guarding it - I have no trouble taking the bowl away (if I give one someone else's by mistake for example.)