Now, Couper loves bellyrubs too. All dogs love bellyrubs. However, Godiva takes it to the next level. Where Couper will roll over for a bellyrub, within a minute, whether having gotten a bellyrub or not, he will say (metaphorically of course), “That’s enough of that, let’s play” and get up to do something else. Godiva, on the other hand, will just lie on her back forever waiting for and/or receiving a bellyrub.
Godiva’s patience waiting for a bellyrub is amazing. Let’s say I am in the den on the computer. She will come in, whine, roll over on her back, and look up at me saying (again, metaphorically), “Hey you, here I am! Bellyrub time!!!” The amazing part is that I can go out of the room, make a sandwich, come back, and there she is in the same spot in the same position. Well, that’s not true, if I made a sandwich, she would come out to see if she was getting something to eat too. Bad example. Change make a sandwich with do laundry. Uh, no, bad example again. She would come out looking for stray socks. But anything else I would leave the room to do, when I come back, there she is on her back waiting for a bellyrub.
When Godiva gets a bellyrub, she is equally as patient. She will lie there as I rub away. After a while, my arm or hand gets tired. She will wait for me to switch hands. After a while longer, I will get tired of bellyrubbing entirely. She just lies there and looks at me with those big puppy eyes. Eventually I get scared that I am going to rub away all the tummy tissue and see her exposed intestines; like the old Operation game, but with a live dachshund.
And that’s all well and good except that she likes to get a bellyrub in the morning as I am getting ready to go to work. Not being a morning person, that task is difficult in and of itself. I don’t have 20 spare minutes to give Godiva the bellyrub that she wants. But there she is, morning after morning, waiting for me on the bed while I get dressed. Knowing that we will be gone all day makes it all the more difficult to say no to her pathetic, and cute, plea. So, I came up with a game. While giving her a bellyrub, I sing her two verses of the Bellyrub Song. At the end of the Bellyrub Song, I yell, “Yay!!!” and that’s the end of that.
What’s the Bellyrub Song you ask? It is the old “Lollypop” song with bellyrub subbed in:
Bellyrub bellyrub oh belly belly rub
Bellyrub bellyrub oh belly belly rub
Bellyrub bellyrub oh belly belly rub
Bellyrub
(Pop)
Do do do do
(repeat from the top)
Yay!!!
I am not sure how I came up with it, but it is genius (except that I can’t do the proper mouth pop, so it is more like a cluck than a pop – she doesn’t seem to mind). She gets a bellyrub and we are done in a minute or so (that is why I made the Bellyrub Song to the tune of Lollypop, not Stairway to Heaven). Better yet, she seems to like the “Yay” celebration most of all. When she hears that, she hops in one motion from her back to her feet (by far the most athletic thing she does), leaps off the bed with her tail wagging 1000 wags per minute, and sprints to tell Couper and her Mommy that she got a bellyrub. You have never seen anybody more excited about anything. Sometimes she is so anxious to get to the celebration that she tries to take off after only one verse of the Bellyrub Song. I have to hold her down for the second verse, because I feel it is only fair to her (not to mention I enjoy the sound of my own singing voice). Whatever, it works and with our demanding little Godiva, that's all that matters. Not to mention it is secretly my favorite part of the day (don't tell anyone).
Posts
