Who Are You Guys?!?

Last weekend we went to Dick's (huh huh) Sporting Goods to buy a small basketball for Godiva's birthday. Seems the other basketballs we had gotten for her on other holidays had mysteriously been beaten up and flattened. We suspect owls.

Anyhow, the ball is not the point of this exercise. Not entirely. When we go out, we keep Couper and Godiva gated in the kitchen. The kitchen is about 25 feet from the laundry room, which leads to the garage.

When we got home from Dick's (huh huh), we put the bag containing the basketball on the dryer in the laundry room. We then took the dogs out to poop, made and had dinner, went out to do our post-dinner potties, and cleaned up. Only then, a good hour and a half to two hours after we got home, did we let the puppies out from the kitchen area.

Upon opening the gate, they sprinted directly to the laundry room and attempted (comically, because they are little dachshunds) jumping to get on the dryer. The only new item on the dryer was the bag containing the ball that we had gotten. There was no neglected package of steaks from Costco. There was no bag of dog food from their gourmet puppy store. And, they do not under normal circumstances whine, jump, and bark at the dryer. Someway, somehow, they knew that there was a present for them on that dryer and they were determined to get it.

All of which prompted Couper's Mommy to say, "Who are you guys?!?" Cue Butch and Sundance:

So, yes, the point of this exercise was to link to Butch and Sundance, but really, how do these dogs know these things? How did they know that was a ball up there (and not a small tire, or a plunger or something)? How did they know it was for them (and not for their out of shape daddy...I guess that is not a mystery)? How did they know it was there (and how did they know it was in the bedroom when we later moved it there)? And, in the end, who really are you guys?