Dogs are supposed to love peanut butter. Which would lead one to assume that a very food-motivated dog like Chester would go nuts (no pun intended) over peanut butter.

The first time I tried to stuff a kong with peanut butter he wouldn’t touch it. It took me a while to realize that it was the peanut butter he didn’t like, not the kong (now he gets a kong in his crate every night. He wouldn’t even lick peanut butter off of my finger.

I, on the other hand, adore peanut butter. Especially peanut butter and chocolate, but of course chocolate isn’t good for dogs. Still, I was making myself some peanut butter krispy treats, and suddenly Chester seemed interested. So I let him lick a little off my finger; and he did.

Next I tried putting a little peanut butter on one of his chew toys, and that occupied him for quite a while (once I got him to stop taking it out of the crate). Finally I tried plugging the end of his kong with peanut butter, and he enjoyed that, too (although it didn’t slow him down). He’s a convert. As my husband would say, he’s getting to be a “real” dog.

Yesterday, in fact, we had a first. I have a small, hollow sterilized bone for him. In fact, I have a large one, too, that he likes to gnaw, but it’s too large for him to hold on to; he hasn’t shown a whole lot of interest in gnawing on the smaller one. Until I stuffed it with peanut butter.

So yesterday I put the bone, with some fresh peanut butter in it, in his crate in our family room. Then we went off to have brunch at our kitchen table. Chester actually stayed out in the family room working on his bone, rather than looking at us with “feed me” eyes.

That’s pretty powerful stuff. I can always guarantee Chester will be hanging around us when we’re either eating or preparing food, whether it’s for us or him. But he chose to go into a different room, into his crate, while we were eating — all so that he could get at the peanut butter. And that’s what I call the power of peanut butter!

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