When we first started having dogs around, we wanted to make sure that the dogs didn’t beg at the table. We had a rule that we’d never feed them while sitting at the table.

After having steak one night, we figured that we’d give the scraps to the dogs. But how do we avoid teaching the dogs that they could ever have people food? Our solution was to have one of us take the dogs to another room where they couldn’t see what was going on. The other would put the scraps in the dog food bowls. The dogs would then see that the scraps came out of nowhere and had nothing to do with our dinner.

We called this the steak fairy.

The dogs weren’t fooled. When we next had steak, the dogs were beside us, looking pathetic and half-starved. Maybe drooling a bit. When we got up, the dogs were beside themselves, looking ever so hopeful and optimistic.

After a few more visits from the steak fairy, we stopped chasing the dogs out while we load up their bowls.

But we still make them wait.