I have a seven year old black and tan Cocker Spaniel male, Spencer, who decided that he liked pipe tobacco very soon after he became a part of our family. His decision regarding tobacco is unique among the dogs we have had in the past and the second Spaniel, Bailey we have now. Bailey could care less about my pipes and tobacco and truly seems oblivious to my habit. But not Spencer, he is mildly obsessed with it. Mind you, he has not gone so far as to take up the pipe… yet! But he does love pipes and tobacco. I was going to say my pipes and tobacco but that does not reflect his perceptions regarding them. He often joins me on the front porch when I go to have a pipe. While I load the pipe he sits on my lap, or on the couch next to me, trying to get his nose in the jar or the tin. He does not eat it, but merely sniffs and snorts in the smells. He does the same with an empty pipe and pipe cleaners when I lay them on the table in front of the couch. So far he has not tried to pick up the pipes at all, just snuffles and snorts as he breathes in the smells and aromas as deeply as he can. I am do not trust him so when I am finished with a pipe I put it back in rack on the top or my cabinet in the basement. Why leave it out to tempt him?

Lately he has taken his love of tobacco to a new level. He has turned his attention to my jarred tobacco and tobacco tins. I used to store them on the lower shelves of my bookcases in my office. Over the past months I have come home from work to find that my daughters have put the tobacco on my desk. Each time I have taken them off the desk and returned them to their place on the shelf again. This turned into an ongoing repetitive task…until this past week. I had come home from work and went to the office. There they were on the desk as usual and I got busy returning them to their original spot. My daughter walked in asked me the million dollar question.

“Why do you keep putting them back on the shelves? I am the one who has put them on your desk. Three times this week alone, Spencer has snatched a tin or a small jar of it by the edge of its lid and carried it to his kennel (his wannabe “man cave”). I have had to trick him with a dog treat to get him to let go of it and give it back. He just lies there, holding it between his front paws, with it under his chin and guarding it as if it was his treasure. He literally stares at me and growls that this is now his tin. He thinks it belongs to him. Can we move them somewhere else please?”

I had to laugh as it finally made sense why the tins and jars had been repeatedly appearing on my desk. It never was just one or two tins, no it always seemed to be at least half a dozen or more. There were times when I came home and found the mess on my desk and groaned that they had moved them again. Now I understood the reason for them being on my desk. So this past weekend I moved the tins and jars to the top of my pipe cabinet. At least they will be out of his reach should he try to get them again. Spencer watched me move them with a questioning look in his eye. The way he followed me back and forth between the shelves and the cabinet made it very clear to me how frustrating he found this whole ordeal. It looked to me that if he could have talked he would have asked, “Why are you moving my tobacco?” But hey, who am I to try to figure out what is on his mind.

No matter how long I have thought about it I still have to say that I am not sure what it is about the jars and tins that capture his attention. It does not seem to matter if they are open or sealed. If had been just the open ones I would be able to say that he liked the smell of the tobacco. But that does not help explain the attraction of the sealed tins and jars. His thinking is beyond me on this one and I figured I would never understand it. I gave up. However, just for fun I decided to leave a couple of jars and tins on the bottom shelf of the bookcase to see what he would do.

On Sunday morning the two of us were down in the office early enjoying our morning ritual – me with my coffee and Spencer with his dog food. We played a bit of fetch with his chew ball and tug of war for a while as I sipped my coffee. I rubbed his ears and he rolled his head into my hand with a groan of pleasure. Eventually he stretched out in front of the bookcase where the tobacco was stored. He lay there quietly for some time without even a move toward them. But as soon as he noticed I was engaged cleaning a pipe and not watching him, he snatched one of the jars by the rim and was made a beeline for his kennel. He glanced over his shoulder and ran into the next room. I called after him but he ignored me and buried himself deep in his kennel. I went to the kennel and got down on my hands and knees in front of it only to be greeted with a growl as he held onto the jar. I retrieved a treat and we negotiated a trade. He grudgingly let go of the jar and I took it back. He followed me as took it and the remaining jars and tins to the top of the cabinet. He eyed me suspiciously and gave me his unhappy grumble. When I was finished he checked to see if I had moved them all. Once he noted that they were all gone. He flopped on the floor in front of the shelves and watched as I cleaned pipes all morning. A couple of times he grabbed a used pipe cleaner and chewed it. He made it clear that he was not impressed by my moving his stash.

Any of you have animals that want to share your tobacco cellar?