Oh god, this was silly. See, the brown poodle was wandering around with this big long dog toy. Most of the time he had it in his mouth but he actually put it down, into the collar, once while I watched. And then, disaster: he dropped it! And promptly started trying to pick it up.
Most of my pictures of him doing that are all blurry, because I was laughing so hard at the poor thing.
He kept mooshing his face into the cone of shame. And his mom was standing right there. I said something like, “Hey, I think your dog might need a little help there…” And she said, “Naw, he’ll be fine!” Turned out she knew what she was talking about. A second later he’d managed to scoop it up and was happily shaking it around.
Every blurry photo I took also had the poodle's tongue lolling out. Maybe cones of shame taste like ice cream cones?
Just at the crucial second where he picked up his toy, another poodle steps right in my way. Ah well.
That is an absolutely ridiculous toy to begin with. Combining it with the cone of shame? Genius!
At our house we refer to these as Elizabethan collars. There is no shame in a dog trying to do what is a natural inclination.:-)
On the one hand, I fully agree with you. (And let’s face it: nothing a dog does should be cause for shame. Some things should be trained out, sure, but it’s not exactly your dog’s fault if you didn’t train him right!)
On the other hand, though… the ‘cone of shame’ was amongst the funniest things in a very funny movie, and it’s pretty hard not to make the reference, even if you don’t take it seriously.
Just like when a golden retriever runs up to me and starts dancing around, wagging madly, just because I’m THERE and a PERSON and OH MY GOD THIS IS SO EXCITING it’s hard not to say, “I have just met you AND I LOVE YOU!!”