Eager Beaver

Barley, a dog, chews her way down the length of a fallen branch, stripping away the bark and leaving exposed, slobbery wood behind.

Barley decides only very occasionally that a stick is worthy of summary destruction, and on those occasions, she seems most pleased by the feeling of bark coming away from the underlying branch beneath. Once a stick has been thusly stripped, she’ll get on with the business of chewing/snapping it into little chunks, so the bark is not the sole attraction, but it nevertheless holds a particular appeal. This tells us something, perhaps, about what it is that dogs enjoy feeling when they chew recreationally. It seems clear to me that in order for a toy or stick to be worth of her toothsome attention, it must yield, incrementally. If she can’t perceive that she’s making progress, she loses interest pretty fast.