The thought had already occurred to me at various dog parks, where Dex responds to friendly overtures from other dogs by falling on her back and screaming as though stabbed.
The thought was never more clear than last week, when I introduced the dog door into her life. I removed the door so that it was just a hole in the wall, and I put chicken breast on the other side. Despite my saccharine cooing, it took her nearly a half hour to work up the courage to step through the hole, grab a hunk of chicken breast, and then lunge back through the hole backward, as though she risked being guillotined if she lingered.
Christ. My dog is a complete pussy.