Missing Diamonds in Georgia

The missing diamonds in Georgia only took a day to find. Jeweler Chuck Roberts had an idea who took them, and he turned out to be right.

The scoundrel was Honey Bun, the store's Pomeranian mascot. Roberts had jumped up quickly to see to a customer and left the diamonds in small plastic packets on the desk. In his haste to get to the customer, he left the chair out so that Honey Bun could get up to the desk. When he returned, one of the packets was missing. He immediately suspected the little canine criminal, and sure enough, found the empty plastic bag on the floor.

Since Honey Bun refused to cooperate, the jeweler resorted to desperate measures -- after all the missing diamonds were worth $10K! Honey Bun was carried to the veterinarian to receive an X-Ray. Although diamonds won't show on an X-Ray, there were two blank spots which strongly suggested that Honey Bun had indeed made a snack of the valuable diamonds. "All's well that ends well," and Roberts did get his diamonds back in the end, the next day when the pooch passed them with no ill effects.

Roberts said "I haven't scolded him to this day and I won't." When asked why not, he replied, "It's my fault for leaving the chair there, that's why."

And with that, Roberts expressed so clearly the lesson dog trainers have been trying to get across for a hundred years at least: Most "bad" behavior in dogs is the fault of the humans. Adult dogs don't typically eat inedible objects, however, all it takes is the odor from your hands -- a trace of the roast beef you had for lunch -- and the dog smells food. Dogs have a sense of smell that humans cannot begin to relate to, and so it's the humans' responsibility to prevent delinquency in canines by practicing some good behavior of their own: blocking access to tables, counters and stoves, putting belongings away immediately after use, and providing a variety of playthings for their pets. And that is the moral of the missing diamonds in Georgia tale.