Don't Look 'Em In the Eye

Scene:  We're in the living room and I watch out of the corner of my eye as my six year old goes to take a toy out of the mouth of the tiny dog we are fostering, the one with major resource guarding issues. (In layman's terms, he's an asshole when he thinks someone is trying to take something away from him). In this case, someone IS trying to take something away from him and I'm too slow, too late to get the words of warning out of my mouth. Hootie snarls. He doesn't bite because he is at heart, a total coward (and also 13lbs), but he wants to look and sound like he would.  Rowan is smart enough to leave it at that and gives up on reclaiming his stuffed animal.

Me:  ROWAN!  Do NOT ever try that again!  If Hootie has something you want, you need to just come tell ME and I'll take care of it.

Rowan: But, he had Yoshi! (his stuffed frog). I had to save him!

Me: You should never try and take something out of a dog's mouth, Rowan, especially not when he's snarling at you. That's not smart! He's giving you a VERY clear warning, you need to pay attention to that.

Hopper: And Also, You should NEVER LOOK HIM IN THE EYE.

(Both me and Rowan): Say wha?

Hopper: Because if you look him in the eye, he might take that as a CHALLENGE. You know, like he might want to take you on in Wii Boxing.

Me: Yeaaaaaahhhh, Honey, I don't think that's what that means...

Rowan (muttering):  But I could totally beat him at Wii Boxing.

I'm sure you could, baby. I'm sure you could.