Dog ‘Buys’ Treats From Store Using Leaf As Money [Video]

• Negro is the student watchdog at a campus in Colombia where he lives rent-free and is provided with food, water and a lot of attention.
• He has been observing students paying for snacks at a little store on campus.
• One day, he brought a leaf to pay for a cookie treat and the attendant accepted it as payment.

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Observing the students at the campus of Diversified Technical Education Institute of Monterrey Casanare in Colombia paying for items at a store on campus must have rubbed off on Negro the dog.  He now pays for his cookie treats with leaves, not money. It is his currency.

As the campus unofficial student guardian, Negro is taken care of by the school’s faculty.  All his basic needs of food, water, home and attention are provided for. The staff and the students are his families.  They give her and show her love.   You could say, he wants for nothing.  

So, you would think, he is spoiled.  But he is not.  He makes sure that anything that goes beyond the necessary, he pays for.

Just like treats.

But how did he learn how to pay for them?  

Negro is well aware of a little store inside the campus where the students buy things.  It is where the cookies that the students give him come from.  He has learned that in order to get cookies, you have to pay.

Teacher Angela Bernal relates, “He would go to the store and watch the children give money and receive something in exchange. Then one day, spontaneous, he appeared with a leaf in his mouth, wagging his tail and letting it be known that he wanted a cookie.”

Negro is paying for the cookies with leaves! Thus became the habit— give the cashier the leaf in exchange for treats.

The attendant at the store, Gladys Barreto said, “He comes for cookies every day. He always pays with a leaf. It is his daily purchase.”

Don’t worry.  The staff has ensured that the cookies that Negro gets are safe for dogs to eat, and limited to one or two a day.  They are watching his diet. 

Bernal added, “When you first see it, you almost want to cry. He’s found a way to make himself understood. He’s very intelligent.”

Smart move, Negro!

Source: The Dodo