Buddy might not know much about the man upstairs—Buddy’s a dog, so he wouldn’t—but his owner, Haley Buckland, managed to teach Buddy something about having grace.
Or, simply saying it.
It’s something she was taught when she was very young. Growing up attending a Christian school in New York, the 25-year-old, now living in Georgia and training to work in real estate, learned to always pray before touching her plate.
“That was something I was taught, so I wanted him to do it as well,” Ms. Buckland told The Epoch Times, speaking of Buddy, her black Labrador retriever.
Just after moving to the southerly peach state a few years ago, she got Buddy as a 4-week-old puppy in autumn 2018. She never expected him to go viral.
“When he was around 3 months, I started training him to pray before he eats,” Ms. Buckland said. “Of course, in the beginning it wasn’t easy. He didn’t understand, he was getting very frustrated, and he would just go after the food.”
But soon the ritual was established. She would put out her hand. Buddy placed a paw on top.
Every day, the words were recited: “God is good, God is great, let us thank Him for our food. By His hands, we are fed. We thank You for our daily bread. Amen.”
At first, Buddy’s food was kept out of reach on the counter. Over time, though, as his patience was tempered through her constant training of saying grace, the food remained untouched in his bowl by his own choice as they prayed.
After about two months of this, Buddy came to know that the words must always be said. Each time, every time. Followed by “amen.”
“I used to put my hand out, but I started doing my foot because I got a little lazy,” she told the newspaper. “I put my foot out, and then he would kind of catch on, and he would put his paws on my foot.”
Black Labs, she said, are a “very smart” breed.
Good manners. Ms. Buckland learned them early on. Now, she says she is “so happy” to have passed on to Buddy what had fostered her own upbringing. “I don’t know if he necessarily understands the words that I’m saying,“ she said. ”But he knows that there’s something before the amen.”
In fact, Buddy came to know it so well that now he simply won’t eat until that final word—amen—is uttered.
“Like, I finished the prayer, he still knows, ‘Okay, she didn’t say amen,’” she said.
So, Ms. Buckland, who aquired the habit of videoing Buddy and posting his constant stream of adorable antics on social media for her friends, started recording his seemingly pious devotion to pre-mealtime prayer. To her shock, the videos seized a large audience online.
“I was trying to show people he really won’t eat unless I say a prayer and say amen,” she said. “I didn’t think it would blow up as much as it did. I’m happy it did.”
Some viewers commented how many people living in the world today don’t even say grace at all. Others said he made them smile. That made Ms. Buckland feel good.
She added, “If Buddy is able to make people feel that way, then I want to continue to share it with the world, you know?”
