Just some more thoughts on this. My t is getting ready to go on vacation and acting all goofy. Sd might say wily! I'm inclined to attribute his actions to his unconscious feelings for me and act "around" them - as I would with my mother. But now I see - because of your "lying" thesis - that he is just trying to make a more comfortable place for me to be able to say I would miss him, for example - which I was never "allowed" to miss my mother when she was gone. For me, that's not too wily, because I have asked him to show me how normal people act.

But he must think me the dumbest and hardest dog to train he's ever had, I take such a long time. But this explains why actual dogs relate to me the way they do. I've long suspected they feel sorry for me. I think they recognize someone who's had the will trained out of them.