As long as he can't hear them bark, he disdains to notice their existence. It would be beneath his dignity!
Like falling off a chair is beneath his dignity. He can pretend that it didn't happen, or that he MEANT to do that, unless Becky laughs. Sometimes Becky can't smother all her laughter, and then he's really offended.
I would never laugh at him out loud, and often I rush to apologize when he does fall off. He's happy with that - it MUST have been Rick's fault.
That's only fair, because we both do blame him when anything gets lost or one of us does something the other doesn't like. We blame Toby.