How Smart is your dog?

[dominick]

The Time Magazine cover story this week is "What Animals Think--- New Science reveals they're smarter than we realized"
Our mutt can count on command, by paw slaps or barking, any number from one to ten.
When we're getting ready to leave home, he gets all happy and excited cuz he knows that we always give him a treat as we're leaving. When we return, we might get a polite tail wagging, if he's in the mood.
How about your doggie? What's his/her best trick?

[Rag Bagger]

[QUOTE=dominick;282301]The Time Magazine cover story this week is "What "
Our mutt can count on command, by paw slaps or barking, any number from one to ten.

That's a great trick. When I was a kid my Mom tought our farm dog to count. All the cousins thought Pete was brilliant. But it was a trick Mom would hold up her hand with say three fingers. She would ask Pete to count the fingers. He would bark. On the third bark Mom would lower her hand and award Pete with hugs and pats. Cousins never did figure it out.

But I do agree dogs are very smart for the most part.

[bkcunningham1]

As an adult, the only dog I ever loved as part of my own family was an Australian shepherd named Tober who died a few years ago at nearly 19 years old. He was the most intelligent, protective and compassionate creature I've ever encountered.

He knew the words for each of his specific toys. Without any change in your tone, you could ask him to bring you his squeaky, or his frisbee, or whatever and by golly he knew. He knew his property boundaries without fences. I had to train him for this one, but he was an enthusiatist student.

He loved to retrieve and loved the water. We lived on a river when he was younger. He would watch where you threw something in the river for him to retrieve and he judged the current and knew to run along the bank and jump in ahead of the river current to retrieve in the moving water. Amazing. Simple amazing dog.

I had a cat that used the toilet instead of the litter box.

[getdul981]

Our girls know when it's time to eat. If you forget, they wil sit in the floor in front of you and bark. They also do that at 8 PM when my wife gives them an evening treat. When they have to go out, they go to the door and sit and look at you and if you don't see them, they will start barking. Might not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but we think it's kinda cute. Also, I might add, they are the cutest dogs ever.

[zcaveman]

If I spelled out R-I-D-E or jingled the keys Bart ran around in circle and then went to the garage door.

When we went out for breakfast or lunch, he would wait by the door and check our hands to see which one of us had the doggie box.

When it was dinner time, he would sit and bark at the wife until he was fed.

When it was time to go out, he would go to the door and look at me with the ready to go face.

If he wanted to go out at other times he would come over and sit next to me and nudge me with his nose.

He had a happy face, a sad face and an old man face. I loved them all and miss them all.

He waits at the rainbow bridge for his daddy.

Z

[K9-Lovers]

Most of the dogs that have been in my life have been much smarter than me. When I do something goofy they always look at me as if to say, "I told you so!"

My little Yorkie learned to use a litter box. He wasn't embarrassed. He thought all dogs did that. He watched television and knew the names and my hand-signals for all types of animals. His vocabulary was quite large and I could speak to him in sentence form and he would know what I said, for the most part. It would amaze my guests. He had the music memorized for all the tv commercials featuring dogs and cats. As soon as he would hear the music he'd come running and barking knowing that a cat or dog would be on the television screen. Of all the dogs I've owned, he was the best at communicating with humans.

[bkcunningham1]

If I spelled out R-I-D-E or jingled the keys Bart ran around in circle and then went to the garage door.

When we went out for breakfast or lunch, he would wait by the door and check our hands to see which one of us had the doggie box.

When it was dinner time, he would sit and bark at the wife until he was fed.

When it was time to go out, he would go to the door and look at me with the ready to go face.

If he wanted to go out at other times he would come over and sit next to me and nudge me with his nose.

He had a happy face, a sad face and an old man face. I loved them all and miss them all.

He waits at the rainbow bridge for his daddy.

Z

What breed of dog zcaveman?

[redwitch]

My Old English was truly awesome. He was my best friend, pillow, blanket, cuddle toy, confidant. Sleeper was never on a lead -- totally hand/voice trained. When I went shopping, he would sit in front of the store and wait for me to get done. He would never move from his spot.

I don't know how, but he always knew when I had a migraine even before I opened the door -- no happy jumps, no noise. He would simply lie on the floor beside me and never make a sound.

The funniest thing he ever did was when my boy friend and I would argue, he would herd us together until we were face to face. Kind of hard to be mad when you were literally nose to nose with a dog sitting there and looking quite pleased with himself.

He never nagged for food or being let out. At the most, he would let out a very little whine to remind you he needed you.

He did have one bad trait -- he could pass very smelly gas on cue (he didn't digest cheese too well even though he adored eating it). It was one of those things men think is really cute. And, no, I didn't teach him to do that -- my ex did.

I had to put Sleeper down when he was 13 because of bone spurs. He's been gone for 22 years and I still miss him.

[zcaveman]

What breed of dog zcaveman?

Shepherd-Chow

[Ohiogirl]

Our miniature (17 lbs so not all that miniature) poodle is very smart - he has trained his humans to pick him up and CARRY him outside to the fenced portion of the yard in the morning and before bed. He will only walk to the porch if you open his leash drawer. Otherwise, He just patiently waits on the couch. Oh, except in tomato season. He likes to take a couple of bites out of the ripe tomatoes that are low on the vine. For 2 years I was blaming rabbits or squirrels or raccoons, until I caught him in the act.

[jebartle]

I couldn't love him any more..They say a dog is only as smart as their owner, so that should explain everything...giggle..He follows me around like we are attached at the hip....He is adorable....Oh, this is the first dog we have owned that watches TV

[Barefoot]

Our dog Lolli Pop likes to watch animal programs on TV. She especially enjoys the dog training programs, but sadly, never learns anything from them.

Lolli will watch and get excited about anything on TV which is "non human". She loves the dancing M and Ms.

[tony]

Barefoot,

Your dog is trying to get you to learn something from the animal programs. When will you catch on? Watch for her smile when you finally get it.

[Pturner]

It amuses me when people say that humans are the only animals with the capacities of intelligence, love and free will.

My former Norfolk Terrier loved to bound out the back door when he was a puppy. I installed a doggie gate between our sunroom and the back door until I could fully train him not do do this. When I thought he was trained to stop at the gate (when it was open), I quit closing the gate. One day I went up to the mailbox and as I was walking back down the driveway, I saw him standing at the full-length window next to the back door watching me. I planned to correct him when I got inside.

However, when I turned the door knob, I heard his little puppy paws scrambling as fast as they would go across the sunroom floor. When I got the door ajar so I could see him, he was standing at the open gate facing me, tail wagging as fast as it would go. "Look what a good dog I am," was written all over his face and body language.

Looked a lot like intelligence and free will to me. And since he didn't realize I had caught him in the act, all I could do is reach down and pet him and say, "what a good dog you are!"

I also saw him once go behind the TV and look inside it trying to find the dogs on TV.

He has long since passed away, but I still love him dearly. My Shih Tzu, Bogey, I confess, is not the brightest banana in the bunch. But he's the sweetest, most cuddly and loving dog, not to mention adorable.

[Taltarzac]

She did some things that I would not exactly call "smart". I would take her a few times a month to a lake about 5 miles from where we lived near the Reno, Nevada airport.

This was Virginia Lake which is surrounded by homes and apartments and is near a number of shopping malls so it gets a lot of traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tN_CbhDHVY

On the way back from walking her around the lake she was still full of her normal boundless energy. I had a car with a hatchback seat which I would put down when I took her places.

She chased her tail in the back of the car. Caught it. Chomped down and proceeded to bleed heavily. She kept on chasing her tail while bleeding. Needless to say, the car's windows around the letdown hatchback seat looked like something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. The blood was splattered on every window with some all over me as well.

She stopped bleeding after a short time but I still had 4 miles to go home before I could clean and tape up her tail.

She also often got away from me while walking around Virginia Lake a couple of times so she could chase the couple of around ducks and geese off of the shore where they were basking in the sun. She would chase them into the lake and have to swim twenty or more feet to the shore.

[iandwk]

We took in a stray dog of questionable ancestry back in '93. She was mostly some type of bird dog, the vet said, and around 7-10 years old. We owned 5 poultry houses, so I thought I would see how she behaved inside one of the houses with 30,000 noisy chickens. She stayed at my heels and didn't bother the chickens, so it became a routine. When I would get in the truck she would jump in the bed and go with me several times per day. Usually on the first trip of the day. I would walk through each house, once around the inside walls between the feeders and walls, and the next around the inner part of each house. My purpose was to look for chickens who had died, were obviously weak, or somehow deformed. These would be removed from the houses to allow the healthy chickens to remain healthy. After 2 or 3 weeks, the dog, who we had named Reddawg because of her color (we aren't very imaginative) started pointing to the culls (the weak and deformed) that I had overlooked. I thought that was pretty good, since I hadn't trained her to do this. Then one day I said, "Go get it, girl." She ran and picked it up and brought it me unharmed. She had a bird dog's "soft mouth."

We contracted with Tyson, and the representatives who saw this demonstration were amazed. It became routine for them to bring some the visiting higher-ups to watch her do her stuff. She was always a big hit.

Sometime around the year 2000, she got to the point she couldn't jump up into the bed of the truck, so I started letting her ride inside with me. After about another year she got to the point that she could only go through 1 house and then not even that and I had to allow her to retire. She continued to live on the farm until around 2006. She just disappeared one day and we never found her. If the vet was correct, she was around 20-23 years old.

That's the last dog we have owned. Over the years we had other dogs on the farm when she was alive, but they were all outside dogs. She's the only one we allowed in. She smelled like the chicken houses, but so did the rest of the farm, and we didn't mind.

We will never forget her.

[tony]

My old dog, Ralph, could bark his own name.

[iandwk]

My old dog, Ralph, could bark his own name.


That was funny. Like the dog that could say the name of the greatest baseball player.

[momar]

We had an Australian Shepherd named Harley who was quite a boy! A treat was always mandatory, naturally.
-with him sitting --whatever hand you held out and said "shake" --he would stick out that corresponding paw.
-With both of us sitting--whatever hand I would put up and say "hi 5" --he would "hi 5" with the corresponding paw, or if I put up both hands and say "double hi 5"--he would do likewise.
-If you held a treat above him---he would stand on his hind legs and hop around in a circle.
-he would 'roll over'
-if he was down on the floor and you told him to "crawl" --he would do so.
-we had a piano and if I told him to "go play the piano"-- he would run in that room and hit the keys with his paws (but immediately be back for his treat).
-if he was down on the floor and you pointed your finger at him and said "bang, bang" ---he would roll over on his side and lay motionless for a bit.
- he loved to catch a tennis ball in the air (not easy catches,either)
He was my "best friend".

[Taltarzac]

I used to housesit and petsit two Westies who were a mother and son pair. I did this for 5 years or so.

The dogs were the property of a retired naval officer who routinely got up at 5 a.m. to feed his pets.

They expected to be fed on time. Unless I shut the door to the bedroom I slept in, the son of the pair--Chuck-- would jump in bed with me. Stick his nose to my side and try to roll me out of bed.

This was usually right around the crack of dawn or sometimes before.

These two dogs remind me of the mother and son pair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pby0YI8FdKc

[Pturner]

I used to housesit and petsit two Westies who were a mother and son pair. I did this for 5 years or so.

The dogs were the property of a retired naval officer who routinely got up at 5 a.m. to feed his pets.

They expected to be fed on time. Unless I shut the door to the bedroom I slept in, the son of the pair--Chuck-- would jump in bed with me. Stick his nose to my side and try to roll me out of bed.

This was usually right around the crack of dawn or sometimes before.

These two dogs remind me of the mother and son pair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pby0YI8FdKc

What fun! Thanks for sharing. Actually, they remind me of my dog and cat.

[bkcunningham1]

I used to housesit and petsit two Westies who were a mother and son pair. I did this for 5 years or so.

The dogs were the property of a retired naval officer who routinely got up at 5 a.m. to feed his pets.

They expected to be fed on time. Unless I shut the door to the bedroom I slept in, the son of the pair--Chuck-- would jump in bed with me. Stick his nose to my side and try to roll me out of bed.

This was usually right around the crack of dawn or sometimes before.

These two dogs remind me of the mother and son pair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pby0YI8FdKc

That is soooo cute. I love that nonchalant, "I'm not looking at you" attack strategy. Very cute. Thanks for the smiles.

[Barefoot]

I used to housesit and petsit two Westies who were a mother and son pair. I did this for 5 years or so.
The dogs were the property of a retired naval officer who routinely got up at 5 a.m. to feed his pets.

They expected to be fed on time. Unless I shut the door to the bedroom I slept in, the son of the pair--Chuck-- would jump in bed with me. Stick his nose to my side and try to roll me out of bed.
This was usually right around the crack of dawn or sometimes before.

These two dogs remind me of the mother and son pair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pby0YI8FdKc

Tal, what a cute clip. You get the award for "Best Video of the week"! :eclipsee_gold_cup:

Please see Tony to pick up your prize.

[wmchale]

My old dog, Ralph, could bark his own name.

Does he know what's on top of a house?

[tony]

Heck, yeah. He knew that word when he was a pup.
:doggie: