How clever is your dog?

[eagle eye]

We have a 9 year old German Shepherd/Collie cross female dog. We've had her for 5 years now, she was from the RSPCA. Sometimes I am amazed at how clever she is, and then at how stupid she can be.

She was given a squeaky ball one Christmas, the first thing she did was to set about trying to remove the squeak. For saying she has no hands or fingers, she did this in less than 2 minutes. She positioned the ball between her front two paws, rotated the ball with her teeth until the squeak was in the right position and then used her teeth to extract the squeek. Thinking this was just a one-off, I replaced the squeek and she did it again. She now does this on cue to amuse the family.

She is also this clever when it comes to swallowing tablets. Having been told she didn't like having them placed in her mouth I would hide them in her food. She would, eat every last morsel, lick her bowl clean, but leave the tablet untouched! How can she do this without fingers?? I have even tried breaking them up an hiding them inside Dentastix but she eats eveything but the tablet.

It now easier to put the tablet in the back of her mouth, she swallows them without fuss.

But when the sun relects off my watch, she chases the relection all over the place, even running into furniture to get it. A ballpoint pen makes a similar clicking noise as a torch, but can she tell the difference. No, she's there looking for the light. Daft as a brush, but as clever as Einstein.

[shivvy]

My last dog was one of the smartest I have ever known.

If I put a row of her toys on the floor and told her to give the bone to Mary she was able to choose the bone and deliver it on to Marys lap in a room full of people. She could do any combination eg tuggy to John, squeeky to Bob etc.
She really shocked me one evening when I was lying on the sofa and she was on a chair in the same room. The remote control slipped out of my hand onto the floor and before I could move, she had jumped off her chair come across the room, picked up the remote and set it into my hand! Then she casually went back and hopped up on her seat again - Couldn't believe it!
She would have made a great assistance dog.

Neither of the 2 scruffy dopes I have now could match her, but they are smart in their own wee ways!

[Jules001]

we have had our dog for 3 years now, he was a rescue dog and when we got him, we had obviously bought toys for him, but he didn't know what to do with them and really didn't know how to play. How that has changed, he can now play hide and seek with me and knows to wait at the bottom of the stairs until my daughter tells him to go and find me, he will then check all of the hiding places I have used until he finds me. We also hide some of his treats and make a game out of him sniffing them out. He, despite have two beds of his own, one upstairs and one downstairs, still prefers to sleep on our bed during the day, but has now worked out that with a bit of scratching around he can pull back the duvet and actually get in our bed which I most firmly draw the line at and told him so, next day I found he had gone into the guest room instead and tried to get on the bed in there! He understands so many words and can dance and 'sing' also if he needs to go outside between walks, he will come and sit down in front of us until we ask what he wants, we then go through the list of possible things he might want until we get to wee wee, at which point he makes it clear we have found the right answer whilst he looks at us as if we are stupid and is saying at last the penny drops!

[Postdog]

Got up early this morning, still half asleep, and had the dog hanging about in the kitchen whining and barking occaisionally. Had things to do so had to ignore him for a while, but when I did go in he started barking at the sink. I couldn't fathom out what was wrong and then I saw his water bowl was empty and he was gasping. He knew water came from the sink and was telling me to fill his bowl.

[shivvy]

I mentioned my 2 scufffy dopes in an earlier post. They are both rescues, one we have had for over 3 years and the other only approx 4 months.
When we got the first one we taught her a few tricks like closing the door, 'speaking' and fetching slippers. Apart from the door trick we regularly ask her to do her other party pieces - until a few days ago . . .

The new dog is much younger and very excited about having a new (and presumably better) start to life. She is always running around just waiting for any opportunity to go outside and chase anything which might dare to enter our garden. A few days ago she was pacing and whining and generally annoying myself and Bella (the older dog) so I opened the door to let her out. She was only out the door a matter of seconds when Bella jumped off her seat, walked to the door, jumped up and closed it and then came back into the room and jumped up on her seat again with a look on her face as if to say 'she won't be bothering us again for a while' !!!

I know the phrase is overused but I literally did laugh out loud!