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Husband was on a 3 day gone work cycle and when he was delayed once, the dog waited by the door, apparently worried that he wasn’t home yet on the 3rd day.
Another dog could get herself under the bed covers without messing them up. She also opened kitchen drawers. And she hid her chewable pills under the sofa (all along I thought she liked them!)
Our last dog knew when other dogs were sick or hurt-he was careful around them, not trying to play like they usually did.
we used to breed dobermans, I had one seasoned female who was very smart, loving and a great all around dog....Jessie, was her name, a big red alpha female. She loved to talk...so I taught her to say mama....
One morning, she was nudging me, and I was still half asleep, it was still dark out, so I didn't get it...but then she kept saying mama and looking at me straight in the face...I figured she had to go out...so I got out of bed and she ran down the stairs and went outside...
I think my dog is pretty smart, he learned all the cues very fast, but I can't think of one specific occasion when he did something extra smart. I remember when he was still quite new and we were out and about, sometimes we saw a mother with small unruly kids and the mom would tell the kids to sit down. My dog always listened and sat down with a proud look on his face, looking at me for his treat.
First Dog, a "Sheprador," was incredibly smart. She knew over 200 words (I kept track) and could understand whole sentences. She knew the name of each of her toys and chewies. She had one of those hollow bones that you fill with treats, and she was looking for it downstairs. I happened to know it was upstairs in the bedroom, so I told her to go upstairs and find her bone. Up the stairs she ran, and we could hear her rummaging around, but then she came downstairs again, looking at us with her head cocked, "Hmmmmm?" She hadn't been able to find it. So I said, "Your bone is in the bedroom!" Back up she went, and we could hear her go straight to the master bedroom. And then she came running downstairs with the bone in her mouth, ready for it to be filled. She knew "Go get," "upstairs," 'bedroom," and "bone," and she was able to put those together into a mental image.
They say that only humans can do symbolic thinking, where one word or thing stands for another. I believe that First Dog could do it, too. We used to save the cardboard tubes inside paper towels (they were really sturdy in those days) and fill them with small milkbones for her and close up the ends. She'd tear the tube open, like a gift package. So one night we'd run out of tubes, and since it was a tradition that she'd get one for dessert after her dinner, she was very frustrated. The milkbones alone didn't do it for her. She disappeared into one of the bathrooms, and emerged with a toilet paper tube from the waste basket, and came over and presented it to us: Here! Like this!Fill! Please! She would ordinarily never go through the trash, and she obviously knew that it wasn't the right kind of tube, and she knew we didn't keep her tubes in the bathroom waste basket but in the kitchen cabinet, but I believe she wanted to tell us that she wanted something like that toilet paper tube. We were absolutely floored. The little tube was a symbol of the big tube! In a way she was drawing a picture for us. I think I just ripped all the paper off the kitchen paper towel roll so she could have her evening tube!
you said your first dog was a mix...I remember growing up, those mixed breeds (muts, they were called) were not wanted, people wanted purebred dogs...but the old times, like my friends grand parents and parents who grew up with dogs used to always say, "your mut is your smartest dog"... growing up I took heed to those words, but found having purebred dobbies a pure lab, and a purbred coonhound, that they to were as smart as any mut....I believe it depends on how much time you spend with them, and being consistent with talking to them, teaching them words...but thats just me?
I think my dog is pretty smart, he learned all the cues very fast, but I can't think of one specific occasion when he did something extra smart. I remember when he was still quite new and we were out and about, sometimes we saw a mother with small unruly kids and the mom would tell the kids to sit down. My dog always listened and sat down with a proud look on his face, looking at me for his treat.
Everytime we got a new pup, I'd always enroll them into puppy kindergarden classes, it was always so much fun, a great refresher for me and socialization for our new puppy
In one of the classes, a young man had an 8 week old Rottweiler puppy, my gosh, that kid must have spent so much time with that pup...he was better than any dog in that class....not only could he sit, laydown and stay on cue, but while walking with his owner, he looked up at him....amazing. So, yeah, I believe spending time with your dogs is very important and when they are pups, taking them to shopping centers and letting them socialize and be pet is good practice as well....but I'm talking 8 to 10 weeks old.
We had a house full of dogs (six, I believe), the oldest being a female Cocker. As each new dog came along, she taught them to use the doggie door. We never had to housebreak a puppy until she was gone. That's probably not really unusual.. but she also seemed to know when mommy would be home from work. Maybe 15 minutes before, she'd park herself on the porch, and when she heard the car coming up the road, she'd go in the house and round up all the other dogs to welcome mom home. Not occasionally... every day. And if it wasn't our car coming, she stayed outside. No fooling her.
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