Smart things your dogs do

[stacwase]

Does anybody have any stories of any surprisingly smart or clever things your dogs have done?

For example, my sister has a little girl who has a swing for her dolls outside in the back yard. My sister's dog, rascal, puts his toy in the swing and swings it around!

Here's a picture of Rascal with my mom's chi, Chloe. Doesn't Rascal look like a rascal? I wonder what breeds he is.

[Samantha Puppy]

Wow. Sam doesn't do anything like that. She does, however, play ball with herself by throwing over the back of her body. She looks mental when she does it, but she can amuse herself for the longest time.

She's really good with words though. She learned "bye-byes" right away and gets crazy when you say that word. Some other words she also knows "car," "go" and G-O (spelling it), and "leash." However, in addition to that, she listens for similar sounds in words. She doesn't always get them right, but it's stilly really cool to say a word and watch her think and try to understand. For instance, my fiance's name is Josh, but she only knows him as Daddy. So I thought I'd get to have her know him by both. I said "JOSH is coming over, Samantha!" and she got very excited and went to the basement door where the LEASH is kept. She associated the "-SH" sounds of both words! She also knows "bunnies" as we have wild ones living under our shed in the backyard. She was doing something dorky and I said, "Samantha, you're so funny!" and she bolted to the backdoor to see the bunnies. hehe

I think it's smart, but after reading about your sister's dog, stacwase, it sounds pretty pathetic!!

[stacwase]

Samantha - I always wondered if dogs could even tell the difference between vowel sounds. From listening to your stories about your dog it sounds like they pay more attention to the consonants! I'll have to test that out with Jake and Max.

I think my sister's dog must be unusually smart. My dogs haven't done anything like that! But of course mine are unusually loveable, so that makes up for it!

[Samantha Puppy]

Originally posted by stacwase
I think my sister's dog must be unusually smart. My dogs haven't done anything like that! But of course mine are unusually loveable, so that makes up for it!

Sam is too (unusually loveable). I've never seen a sweeter dog.

Luckily, she's got enough of that strawberry blond color so when she does something dumb, I attribute it to a "blond moment."

[Dawn]

I think Tyr is very smart and always surprises me with the things he does.
One thing he did that really surprised me was when my next door neighbor was trimming some trees and he decided to trim a branch that was hanging over into my yard, so he took his ladder and put it over my fence and climbed up it to reach the branch. Meanwhile I came home from the doggie park unawares and let the dogs out of the car. Tyr-Mr.Noisey that he is, went to investigate. My neighbor went down the ladder into his yard and Tyr watched him. Then he mounted the ladder and started to climb up it!
My neighbor freaked and started to shake the ladder-gently to get him off it and told him to get down. So Tyr stopped climbing and stayed on the ladder for a second -debating whether to keep going or not, then jumped off. My neighbor quickly pulled the ladder back over the fence.
Tyr had never even seen a ladder before that.
Whether he would have known how to get down once he reached the top or not is something I would have liked to have seen.

[PJ's Mom]

Both dogs know the difference between saying please (quiet growl) and speaking. (bark) Peej can spell c-a-r.

That's about as far as the smarts go around here.

[KYS]

Not sure if it is surpisingly smart,

Sometimes in the afternoon my Aunt will come over
and let the dogs in my house. (Hot days)
She always gives them a cookie first than
she puts them inside.

My Aunt was telling me how smart the dogs are.

One day she came over, Rocky and Sheba ran over to
get their cookies before she lets them in the house.
Rocky ran over to my aunt, not taking his
cookie, than ran to the lawn peed and than ran back to my Aunt for his cookie.
(well I did not think it was that smart, but my Aunt
was pretty impressed because Rocky new he would
not be able to pee inside the house, so he
peed before taking his cookie.
(once he took the cookie he would have had to go
inside)

Another thing my Aunt is impressed with,
When she has a treat to give my dogs, sometimes the treats
are very small.
If the treats are to small, Rocky will not take it from her hand,
but will open his mouth so she can drop the treat in his mouth.


Ok! maybe that isn't so impressive but My aunt was impressed. LOL

[ParNone]

I was in the bathroom and sent Oz off to "find his ball". He took
off and after about a minute he came back sans the ball. I
asked him why he didn't bring his ball back and he barked at
me, then took off to the bedroom. I followed to find him staring
under the bed. Sure enough there was his ball under the
bed where he couldn't reach it.

I was trying to teach him to touch a target with his nose, using
a clicker and he wasn't quite getting it. My friend with the JRT
asked if she could try. Well her dog got it within 2 tries. After
about the fourth rep, her dog was picking up the target and
dropping it at my friend. Oz watched on intently, during all this.
I was duly impressed with her dog and we were discussing how
smart her dog was, the dogs momentarily ignored and the target
forgotten. Meanwhile as we were talking, Oz went and picked up
the target and brought it to me and dropped it at me, with no
prompting. He figured out the value of that lil' yellow target all
on his own. He says he now wants one of'em for the car, so
when we drive through taco bell, he can exchange it for a taco.

Par...

[stacwase]

Lots of smart dogs on here, but I've got to admit that Oz takes the prize!!!

I had a very smart little dog too once. Unfortunately she escaped and was hit by a car. Anyway - we were camping and my kids kept going into the water and bringing me pretty pebbles. I'd say "Wow! Aren't those pretty?" So pretty soon Pepper started bringing me pebbles, too! She was such a sweety.

[GoldenRetrLuver]

Molly does something cute lol or at least I think it is.
When I'm eating, sometimes she'll decide to be a brat and come up and beg for a little. So, today she did it, and I said "No, you can't have any." She gave me this look in her eye almost saying, "And why not?!" and she barked. So, I told her "Hey, no talking back to me!" and she barked again, made a grunting sound and layed down. Almost like she was thinking "All right, whatever."

[primabella]

lol Julie, Mickey did the same thing with my mom once.

Once I was too busy to play with Mickey so he took his ball and would drop it and then catch it again. Then he would move it around with his paws. lol He was entertaining himself, it was so cute. He also does a lot of "smart" things but then a lot of dumb things -- like when he licked the railing in the winter and his tongue got stuck.

[GoldenRetrLuver]

LOL, Daisy does that with the ball too. She'll play by herself, in the backyard and just push it around. She likes the ones that have holes in them, (ruffle balls? Or something like that..) Her tougue would be hanging out and everything...

[tikeyas_mom]

Originally posted by stacwase
Does anybody have any stories of any surprisingly smart or clever things your dogs have done?

For example, my sister has a little girl who has a swing for her dolls outside in the back yard. My sister's dog, rascal, puts his toy in the swing and swings it around!

Here's a picture of Rascal with my mom's chi, Chloe. Doesn't Rascal look like a rascal? I wonder what breeds he is.

he looks husky/ GSD, he looks alot like zeke to me

[Tonya]

I really enjoyed reading all of these!

My dog Christy that I grew up with, she would say 'I love you' perfect. She was a malmute-timber wolf mix. I hate to say it, but she wasn't that smart though. Bless her heart. That was the only thing we could teach her in 20 years. She couldn't even learn the sit command!

Roxy is the smartest dog that I have ever had. When Jaden is climbing a tree or the swingset, she'll stand under him and anticipate him falling so she can catch him. Whenever she meets a small child or animal, she'll crawl to them on her belly. When adults walk her, she pulls like crazy. When Jaden walks her, she stays right by his side. She knows how to open the latch on the gate and hold it open while she pulls the gate (it's one of those spring loaded ones that close one way) open with her paw. She also knows how to scoot her doghouse to the fence, then get on top of the house and jump the fence. She can open the screen door. Apparently she can eat my panties too without leaving a trace.

Teddy, when we say "Go get your girlfriend!" He runs and gets his Teddy sized golden retriever stuffed animal. He's had it for about 9 months, yet he destroys every other stuffed animal within a day. Don't ask me what he does with the retriever. You don't want to know.

Dusty, I am sorry. Mama loves you to death, but you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed.

[Tonya]

he looks husky/ GSD, he looks alot like zeke to me

I agree.