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!!