[pi1otguy]

Spirit is generally an agreeable somewhat mannered dog who picked up her training very quickly (I suspect the last owner did the hard stuff). But now I'm noticing that intelligence has it's downsides.

First I started to use a toybox. Basically a cardboard box with a flip up lid. One night I put away her toys but didn't think anything of the fact that she saw me do it. I wake up in the middle of the night to her playing with that toy. Apparently, she figured out how to lift the lid without damaging the box, moving the box, or leaving the lid open. All I could do was just stand there.

And just a few days ago I realized her smarts make things interesting. When I play hide and seek (put her in a stay then recall from a different room) she does pretty well. She'll visually search and find me. However, if I stand still in an area of the house she hasn't seen me stand in before she can't find me. Last time I called her from an empty room she walked into the room and checked the 2 spots I normal hide in then moved on. I was standing next to the opposite wall and she walked within 3 feet of me only searching places she's found me in the past. I repeated this by standing somewhere she's never seen me stand and got the same result. She only checked places she's seen me stand before.

What other ways has your dog surprised you with his or her smarts?

 

[L Kathryn]

My Beagle is aptly named Wiley. One day he was playing in the house with his Jug friend and she had a toy he wanted. You could literally see the wheels turning as he watched her play with the toy. He approached cautiously once or twice, but there was no way he was getting it that way as she guarded it well. Finally he thought of something, grabbed another toy and played with it just a few feet away from her. He played with it and watched her. As soon as her interest was caught, he dropped it and moved away. The moment she went for that toy, he swooped in behind her and snatched the one that he wanted!

My Blue heeler will look for his toys. We'll go outside and I'll ask him "where's your ball?" he'll stand there and look around and, if it's not in sight, he'll actually think about it and go to the last place he had it and look there. (Only time it's not there is if the puppy or another dog found it and took off with it in which case I'll have to help him!)