My dog is (well, was) smarter than YOURS Doggie Ping!
I have long believed in the wisdom of the noble Basset Hound. (as there is no such thing as in ignoble Basset Hound...)
When you step on your ears, your junk drags in the dirt and your every utterance looks like a painful experience, God must have given you a lot of smarts to compensate ;)
I have two dachshunds and they are not Mensa material.
My Shepherd is not the brightest bulb. Oh, she’s bright in a few things, but clueless about sounds, smells - things dogs should be paying attention to. Mostly she uses her eyes even with obvious sounds!
My last GS, though - THAT dog was brilliant. And everything else good a dog could be.
My sister in law wanted to adopt a cat from the local shelter. My wife and I tagged along. Long story short, the wife and I came home with a Lab-Doberman-Grayhound mongrel puppy, our 1st dog. We named him “Caesar”.
Piece of Cake. Learned his name by day 2. House trained by day 7. As the months went by, he learned our names, the names of specific toys, the names of the 2 cats and could process simple sentences, such as “Get the rope Toy and take it to Debbie.”
He understood gestures, such as pointing, to direct his attention.
Mind you, I never had a dog before, so I thought this was typical.
We loved that dog for 13 years, and after the passed, it took several year before I could consider
Having another dog.
24 months ago, my wife came home with two rescue dogs, pit-bull mix sisters.
They are as dumb as a box of rocks.
Had a 3/4 wolf 1/4 Shepard mix. Our games were complex. Every now and then I’d “cheat.” She’d just sit and glare at me until I “uncheated.” But she’d do the same thing, and I’d glare until she tucked tail and “uncheated.” Was actually part of the rules. BTW not all wolf mixes are mean - she was VERY tolerant of ear and tail tugging by friends’ kids. And not all are skittish. Only time she was scary mean was when a bad dog threatened me. Bad move. If not for me calling my wolf off, that dog would have been DEAD.
I’m convinced that a lot of this was a result of all the time I spent with her. That dog was as smart as a 6 to 7 year old. Easily.
I miss her.
A Dog ‘’Says wow, you take me in ,give shelter and feed me , you must be a god’’. A cat say’s “You take me in, give me shelter and feed me, I must be a god’’.
So one morning I overslept and was rushing around like an idiot thinking I could get to work on time and got the routine “out of order”.
Making the bed was the last of my worries...but there the cockpoo was..pulling the sheets up and trying her best to tuck them under the pillows with her paws.
True story. Poor girl would have a hard time in my current no structured environment.
So one morning I overslept and was rushing around like an idiot thinking I could get to work on time and got the routine “out of order”.
Making the bed was the last of my worries...but there the cockpoo was..pulling the sheets up and trying her best to tuck them under the pillows with her paws.
True story. Poor girl would have a hard time in my current no structured environment.
We did not get our current doggie (lab/aussie pound dog) until she was about 2 years old, 10 years ago. What has been amazing is that she has kept learning....I thought dogs had to be taught things in the first few years or it was a lost cause. But, she learns new words, especially around food, of course...ie treat, happy hour, yogurt. She and I have done about 10,000 miles of power walking in the past 10 years....and the first day I got her I would say, “left” or “right” for every turn. She knows and follows that, when she WANTS to. Not looking forward to losing her. She has been the best.
Ok, i swear this is true. Tonight i was in my jaccuzzi, after my 3rd whiskey and water. It was dark outside and the moon wasn’t out. It was dark and the stars were amazing.
So I look over at the patio and see my dog Charlie sitting there, looking straight up at the stars just like i was.
That dog is flat smart.
(( ping ))
That said, I've had some extremely bright GSD's. All of the GSD's have communicated their wants to me by pointing with their snouts or doing some other gesture. I've often read things about dog memory and understanding by dog trainers that I knew were out and out wrong.
Everyone of my dogs has acted guilty many hours after they've done something forbidden. And they'd act guilty even if my wife had already reprimanded them just because I was seeing them for the first time since they'd done their deed. They were recognizing me as the alpha and knew they'd have to answer to me. Many of our dogs over the years have believed they were one of the kids.
What about cats???
My cat is pretty smart, but I can still beat her at checkers 2 out of 3 times.
I love my boxer. She is a ton of fun. She is also pretty smart. Listens to all the commands, visual and spoken. Couldn’t be more pleased with her.
Our current dog has a brain the size of a water molecule, and about as useful. He loves us though, and unconditional love is one of the reasons we love dogs.
