Is Your Dog Smarter Than You Are? Mine Is...damn It!

[tez]

Thought I'd have a nanna nap this afternoon. Jane and I had gone to training this morning which was action packed with lots of doggy socialisation and training followed by more doggy socialisation, then a 45 minute drive back home and some work around the garden. I was seriously tired and I thought she was too until....

No-one else home so I hop into bed with my faithful companion lying quietly by my side for Um maybe 5 minutes. I close my eyes but hear her hop down and pad gently out the room.

A few minutes later I hear a quiet 'Wuff' so I crack an eyelid to see my little treasure looking at me from the bedroom door. As I do this she looks gently back at me and ever so carefully pushes the Bic lighter she had in her mouth out far enough so I could see what it was. ( At this stage, I'm sure if she could have she would have laughed in an evil "Bhaa ha ha" way!) She then turned and bolted out the room! Nanna nap is now OVER!

[Sue & Waldo]

You have got to love them!

[Gayle.]

We have an early morning routine that involves the alarm going off at 5.30am, my husband stretches, makes lot of groaning, whingeing noises about getting up, I poke him in the back and tell him to get up and make the coffee, and when he does, Dusty hops into his warm spot and we both lay there and have a cuddle til he brings my coffee in.

One morning last week, the alarm went off as usual and we were both still really tired so we just layed there and didn't move or make a sound. Eventually, Dusty must have got impatient and sick of waiting cos she walked around to my husbands side of the bed, poked him very firmly in the nose with her nose, then sat til he got up and straight away jumped into his spot.

She apparently didn't think he was gonna move unless she gave him a reminder!

Yep, they sure are smarter than us and they don't miss a trick!

[Danois]

If I do not get up when my alarm goes off, Boo jumps on the bed and whacks me with his paw - usually in the head!

[Jimmay]

Hahaha that's adorable.

[tez]

God love em! Could be worse...Imagine if they grew thumbs!

[Gayle.]

God love em! Could be worse...Imagine if they grew thumbs!

Benson doesn't need thumbs. I'll see if I can find the story of him breaking Dusty out of the puppy run and you'll see why.

Be right back.

[Gayle.]

Here is the story, it's been posted a couple of times so apologies to those who have read it before. But it's a classic example of just how intelligent dogs are.

Our Puppy Run.

We built it from fence panels made up of thin vertical rods welded on crossbars (available in Bunnings and popular for childproof fencing) along with a matching gate. We sectioned off an area from the garden shed to the back fence, making a sizeable run that contained a shady tree, an insulated kennel, bedding, toys, water and plenty of soft grass for her little toosh to lie on.

Three days before I was to go back to work, I road tested it by leaving my pride and joy, 9 1/2 week old Aussie Shepherd puppy Dusty in there while I went grocery shopping. Our other Aussie, Benson, had the rest of the backyard and they could see each other but not be together. I thought he was a bit too big and boisterous to leave Dusty in his company for any length of time.

She screamed, cried and stamped her little white feet as I drove off down the road and was still hard at it when I got home 2 hours later. I lugged groceries inside, put them away to the sounds of a puppy tantrum in full flight, then as I was finishing up, I realised she'd stopped so I made a cuppa and sat down for a rest. Next thing I heard a happy little "yip, yip, yip" right outside the dining room window, which is a long way from the puppy run. I looked out and there was my little ball of girlie fluff merrily cavorting with her big brother.

I went out, checked the run for holes, bricked up some questionable areas and popped the little screamer back in there for another go. She let me know in no uncertain terms that this wasn't very cool, and I left her to it and went back inside. Ten minutes later, I heard the same happy little puppy sounds where they weren't supposed to be coming from. Yep, she was out again.

We repeated the exercise. This time she got out before I made it back into the kitchen. I checked the entire run from top to bottom, there was absolutely no way she could get out. So this time, I put her in, went around the side of the house and hid from view and watched. She ran along the fenceline inside the run. Benson walked along the fenceline outside the run, peering very intently at the gaps between the vertical rods. He tapped them with his paw every now and then, and when he got about 3/4 of the way along, he tapped his paw over and over and Dusty came running. She stuck her head through the gap, turned it sideways, squeezed her shoulders through and popped her fat little body out the other side. Freedom! I couldn't believe what I'd seen, so I went and got my husband and we both watched as they did it again. Benson was "measuring" the gaps and had found the only one she'd fit through and made sure she found the right one.

When we measured the gaps with a tape measure, every one of them was 3 inches except that one she was getting out, which was 3.5 inches. You couldn't tell by looking at it, we'd never have picked it, but Benson figured it out in two hours and somehow communicated to Dusty to squeeze herself out. We lined the whole fence with wire mesh after that.

Never underestimate the intelligence of our dogs.

[gila]

Holy crap! That's incredible!

[Gayle.]

Holy crap! That's incredible!

Yep, and the thought process that went into it was amazing. He had to understand that there might be a way to get her out, find the way then communicate to her how to do it. And he had to somehow understand that she could get out of the slightly bigger gap but not the narrower ones as she would have got her head stuck if she'd tried.

[tez]

Here is the story, it's been posted a couple of times so apologies to those who have read it before. But it's a classic example of just how intelligent dogs are.

Our Puppy Run.

We built it from fence panels made up of thin vertical rods welded on crossbars (available in Bunnings and popular for childproof fencing) along with a matching gate. We sectioned off an area from the garden shed to the back fence, making a sizeable run that contained a shady tree, an insulated kennel, bedding, toys, water and plenty of soft grass for her little toosh to lie on.

Three days before I was to go back to work, I road tested it by leaving my pride and joy, 9 1/2 week old Aussie Shepherd puppy Dusty in there while I went grocery shopping. Our other Aussie, Benson, had the rest of the backyard and they could see each other but not be together. I thought he was a bit too big and boisterous to leave Dusty in his company for any length of time.

She screamed, cried and stamped her little white feet as I drove off down the road and was still hard at it when I got home 2 hours later. I lugged groceries inside, put them away to the sounds of a puppy tantrum in full flight, then as I was finishing up, I realised she'd stopped so I made a cuppa and sat down for a rest. Next thing I heard a happy little "yip, yip, yip" right outside the dining room window, which is a long way from the puppy run. I looked out and there was my little ball of girlie fluff merrily cavorting with her big brother.

I went out, checked the run for holes, bricked up some questionable areas and popped the little screamer back in there for another go. She let me know in no uncertain terms that this wasn't very cool, and I left her to it and went back inside. Ten minutes later, I heard the same happy little puppy sounds where they weren't supposed to be coming from. Yep, she was out again.

We repeated the exercise. This time she got out before I made it back into the kitchen. I checked the entire run from top to bottom, there was absolutely no way she could get out. So this time, I put her in, went around the side of the house and hid from view and watched. She ran along the fenceline inside the run. Benson walked along the fenceline outside the run, peering very intently at the gaps between the vertical rods. He tapped them with his paw every now and then, and when he got about 3/4 of the way along, he tapped his paw over and over and Dusty came running. She stuck her head through the gap, turned it sideways, squeezed her shoulders through and popped her fat little body out the other side. Freedom! I couldn't believe what I'd seen, so I went and got my husband and we both watched as they did it again. Benson was "measuring" the gaps and had found the only one she'd fit through and made sure she found the right one.

When we measured the gaps with a tape measure, every one of them was 3 inches except that one she was getting out, which was 3.5 inches. You couldn't tell by looking at it, we'd never have picked it, but Benson figured it out in two hours and somehow communicated to Dusty to squeeze herself out. We lined the whole fence with wire mesh after that.

Never underestimate the intelligence of our dogs.

OMG That is scary...however if I'm ever stranded on a desert island with Gilligan and the Skipper, can Benson come too?

[Adele]

That's so funny and what smart dogs! Sooty is very good at telling the time and would make a good alarm clock if we ever needed one, she does little nudges to the closed bedroom door so we can hear that she is ready to go for a walk.

[Staff'n'Toller]

One of mine is a fairly good alarm clock, most of the time I'm not happy about it, but she has saved me from an embarrassing phone call to work on more than one occasion! :D