A Breed Of Dog I've Never Heard Of

[Aphra]

Really, how scarily smart is this dog?

http://cynography.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/making-lemonade.html

[Cosmolo]

Love it!

[persephone]

..Cute video, however, that may have been a one-off .

It would have been more convincing for me had the pup had been videoed as he did this several times , after an owner moved the hose away slightly , so there was no arc :)

Edited August 27, 2012 by persephone

[Cosmolo]

It reminds me of a time i was lecturing a group of students and a trainer friend of mine was doing a demonstration of shaping a dumbell retrieve with a novice dog. The dog was just starting to get to the point where it was reliably moving toward the dumbell and we all thought how well he was going and how clever he was.

I had all of my dogs in the room and once the demo was finished i released them to say hello to my trainer friend. 4 of my dogs go to the friend to say hello. And the Jack Russell, who had never at that point done any retrieving or shaping of a retrieve in his life, promptly races over, collects the dumbell perfectly and brings it straight back. He then proceeded to prance around taking it to every student in the room as if to say- you think that dog is smart? Look at me!!

[persephone]

I had all of my dogs in the room and once the demo was finished i released them to say hello to my trainer friend. 4 of my dogs go to the friend to say hello. And the Jack Russell, who had never at that point done any retrieving or shaping of a retrieve in his life, promptly races over, collects the dumbell perfectly and brings it straight back. He then proceeded to prance around taking it to every student in the room as if to say- you think that dog is smart? Look at me!!

LOL !

[dancinbcs]

Looks like pretty normal stuff that many Border Collies could do.

Edited to add that an English Shepherd is a US name given to another branch of the Border Collie / Welsh Shepherd / Working Collie family tree. They are all descended from the same working collie lines in the UK but developed in various parts of the world. The dog in the video just looks like a BC.

Edited August 27, 2012 by dancinbcs

[persephone]

Looks like pretty normal stuff that many Border Collies could do.

yep.

and watching him set the arc in motion at that spot more than once would have made more impact :)

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

My dog has done this.

It can be very annoying - she won't leave the hose alone, and loves chasing the water jet. I swear she'd drown herself biting the water jet given the opportunity.

Maybe I should do some tests on video to see if she will deliberately arrange the hose to jet out of the clam shell or not. Ie if I put it back repeatedly. She's certainly done it more than once when I try to clean the clam shell. Ie I put hose in the bottom and start scrubbing and she picks it up and sprays everywhere... camera might have to be inside a water proof box...

[mixeduppup]

Maybe does this, I can't fill the duck pond because she's intent on filling the whole backyard instead...

[Teebs]

I have one as well who is the same, if i want to fill the pond i have to put her inside. She is a bit more crazy tho:

[Aphra]

I love watching dogs work things out. My cattle dog, who is not a super clever dog once left me gobsmacked with his ability to problem solve.

We were going through a big set of gates at the bottom of my run. He would normally just go under the gates, but because the run slopes downwards and the wind had blow the gates upwards there wasn't any space. Like this: \ /. He stood on his hind legs, gave the gates a push outwards, which sent them down the slope making a space, like this: / \ and under and off he went.

[MrsD]

It reminds me of a time i was lecturing a group of students and a trainer friend of mine was doing a demonstration of shaping a dumbell retrieve with a novice dog. The dog was just starting to get to the point where it was reliably moving toward the dumbell and we all thought how well he was going and how clever he was.

I had all of my dogs in the room and once the demo was finished i released them to say hello to my trainer friend. 4 of my dogs go to the friend to say hello. And the Jack Russell, who had never at that point done any retrieving or shaping of a retrieve in his life, promptly races over, collects the dumbell perfectly and brings it straight back. He then proceeded to prance around taking it to every student in the room as if to say- you think that dog is smart? Look at me!!

A few months back my brother was over visiting & I was showing him a new trick that Jonty, our sheltie, had learnt where, on cue, he goes over to a mark or object on the floor & "digs". Jarrah (my kelpie) was outside on the verandah looking in through the glass french doors while Jonty went over to the spot, "dug" at the floor & got a treat as his reward. I could see Jarrah outside absolutely busting to come in & do some training, so I sent Jonty outside & let Jarrah in, whereby he promptly raced over to the spot where Jonty had been & dug at the floor madly & then quickly turned around & looked at me saying "Where's *my* treat?" :laugh: . I just stood there in shock looking at him & so he went back to digging again, then looked at me again as if to say "Geeez, what do I have to do to earn that bloody click?" :laugh:

You have to wonder - he had never ever seen Jonty do it before or watched him being trained (Jonty gets trained downstairs while Jarrah gets trained upstairs & Jarrah is locked away from Jonty because they don't get on), had never been taught it himself or seen another dog do it, yet he watched Jonty do it & then came in & did exactly the same thing in the same spot & then turned around & waited for his reward.

[persephone]

he watched Jonty do it & then came in & did exactly the same thing in the same spot & then turned around & waited for his reward.

It's a pretty natural thing, really .. how do young animals learn hunting/foraging behaviours? usually by observation , then practice - and if the reward value is high ..they do it again , and perfect it.

Dogs really are equipped with all that's needed to do lots of tasks /to communicate on different levels - it's just that often humans don't 'see' it unless those skills are associated with some sort of common human tools/behaviours :)..and then we compare .