[raspirator]

One commonality in posts in this section are people commenting on how smart their dogs are.

Well, how smart are they?

Aside from learning basic commands, what are some of the things your dog has done that has made you say, "Damn, that dog is smart!"

I'm willing to bet that there are hundreds of examples as to why many of us think our dogs are smarter than some fifth graders.

[CedssypeEdids]

After MJJean's Retarded Dog post, I did some of the silly tests with Lucy. She passed them all.

[gWhya5ct]

Based on what I have seen in the USA Today, Yahoo, MSNBC, and other forums I would venture that most of our dogs are smarter than the average college graduate these days.

[CedssypeEdids]

Based on what I have seen in the USA Today, Yahoo, MSNBC, and other forums I would venture that most of our dogs are smarter than the average college graduate these days.

Which is really sad.

[raspirator]

A few years ago while vacuuming the bedroom my wife picked one of Trudi's bones off the floor and tossed it on the window seat. Later that night as we were lying in bed watching TV Trudi started sniffing around looking for the bone she knew she left there.

My wife, not wanting to get up, started pointing toward the window seat repeating "There's your bone, over there. Over there."

Well, the window seat is eight feet long and the bone had landed on the other side of one of several throw pillows and from Trudi's line of sight from the floor, she could not see it. My wife elbowed me and said since the window seat was on my side of the bed, it was up to me to get up and fetch it for the dog.

All I did was so say, "Yo, Trudi. Your bone in under the air conditioner." Trudi looked at the air conditioner, lept up onto the window seat and found her bone behind the pillow beneath it. My wife was dumbfounded.

"How the hell does she know what an air conditioner is?" She asked.

"Because,' I answered. "I've caught her trying to look out that window a dozen times and told her to get away from the air conditioner."

The incident made me wonder so I did some Googling and found that studies indicate most dogs can acquire an understanding of between 200 to 300 spoken words.

More over, researchers found that one dog tested had the same vocabulary recognition ability as a primate that was had been taught sign language.

[Brewpralgar]

We have a lot of motorcycles in our neighborhood. They go by the house all the time w/o a sound from the dogs, but when DH is out on his bike, they start barking when he turns on our road (he doesn't come home from work at the same time every day either)

[gettoblaster]

Socrates is way too smart for his own good. He learns so fast it is unbelievable. Usually it takes me 5-10 minutes to teach him a trick and by the next day he has it down pat. When he was younger he had a serious habit of biting his leash on walks. I would do obedience commands with him to get him to drop it and then would have him heel and after a few steps would give him a treat. About 3 or 4 walks later we were walking down the street and he grabbed his leash. I looked at him and he was looking right at me, immediately dropped the leash, sat, and put his paw in the air for a high five. I just said "oh my God" to myself and started walking. He walked in a perfect heel for about 4 steps and then stared at me, sat, and gave his paw again. He couldn't understand why the combination of leash biting, and obedience was not getting a treat!! I ended up making the problem even worse because he started biting his leash more frequently just to prompt obedience sessions and get a treat.

When we brought him to the behaviorist she made a comment that a lot of people have trouble with these dogs because they are so damn smart - you think you're training them and in reality they are training you... I just told her "yea, I know what you mean"

[raspirator]

Based on what I have seen in the USA Today, Yahoo, MSNBC, and other forums I would venture that most of our dogs are smarter than the average college graduate these days.

Sad, but true.

[gettoblaster]

Kit's post made me think of this one:

He knows the sounds of people's cars. I share a driveway with two other people (landlord and another tenant). When they come home he doesn't even flinch. When my mom's car or my BFs car pull onto our street he is at the window before they even get to the house. In fact, that's how I know they are there. I never know when my BF will be home from work but Socrates always lets me know. There's also an old guy that really likes Socrates and whenever we see him on walks he stops to give him a biscuit (which he keeps in his car for these occasions) and a pat on the head. When that guys car in approaching, Socrates butt immediately hits the ground and he will not move from that sit until he gets his treat.

He also alerted me by going crazy and my door, and then at my grandmother's door when I let him downstairs, that my grandmother had fallen asleep with her sink running and her apartment was flooding.

[raspirator]

He also alerted me by going crazy and my door, and then at my grandmother's door when I let him downstairs, that my grandmother had fallen asleep with her sink running and her apartment was flooding.

Now that's a smart dog! I could have used him when our water heater went.

[zdlupikkkdi]

I think sometimes Veronica really understands what I'm saying.

She does know the word bath and she hates baths.

Today she got her weekly allergy bath. A few hours later we were both on the couch together and she started biting her front paw.

I said to her, "Veronica stop biting your paw or I'll have to give you another bath".

She stared at me for a full 30 - 40 seconds with a look on her face that absolutely said, "Lady, you are out of your @#$%ing mind"!!

Then she laid back down and stopped biting her paw.

[gWhya5ct]

He also alerted me by going crazy and my door, and then at my grandmother's door when I let him downstairs, that my grandmother had fallen asleep with her sink running and her apartment was flooding.

A dog I had many years back we eventually left with my grandmother so she wouldn't be by herself so much.

She had a habit of setting the phone down where it didn't quite disconnect and eventually the busy signal would start. She couldn't hear it but the dog could, so she'd sit by the phone and bark until my grandmother hung it up properly.

She would also alert her to things like leaving the water running, not closing the door all the way, forgetting a kettle boiling on the stove, and so on.

The more forgetful she became as she got older, the more things the dog figured out ways of reminding her about.

[ephennaCypota]

Ike learned how to open pocket doors. He head butts them until it shakes away from the wall a bit, sticks his paw between wall and door and then slides the door open. He also knows how to nose open the "locking" food bin and how to nose open the trash cans, which are lidded metal ones.

Ike's personal best was the "DJ Rant" story. I was in my basement family room area and noticed DJ (my 16 year old hellion) left her shoes partly under the couch.I meant to get them up, but got distracted when the dryer dinged. As I am folding the clothes in the laundry area, I am ranting to my husband about DJ's bad habits and how much work they make for me. Ike was sitting next to the hubby watching and listening intently. He also knows who DJ is and I presume he knows her scent. Ike walks away and I come back to see he pulled the shoes out from under the couch and pee'd on them. He does NOT go in the house normally.

I would have thought this a fluke, but then he got revenge on her again. I had a load of whites in a basket getting ready to be washed when it was a full load. At the bottom of the basket was my daughters capri pants. I only remember this because she was all ticked that they went in the laundry first and hadn't been washed yet. Anywho, DJ and I had been feuding and I was stomping around the house going about my chores half in tears of frustration and half in a blind rage. I went to the laundry room and saw Ike digging through the basket and sniffing each article of clothes. When he got to DJ's pants he took them about 10 feet away and squatted to poo on them. I got to him mid poo and took him outside, but I am now convinced that he figured DJ was making me upset, something needed to be done and he was just the guy to do it.

[raspirator]

Ike learned how to open pocket doors. He head butts them until it shakes away from the wall a bit, sticks his paw between wall and door and then slides the door open. He also knows how to nose open the "locking" food bin and how to nose open the trash cans, which are lidded metal ones.

The capacity for problem solving is the hallmark of intelligence. Ike sounds like one hell of a smart dog.

[Annewsded]

Conman, my older dog is a door opener from way back. We still have issues as he figures out all the things we have tried to stop this.

When my bf and I first started living together, for the first 6 months we each thought the other one was eating the left over pizza in the middle of the night when we ordered one for dinner. We would always put the left over pizza either in the oven or fridge for the night.

One night he happened to wake up and head to the kitchen where he found the Con with the refridgerator door standing wide open. He had just polished off the pizza and was shoving the box back in the fridge. As he backed up and swung his head to close the door he saw bf standing there watching.

We had to stop hanging tea towels on the fridge and oven door handles.

[gWhya5ct]

One night he happened to wake up and head to the kitchen where he found the Con with the refridgerator door standing wide open. He had just polished off the pizza and was shoving the box back in the fridge. As he backed up and swung his head to close the door he saw bf standing there watching.

Oh god, I love it. That is absolutely classic.

[Fvmfrctt]

hmmm smart.....Goren is smart in his own way lol, he picks up on tricks really fast and learns them fast but as for independent smarts he lacks them lol. He is easily trained but spazzes a lot and also does not really surprise me, but I love my big dumb lug

[raspirator]

One night he happened to wake up and head to the kitchen where he found the Con with the refridgerator door standing wide open. He had just polished off the pizza and was shoving the box back in the fridge. As he backed up and swung his head to close the door he saw bf standing there watching.

We had to stop hanging tea towels on the fridge and oven door handles.

That is too funny!!!

Trudi was taught her left from her right. This came in handy when she went swimming and could not see the fetch stick in choppy water. If we saw her searching around I would yell to her, "Its to your right", or "Look to the left".

I had more than one fisherman on the boat docks come over and ask how did she know which side was which.