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But somehow one of my dogs knew, from another room down the hall, that I'd taken the poop bags out. I'd love to know how that happens.
There sense of hearing is very acute, perhaps there is a sound associated with those bags. My dog used to be able to pick up someone(or something) walking in the woods about 100 yards out.
Now that's cool, have you tried hiding them? That would be excellent as I'm always losing my keys.
The dog we have now I had her getting the leash on command but gave up because she was chewing on it too much. She was still young and it was leather.
There have been times when my keys are MIA and I have asked her to find them. No such luck with that as of yet.
We had a mini retractable for her. When we were living up north, my daughter's chore once home was to walk her. We would get home and our dog would give her about 5 minutes. After that she would have the handle of the leash in her mouth flicking it (chomp-chomp) and running near full speed back and forth from my daughter's room to the front door, her game, we did not teach her this. The leash no longer has a handle.
We had a little black Datsun named Mister, when I was growing up. Mister was very smart, alert, and aware. He knew the routine of the family.
He figured out how to open the door to his cage by using his nose to move the latch up or down that allowed the door to be open.
To keep him from doing that, my mom tied a shoe string around the cage door. Within a couple of days, Mister figured out how to untie the knot by pulling on the shoestring with his teeth.
To stop Mister from doing that, my mom turned around the cage so the door was against the wall. It wasn't long until Mister was able to open the door by using his nose and pushing the door into the wall and the force of that action pushed the cage away from the wall. After about 2 or 3 times of doing that, he was able to walk out the door.
My mom finally gave up and let Mister have run of the house while everybody was gone during the day. And he never tore it up and he didn't make any messes in the house.
The worst thing Mister ever did when he was left alone for a few hours, was strewed the trash from the kitchen trash can all over the house. And he looked guilt as sin when we walked thru the door. He hunched down real low and his nose towards the ground. He knew he did wrong and he thought he was in for it. But he didn't get any more than a "Mister!!! Look what you did!!!" shout.
Poor old Mister, he was born in 1967 and he died in 1982. I still miss him and he crosses my mind at least once nearly everyday.
Last edited by qwertyasdf; 06-08-2014 at 01:13 AM..
It wouldn't be a bad idea to teach your dog to find your keys, they can smell them I'm sure, remember their sense of smell is xxx times better than ours.
If I don't latch the door my GSD mix opens it with her nose, she won't try if it's latched. She also taught herself body signals, quite funny the first time she did it I wasn't expect it. I used to kneel down, open my arms and call her when she was small. One day I was tying my shoe and suddenly she came cannonballing at me. Huh? Then I realized she was responding to my nonverbal 'command!'
She also tries to solve problems, her ball got stuck in a hole one day so she proceeded to approach it from different angles, she finally decided to get help and came and poked me =) The funniest thing was when we had a pool, she hates water so when we got in the pool she would run around barking and when that didn't work she'd grab a towel and drag it to the edge of the pool, drop it and then bark at us.
She's quite a clever girl and the easiest dog I've ever trained =D
It wouldn't be a bad idea to teach your dog to find your keys, they can smell them I'm sure, remember their sense of smell is xxx times better than ours.
If I don't latch the door my GSD mix opens it with her nose, she won't try if it's latched. She also taught herself body signals, quite funny the first time she did it I wasn't expect it. I used to kneel down, open my arms and call her when she was small. One day I was tying my shoe and suddenly she came cannonballing at me. Huh? Then I realized she was responding to my nonverbal 'command!'
She also tries to solve problems, her ball got stuck in a hole one day so she proceeded to approach it from different angles, she finally decided to get help and came and poked me =) The funniest thing was when we had a pool, she hates water so when we got in the pool she would run around barking and when that didn't work she'd grab a towel and drag it to the edge of the pool, drop it and then bark at us.
She's quite a clever girl and the easiest dog I've ever trained =D
That sounds like my red heeler who turned two yesterday. She does the same thing when her ball gets into a place she can't get to - wherever I am I get a little nose punch in the arm or the ear. She's the first dog I ever had who "punched" people and things with her nose.
She's the family clown. I have two much older dogs as well.
There are two other things Nina does - when SHE wants to go out she brings me my barn clothes (I live on a farm). I am often outside but every now and then when she thinks I've (she?) has been inside too long, she will go straight for my barn clothes and bring them to me. She started doing that very young - only maybe four or five months old. At first I thought it was a fluke but it's no fluke. I can TELL her to bring me my barn clothes and she'll bring me my barn clothes and no other clothes.
And she dances. Not the twirly two-legged dance, but a full-out body swinging, hip-moving dance. Her two front paws tap once to the left then once to the right - then a two tap step to the left, then a two tap step to the right whilst keeping her front legs in the same position, she bumps out with her hip, to the right and then the left.
It was the worst winter in 130 years and that was when we (she and I) began practising our dancing. In blizzards. On top of 20 foot high snow piles. On the driveway. With me belting out, "I know, it's only rock n' roll but I like it, like it, yes I do" at the top of my lungs.
We're very good at it by now. Nina has rhythm. I'm thinking of adding a little mid-dance twirl to our routine. Then we're ready for Dancing with the Stars.
Last edited by netwit; 06-08-2014 at 10:44 AM..
Reason: typo
One of my dogs runs to me and barks if the other dog is having a seizure.
He also guards my food for me from the chow hounds if I get distracted and have to leave my plate on the coffee table while I take a call or whatever.
And he sounds the alarm if any of the others are into something they shouldn't be (like the trash). One of the best dogs I've ever owned, no question, and all of this is stuff he's picked up on his own.
Love him, he's the best thing ever!
Oh good lord. That's just like my Mister. He won't let the other dogs steal my food either but that is partly because he knows I will always share a bit and everyone should wait their turn. I share in order of age. Mister comes in second at this point.
Another dog, one I had a while back and was a mutt dog, she figured out how to open a sliding glass door. She had been doing this for quite some time before we discovered it.
We don't lock doors here, especially if we are home. All to often I would go to the door and find it open, and always at about 15 inches. I figured the kids or what ever. Door open, door closed, really not an issue. But I did fun it odd that the distance was always the same. Then one day I was witness to it. She jumped up with front paws on glass, slid to the right to hit the frame which in turn pushed the door open. Open enough that she could get her head through, but she did not want to squeeze-open the door as she went out. She wanted to ease through, so would give the door a nudge with her nose for those few extra inches.
This was the same dog that we could not keep collars or a harness on. She did not like them, would chew them off, scratch them off, rub them off. Not sure exactly how she did it. We had to resort to a chain.
And she dances. Not the twirly two-legged dance, but a full-out body swinging, hip-moving dance. Her two front paws tap once to the left then once to the right - then a two tap step to the left, then a two tap step to the right whilst keeping her front legs in the same position, she bumps out with her hip, to the right and then the left.
It was the worst winter in 130 years and that was when we (she and I) began practising our dancing. In blizzards. On top of 20 foot high snow piles. On the driveway. With me belting out, "I know, it's only rock n' roll but I like it, like it, yes I do" at the top of my lungs.
We're very good at it by now. Nina has rhythm. I'm thinking of adding a little mid-dance twirl to our routine. Then we're ready for Dancing with the Stars.
There is actually an activity for this talent.
There are many doggie dancing videos, but this is my personal favorite. i love the comment at the beginning that Rookie liked to improvise.
^^OMG! That is so great! Nina is so good at dancing and this gives me ideas for taking it to a whole new level! We're definitely going to practise some more moves now that summer is here. Blizzards and -40 are not that ideal for dancing. Thanks so much for sharing. I had no idea they had contests for this. I HAVE to send this to my mom. She's been taking videos of me and Nina rockin' away but this is much better.
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I'm thinking of adding a little mid-dance twirl to our routine. Then we're ready for Dancing with the Stars.
