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Aussies are smart dogs and I think a lot of dogs learn by watching. She has seen the kitties poop in the litter box and everyone is fine with it soooo hummm I have to poop, boss man will not get up so why not try the litter box? Win win situation.
Phoenix my homozygous merle border collie was 2 when I got her and deaf with some vision issues too. She really knew no commands but she learned by watching me use hand signals and seeing what Jazz and Dash did for each signal then when she saw me do a signal she started doing what they did. She learned and they did not have to be around once she did so she was not just doing what she was seeing them do she did learn the commands, even trick commands. People were always amazed that a deaf dog knew so many commands but I really do not take the credit as she was self taught by watching. That is a reason that when I get a new dog I want the dog I currently have to be well trained as it does help when training a new one.
Bragging threads are Always welcome..... Now let us know when DH is Trained
My mini Aussie Joey stopped flooding the floor when anyone including me came near her little over 6 months ago!!! Today was a great test trip to vet!! several dogs & other creatures & people coming in/out for meds she was Well Behaved paid attention to what was going on around her & best of all No Peeing This scared Farm Dog now a City dog!!
Although Bobby, my current German Shepherd is extremely smart, this incident I am going to mention, happened with my first Shepherd, Baron.
He too was extremely intelligent.
Years ago, I had one of those clocks that project the time on a wall, or ceiling.
Baron always slept on my bed at night, and was always first to wake up.
He would wake me up by hitting me with his front paw,
That would wake me, then I would press the button on the clock, and look up at the ceiling to see the time, then I would get out of bed.
One morning I decided I wanted a few more winks, but Baron would have no part of it, he wanted out so he could relieve himself.
He did his usual hitting with the paw, and when that didn't get a rise out of me, he put the blankets in his teeth, and dragged them from my face.
Still I laid there , pretending to be asleep, though my eyes were half open.
He barked a couple of times , so I moved so he wouldn't think I was dead.
When he saw I was in no hurry to get up, and out of bed, he climbed over me, (by now I am wide awake), looked down at the clock, pressed the button on the top that projects the time on to the ceiling, then looked up at the ceiling at the time that was showing on the ceiling.
He watched me do this every morning, and he knew once I look up at the time on the ceiling, I would get out of bed.
I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes.
He had learned this by watching me.
Although Bobby, my current German Shepherd is extremely smart, this incident I am going to mention, happened with my first Shepherd, Baron.
He too was extremely intelligent.
Years ago, I had one of those clocks that project the time on a wall, or ceiling.
Baron always slept on my bed at night, and was always first to wake up.
He would wake me up by hitting me with his front paw,
That would wake me, then I would press the button on the clock, and look up at the ceiling to see the time, then I would get out of bed.
One morning I decided I wanted a few more winks, but Baron would have no part of it, he wanted out so he could relieve himself.
He did his usual hitting with the paw, and when that didn't get a rise out of me, he put the blankets in his teeth, and dragged them from my face.
Still I laid there , pretending to be asleep, though my eyes were half open.
He barked a couple of times , so I moved so he wouldn't think I was dead.
When he saw I was in no hurry to get up, and out of bed, he climbed over me, (by now I am wide awake), looked down at the clock, pressed the button on the top that projects the time on to the ceiling, then looked up at the ceiling at the time that was showing on the ceiling.
He watched me do this every morning, and he knew once I look up at the time on the ceiling, I would get out of bed.
I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes.
He had learned this by watching me.
It seems like every time I post on this forum, it's with a problem. But something happened the other day that really made me smile. It also made me feel like I have a pretty smart little pup. If everyone else's dog does this, do me a favor and just humor me. Don't rain on my parade, pretty please.
So, we have a 7-year-old male Keeshond-Pomeranian mix whom we rescued a year ago and are still struggling to housebreak. We also have a 7 1/2-month old female Mini-Australian Shepherd who came to us three and a half months ago semi-housebroken. The dogs are not currently sleeping in crates. They just sleep in our bedroom on their cushions or the floor. We close the door at night, because they can and do both control their bladders plenty well to make it through the night. My husband gets up earlier than I do and takes them outside each morning at around 7:30.
A couple of days ago, at about 6:30 in the morning, I woke up and went to use the bathroom off the master bedroom. The sun hadn't come up, but it was light enough in the room for me to see the floor clearly. Just barely outside the bathroom door, I saw a very small bit of poop (diarrhea). Then I happened to glance just a foot or so to the left of the spot and noticed that there was an enormous pile of loosely formed stool in the cats' litter box. It wasn't covered with litter, as a cat would do, and was much, much too large for either of my cats to have done it. I was standing there trying to decide how to best clean it up without bothering my still-sleeping husband, when he woke up and sat on the edge of the bed.
I said, "You won't believe this, but there is dog poop in the kitty litter box. It's sort of diarrhea, but definitely from a dog." He said, "Oh, that must be why Hannah (the Mini-Aussie) was trying to wake me up a bit earlier. I thought she just wanted to start her day early and go outside to play, but it was still dark, so I just ignored her. She needed to go poop and I didn't pick up on that."
I was pretty amazed. She tried to wake my husband so he could take her out, but when he refused to pay any attention to her, she made a decision based on what she'd seen the cats do. She figured -- and rightly so -- that I would prefer to have her poop deposited in the kitty-litter box rather than on the almost-white carpet.
Okay... Your turn. What do your smart little guys and gals do?
Awww. That's so sweet!
I learned a good while ago (the hard way) that when my Yorkie (Lucy) whines at night to go out - I should IMMEDIATELY let her out. Otherwise, there is clean-up the next morning and she prefers the carpet while my Westie is kind enough to use the laundry room tiled floor if he is desperate.
The smartest dog I ever owned was a Basenji-Italian Greyhound mix. One time I was stuck on the road for HOURS while they tried to remove a dead Brahma Bull from the road - that thing was HUGE. I didn't know they got that big! May have been some kind of hybrid but it was enormous. So she was locked in the house for at least 4 or 5 hours past the time I needed to get home and let her out.
She went in the step-in shower. GOOD DOGGY!
She learned to open the fridge and she would pull out a package of hot dogs, daintily remove JUST ONE. And then she would put it back! I didn't figure out what was going on until she got the last one, then she didn't bother to put it away again. BAD DOGGY! But smart.
She was an escape artist. She got out of the yard when she went into her first heat and every dog in the neighborhood was after her (Puerto Rico in the 90s, there were entire packs of dogs roaming the streets). She got run over - a neighbor who witnessed it told me another neighbor ran up over the curb to get her, he ran SEVERAL dogs over actually but mine, he broke her leg at the hip and 3 places. She needed a metal plate. Went to pick her up at the vets. 15 lb dog (not fully grown yet), 20 lb cast, when I got there she was sitting out front waiting patiently for me. Apparently she had escaped the vet SEVERAL times, WITH that cast on her leg. Her last escape was from a pen with a concrete floor and surrounded by a 6' chain link fence. She apparently had climbed that fence WITH THAT CAST ON HER LEG. When I took her inside to "pick her up", the vet happened to be walking by, glanced up, and did the most perfect double take you have ever seen. As for the neighbor who ran her over - I knocked on his door and gave him what for. He tried to get threatening with me. Told him maybe he could get away with beating his wife and kids, but I wasn't tolerating any crap out of him, and if he ever hurt any of mine ever again, I would come and get him. (He was not Puerto Rican btw). That was the last I ever heard from him.
Back stateside, we couldn't figure out how she kept getting out of the yard. My son and I walked the fence several times. Finally decided she MUST be climbing even though she was getting on by now and really couldn't climb with her bad leg any more.
One afternoon my son calls me into the kitchen. Looking out the back door, there is my girl, scooping leaves out of a hole under the fence. She wriggles through - and then turns around and SCOOPS THE LEAVES BACK INTO THE HOLE! BAD DOGGY! But definitely smart.
She lived to be almost 20. Lost her just a few weeks after I lost my dad. I still miss her.
Although Bobby, my current German Shepherd is extremely smart, this incident I am going to mention, happened with my first Shepherd, Baron.
He too was extremely intelligent.
Years ago, I had one of those clocks that project the time on a wall, or ceiling.
Baron always slept on my bed at night, and was always first to wake up.
He would wake me up by hitting me with his front paw,
That would wake me, then I would press the button on the clock, and look up at the ceiling to see the time, then I would get out of bed.
One morning I decided I wanted a few more winks, but Baron would have no part of it, he wanted out so he could relieve himself.
He did his usual hitting with the paw, and when that didn't get a rise out of me, he put the blankets in his teeth, and dragged them from my face.
Still I laid there , pretending to be asleep, though my eyes were half open.
He barked a couple of times , so I moved so he wouldn't think I was dead.
When he saw I was in no hurry to get up, and out of bed, he climbed over me, (by now I am wide awake), looked down at the clock, pressed the button on the top that projects the time on to the ceiling, then looked up at the ceiling at the time that was showing on the ceiling.
He watched me do this every morning, and he knew once I look up at the time on the ceiling, I would get out of bed.
I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes.
He had learned this by watching me.
That was one super smart Shepherd.
Bob.
Wow! great story, and what a smart dog!! Thanks for sharing
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I've had him for 48 years. I kind of don't think he's trainable. 
