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Sometimes it's hard to figure out what the dog was thinking.
Pensive is two years old. She's never been on the furniture and never been on my bed. All of her life, that's how it's been for her.
I just got a brand new bedspread. I sat on my bed to put on socks and Pensive came flying up onto the bed. She danced and flung herself onto her back and wriggled and cuddled up to me. All with a huge grin of delight on her face .
She was actually surprised when I told her to get off the bed.
Trying to figure out why she did that, I suspect that in her doggy brain, she learned that she was not to get onto the Grey blanket. There are a couple of small blankets in the living room that are " not yours". She understands the concept that some blankets she can have, some blankets, she can't.
So, she can't get on the gray blanket, but I put a brand new burgundy blanket on the bed, and no one ever told her that the burgundy blanket is "not yours".
No one said it was no no bad dog, and therefore it was available for her use.
Sometimes it's hard to figure out what the dog was thinking.
Pensive is two years old. She's never been on the furniture and never been on my bed. All of her life, that's how it's been for her.
I just got a brand new bedspread. I sat on my bed to put on socks and Pensive came flying up onto the bed. She danced and flung herself onto her back and wriggled and cuddled up to me. All with a huge grin of delight on her face .
She was actually surprised when I told her to get off the bed.
Trying to figure out why she did that, I suspect that in her doggy brain, she learned that she was not to get onto the Grey blanket. There are a couple of small blankets in the living room that are " not yours". She understands the concept that some blankets she can have, some blankets, she can't.
So, she can't get on the gray blanket, but I put a brand new burgundy blanket on the bed, and no one ever told her that the burgundy blanket is "not yours".
No one said it was no no bad dog, and therefore it was available for her use.
At least, that's my best guess.
Yep, I think you have her pegged. She was testing to see if it was "hers" too. A few minutes of bliss on the new spread. happy happy!
She sounds like she's quite intelligent so she'll learn quick enough that it isn't for her.
My dog also has the ability to separate out rules for this or that. So, just because she knows that I won't allow her to jump all over me, she doesn't apply that same learning to other people. Unless the other people make it clear to her that she is not allowed to jump on them - then it must be okay. Even if it's absolutely not okay for her to jump on me.
So, my dog doesn't have deductive reasoning - such as, I jumped on Mom, who is a human, and it was not okay, therefore, it's not okay to jump an any humans.
She's the opposite. Mom says I can't jump on her, but maybe it's okay with anyone else, so I need to find out if it is.
A dog who thinks like this requires more training. Unfortunately, I don't have a bunch of people to work on this issue with me and my dog, so I just hold her down when she encounters other people she wants to jump all over.
I also rescued my dog when she was around 6 or 7 years old, so old dogs have a harder time learning new tricks.
But, as far as dog logic? I think they're really linear. If they learn they can get away with this under this set of rules, then they will try it. If they learn they can't, then they'll probably avoid problems, etc.
I love dogs like this. They make you think, keep you on your toes. And very often, they outsmart us.
Quote:
Trying to figure out why she did that, I suspect that in her doggy brain, she learned that she was not to get onto the Grey blanket. There are a couple of small blankets in the living room that are " not yours". She understands the concept that some blankets she can have, some blankets, she can't.
So, she can't get on the gray blanket, but I put a brand new burgundy blanket on the bed, and no one ever told her that the burgundy blanket is "not yours".
That appears to be what she may have been doing. And when dogs reason and think this way, we humans can either not notice it (many don't, and simply go with the 'what are you doing?!' reprimand) or we can decide that, 'okay, my dog reasoned around this rule...so, why did he/she do this, and how do I stay one step ahead?'. And sometimes, we just can't. But having an intelligent dog certainly does make life interesting.
I was at my sister's cottage once with Izzy, and he'd been in and out of the lake pretty much all day (much more in than out). When I decided that I wanted him to stop for the day, I told him, 'No more Izzy, NO', or something to that effect. He kept on for a couple of minutes, trying to persuade me to throw the water toy for him, but I told him NO in a firm voice and finally, he got it. Or so I thought.
When I gave him that final, stern NO, he stopped, looked at me for a moment - and I swear, you could see the cogs turning in his brain - then he turned tail and ran up the hill toward the cottage. But he didn't stop there. He kept on going, into the woods and down the path, about a 7-8 minute walk normally, until he came out at the beach at the end of the lake. Then he tossed the toy in the water from there and let out a very loud "WOOF!" (translation: come play with me HERE!). Yep, I guess he figured that since I wasn't letting him play in the water at the cottage any more, then the beach was still okay.
Pensive got another chance. I didn't like the burgundy spread and so I moved it to the guest room and went back and bought myself a blue one.
The first time I sat on the bed, she gathered herself up to launch. Crouching down, ready to leap, she stopped and looked at me. I told her no, and she abandoned her plan to leap onto the bed.
Darn. Another nice blanket that's not hers. But it's not like she doesn't have half a dozen cushy beds, plus, she has gotten away with a small fleece blanket that technically belongs the The Genuine Little Princes. Pensive races around dragging it all over the house. The Genuine Little Princess refuses to touch the blanket after Pensive has slobbered on it. So it became Pensive's toy.
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happy happy! 
