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I was never sure if Sam knew what time it was, or could hear, or smell the kids coming home, but he was always hanging on the sofa, looking out the Window at 1530, every day.
Sitting next to the baby, he always loved any baby, and would go crazy when I got out the high chair. He would stare at it intently, wondering where the baby was... He would not move from the high chair.
I was never sure if Sam knew what time it was, or could hear, or smell the kids coming home, but he was always hanging on the sofa, looking out the Window at 1530, every day.
Dogs know how to tell time. It's a fact. If they were arriving at different times of the day, it would be hearing or smelling or a sixth sense. My peekapoo heard my car about 5 minutes before I would get home. That's amazing. I never had a set schedule, and my parents said she would go sit at the door about 5 minutes before I arrived. It had to be her hearing the sputtering of a 1970 VW Bug stick shift.
My late Pom could tell the difference between a regular phone call, and someone ringing the phone from the gate that they needed open. The barking would start and not stop until they finally drove up to the house......very irritating to say the least! My current dogs know the difference between my putting on makeup to go out without them, and getting dressed to take them out for a walk. Dogs are so dang smart.
My childhood dog would ALWAYS appear in whatever room I was in just minutes before ending a phone call. For a while we thought it was really odd then we figured out that she was reacting to our saying stuff like "Ok, nice talking to you, gotta go, see you tomorrow," (and the change in tone when you're wrapping up a call). To her it meant attention would be back on her as soon as we were done.
My dog doesn't do this any more, but I guess it would sort of be a Pavlovian response. When Izzy was around 5 months old, my older dog, Kaya, tussled him up one evening over a kernel of popcorn. I'd tossed 3 or 4 kernels onto to floor for them while I was watching tv and unfortunately, I wasn't really paying attention. One kernel landed between the two dogs and both ran for it at the same time...Izzy stopped, but Kaya decided to put him in his place, and she threw herself on top of him, growling and snarling as she pinned him down. (For the record, she didn't bite him, never would, but she sounded ferocious.) As soon as this happened I grabbed Kaya and removed her, and Izzy hightailed it up onto the sofa. A few moments later they were best of friends again.
However, I didn't realize what an effect this had on Izzy until, a month or two later, I decided once again to have some popcorn. Got the popped bag out of the microwave, went into the living room and sat down, and started to open the bag....and suddenly a blur of black and white shot past me and up onto the back of the sofa. I turned and looked and there was Izzy, eyes huge, quivering. It took me a moment before I realized what on earth he was doing....the sound of the popcorn bag being opened triggered a flight response in him, as he now associated the popcorn with that of being tackled on the floor by his 50-lb older buddy. For months afterward, I couldn't have popcorn at all, otherwise poor Iz would shoot like a rocket out of a cannon and onto the sofa back, where he'd be a quaking mess. Thankfully he is now no longer afraid of popcorn, but for a while there...
Glad he recovered and you're free to eat popcorn again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bassetluv
My dog doesn't do this any more, but I guess it would sort of be a Pavlovian response. When Izzy was around 5 months old, my older dog, Kaya, tussled him up one evening over a kernel of popcorn. I'd tossed 3 or 4 kernels onto to floor for them while I was watching tv and unfortunately, I wasn't really paying attention. One kernel landed between the two dogs and both ran for it at the same time...Izzy stopped, but Kaya decided to put him in his place, and she threw herself on top of him, growling and snarling as she pinned him down. (For the record, she didn't bite him, never would, but she sounded ferocious.) As soon as this happened I grabbed Kaya and removed her, and Izzy hightailed it up onto the sofa. A few moments later they were best of friends again.
However, I didn't realize what an effect this had on Izzy until, a month or two later, I decided once again to have some popcorn. Got the popped bag out of the microwave, went into the living room and sat down, and started to open the bag....and suddenly a blur of black and white shot past me and up onto the back of the sofa. I turned and looked and there was Izzy, eyes huge, quivering. It took me a moment before I realized what on earth he was doing....the sound of the popcorn bag being opened triggered a flight response in him, as he now associated the popcorn with that of being tackled on the floor by his 50-lb older buddy. For months afterward, I couldn't have popcorn at all, otherwise poor Iz would shoot like a rocket out of a cannon and onto the sofa back, where he'd be a quaking mess. Thankfully he is now no longer afraid of popcorn, but for a while there...
Some of those sound familiar....keys rattling, cellophane/plastic bags rustling, tone of your voice near the end of a phonecall, etc.
Since my dog is blind, she now (more than before) reacts to the beep beep beep of pressing microwave buttons. She KNOWS food is coming out of there sometime in the near future and she gets to lick to bowl/plates.
When I open the drawer in the kitchen where I keep my "yard work sunglasses", I have to be careful not to bump them or she reacts to the sound by jumping up and down in anticipation near the patio door. She loves to be out in the yard running around--as long as someone is out there with her. Same reaction when I put shoes on as I don't wear them in the house.
I used to groom my Shih Tzu (deceased) (sadly) (WAH!!!) (back on track now). Apparently, I always kissed him on the nose at the end of his hair cuts as I learned one day when I kissed him on the nose when I was NOT finished. I just thought he looked cute in that moment, and there was a lot of scissor cutting and paw trimming and tail untangling left to do. He was clear in his own mind that the hair cut was DONE, though. And so it was...
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