Dutch Shepherd Forum

How about the smartest thing(s) your dog has done? These dogs are problem solvers, so I am curious to hear about your smartie pants antics.

A couple of things Sugar figured out on her own:

Sugar impressed me the first day we got her, at 9 weeks, when we threw the ball for her to chase down the hallway. The carpet ends from the living room onto the hallway hardwood floors. There is an area rug in front of the door. First time she ran full to get the ball and as soon as she hit the hardwood she slid out. Second time we threw the ball, she ran full out to edge of carpet, then stopped, walked across hardwood floor, then galloped across area rug, again stopping at edge and then walked onto the hardwood floor to get the ball.

When she wants a certain toy at the bottom of her toy bucket and she can’t quite get to it; she will take out the toys on top one by one and place them beside the bucket until she can get to the toy she wants. It is sooo cute to watch!

That is cute! Merlin does the same thing on the floor. He will run down the hall way (carpet) and when he hits the livingroom and kitchen he slowly starts walking(there is tile in there) When we first got him he was so afraid to walk on tile or carpet, he walked around on his tippy toes.

That's a really cute story!

I just love watching Geyser think...

The other day, we were playing "find it" with one of her toys, which I'd hide in another room in the house, then wait for her to return to me with it for some tugging.

On one of the reps, I took three other toys into the front room with me (she was on a down in the kitchen and couldn't see me). Two of the other "toys" were pieces of the same toy we were playing with (they were from an earlier version that had met its eventual bad end ). So, I had the full-sized rubber squeeky bone toy we were playing with, plus another kind of rubber bone, and two pieces that used to be a rubber squeeky bone (in other words, they looked pretty damn close to what we'd been ussing that session).

When I released her, she ran into the front room where all the toys were lined up...
she stopped, looked at the whole row, picked out the right toy and came rushing back for her tug reward. In the 5 seconds or so that she considered the toys, you could just see her thinking it through, and this is what I love..that she does think, and generally makes the right decision.

Sadie is super smart.......... she knows she better "Out" when I tell her to drop the dog bed so she dosnt become Sadie Soup.

I don't know if it's the SMARTEST thing that Koenig does, but it is pretty cool to watch him run a short track with a blindfold on. It shows me that he trusts me not to send him off a cliff, and that he's using ONLY his nose. No physical cues from me, and no eyes... purely relying on scent to take the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZhrEaeo1QY

Sorry but this is about my two black Labs.....

when we lived in Austin, TX and were romping around in the woods, my Ben picked up a XXL tree branch. The path was very narrow and sometimes lined with trees. When the branch was wider as the trees on the left and right, he dropped it, pulled it lenghtway through, picked it up again and kept running. In my opinion, he really thought this through and solved the problem. I remember seeing on 'America's Funniest Videos' a dog trying to walk through a door with a big stick, and tried, tried, tried........

And my Jerry is right up there too. Also in the Austin, TX area, were some creeks with some 5 foot cliff like drops. A guy with another retriever was throwing a tennis ball over the cliff and his retriever was jumping down in the water. My Jerry is an absolute tennis ball lover and 'collector'. But he stood at the edge, looked down and then ran along the creek to find a shallow entry and swam up to get the ball. The guy saying "hee your dogs is afraid to jump!" No, but he is smartier than some juveniles jumping off cliffs not knowing how deep the water is and getting paralyzed!

I am sure Marco will come up with some smart stuff too when he is a bit more mature

Schlussdibusti wrote:I am sure Marco will come up with some smart stuff too when he is a bit more mature

Merlin is the same way!

On a hike one day I was on a path that was carved out of a hillside so basically to my right was steep hillside up and to my left steep hillside covered with leaves down. I was drinking out of my water bottle which has a detachable lid and I accidentally dropped it. Then, being a total butterfingers I picked it up and dropped it again, but this time it rolled about 10 feet down the hill into the leaves and things. Now, 10 month old Ellie was pretty much just watching the whole thing, not really caring. But when I dropped the lid I screamed, and so she looked at me for a second and then very gingerly sidled down the hill to reach the lid. She then very lightly grabbed it for me and had to struggle back up the hill. She almost slid back down a couple times and I had to drag her up by her collar when she got close enough BUT I WAS SO PROUD. It was just her instantaneous reaction. (And at that point she wasn't much of a fetch kinda girl, which made it all the more impressive).

The cutes thing Sadie does is "go to bed" She is so funny with it, when she was little and it was bed time, I would tell everyone, time to go to bed, Sadie would just go right into her crate and would waite for me to kiss her good night. Sometimes I could just tell her, "bring your bone to bed" and she would come out, get her bone and go back in. Now that she sleeps in my room, I say "time for bed" and upstairs to her bed she goes and waits.

One of my rare - "Bad" Dante stories was really smart.

I went to work an art show for my parents (Dad's a wildlife photographer). They had another obligation, so they dropped me, the motor home and my dogs off in the middle of the woods at a Nature Center. I left the dogs crated (of course) and worked the show all day. Dante broke out of his crate, opened the fridge (and must have hit a switch or two) and ate all of the food. When I got back, the batteries had died, I couldn't get the generator to start..... So I was all alone, in the cold with no heat, miles from anyone, with no food. All I had was 2 warm bodies, sprite and a bottle of Jim Beam. That was the last time I ever drank Jim Beam.

[quote="Christie M"] So I was all alone, in the cold with no heat, miles from anyone, with no food. All I had was 2 warm bodies, sprite and a bottle of Jim Beam. That was the last time I ever drank Jim Beam.[/quote

I bet you weren't cold OR hungry!

turnnburn52984 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:38 am I don't know if it's the SMARTEST thing that Koenig does, but it is pretty cool to watch him run a short track with a blindfold on. It shows me that he trusts me not to send him off a cliff, and that he's using ONLY his nose. No physical cues from me, and no eyes... purely relying on scent to take the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZhrEaeo1QY

Your video is set to private, and I totally get it but I'd love to see the vid?

wahinelf wrote: ↑Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:52 am On a hike one day I was on a path that was carved out of a hillside so basically to my right was steep hillside up and to my left steep hillside covered with leaves down. I was drinking out of my water bottle which has a detachable lid and I accidentally dropped it. Then, being a total butterfingers I picked it up and dropped it again, but this time it rolled about 10 feet down the hill into the leaves and things. Now, 10 month old Ellie was pretty much just watching the whole thing, not really caring. But when I dropped the lid I screamed, and so she looked at me for a second and then very gingerly sidled down the hill to reach the lid. She then very lightly grabbed it for me and had to struggle back up the hill. She almost slid back down a couple times and I had to drag her up by her collar when she got close enough BUT I WAS SO PROUD. It was just her instantaneous reaction. (And at that point she wasn't much of a fetch kinda girl, which made it all the more impressive).

That is really smart and very empathetic