Who says dogs can’t reason?

Jack_Diane_Freedom wrote:
Pavlov figured this out many years ago.

Specifically, I think that was conditioned response, not reasoning.

Matt B

Nevur mind. He's not that smart. .... :B


Pops

Pavlov figured this out many years ago.

I had a Chow mix and when he wanted something he would come and stare at me. I would ask him, "What do you want, Tramp?" and he would lead me to whatever he wanted. Sometimes the water dish was empty, or he went to the back door to go out, or he would go the drawer where the treats were stored. A couple of times he pointed to my dinner.

True story:

I had a cat who had big thick cheeks that were "pinch worthy". Every so often, I would give them a little pinch and tell her she was cute. She hated it. One day (around noon), after pinching her cheeks and getting a nasty glare in return, I said "if you don't want me to pinch your cheeks anymore then find me a cute little kitten". That night around 11:30, I opened the back door to let her in. She was sitting on the banister of the steps and sitting in the center of the top step was an adorable little kitten about 8 weeks old...

I never pinched her cheeks again.

Get cheap vienna sausages instead of cheese.

I'd say Foxy and the other three have you trained to get the cheese on their command. :)

If you put a dog on a chain in a filthy yard it is nothing but an alarm for intruders and it lives in misery. If you actually pay attention to a dog and work with it's thought process they are an amazing creature. I sometimes wonder if they can read my mind. I know it's not possible as they are just keen on learning patterns but they sure are good at it. Our dogs are far past getting excited by hearing words like "Go" when we refer to packing up and leaving. They start to get excited just by seeing certain items touched that we dont touch or use all the time.

I tell the DW that it's just eat, sleep and poop but the portion of the time that they are awake is not wasted. They are taking all of it in and learning patterns. We have taught our Papion to hold still with a little stuffed toy on her nose. When we say ok, she can jerk her head sideways and snap it out of the air before it starts to fall. We often hide the little toy and tell her to find it and she puts her to nose to work. DW washed her little toy and dried it, now every time the dryer door is open she jumps in looking for the toy.