Whats the most intelligent/cleverest thing your dog/pet ever did?

time lord

Without any specific training whats the cleverest thing your pet has ever done.
I'll start the ball rolling. One day looking out the top window into the back garden I was observing my German Shepard Milo and my Border Collie Penny. It was a warm day and the two dogs wrestling had spilled their water. After about 15mins Milo approached the outside tap and slapped the handel several soft taps and licked the spout. He didn't get it on but got 10/10 for effort.

Another time he was alone with me in the tv room. I said to him "get the remote and pointed to the other couch" I said this 3 times and after a bit of eager excitement to and fro he took it up in his mouth and gave it to me. 10/10 again.

Can't leave out Penny so her best is when she is tired playing fetch she will hide the ball and try to pretend she can't hear you unless that is you deepen your tone then she will skulk back with it.

Bubblefett

We used to have a letter box like this on our front door with a door knocker on it.

My legend of a cat Tim used to go out in the evenings and sometimes he wouldn't appear back before we went to bed. Then when he did arrive back (at 3 or 4am) he'd sit at the front door knocking with the knocker until we'd get up and let him in.

Smartest cat I ever knew

Whispered

Harley can open the roller blind in the sitting room to look out the window. I'm not sure he knows how he does it - he just paws at the wooden slat at the bottom, but we'd regularly be in bed and hear the blind pop up once it starts getting bright.

Heroditas

One of our cats can turn on the tap to get water.
He can also open doors by hanging out of the handles.

BengaLover

My cat can get water from the tap too. My daughters hamster can escape from anything too.

Wibbs

My dog can open doors alright. The bugger can even open his crate. I know not how, he's too sly to do it in front of me. Circular door knobs throw him though. I spotted him trying to work one out and he knows how to do it, but he can't get enough of a grip with his teeth. Cue frustration. I've had to get child locks for the fridge, because early on he discovered that's where his meat comes from. The bastard. Child locks are only a temporary thing mind you as children don't have big sharp teeth... He also recognises himself in a mirror. If I put something like a small price tag on his head he doesn't notice it, but if I show him a mirror he straight away spots the offending item and removes it so he seems to know it's him in the mirror. My last dog could peel an orange and a banana which was odd to watch.

bluecherry74

bubblefett wrote: »

We used to have a letter box like this on our front door with a door knocker on it.

My legend of a cat Tim used to go out in the evenings and sometimes he wouldn't appear back before we went to bed. Then when he did arrive back (at 3 or 4am) he'd sit at the front door knocking with the knocker until we'd get up and let him in.

Smartest cat I ever knew

I used to have a cat who did the exact same thing! My letterbox didn't have the door knocker, but she used to open and close the flap with her paw; it made a terrible racket. I had to tighten the screws on the flap regularly because it kept coming loose with the constant opening and closing.

I remember one time opening the door for her after she'd been "knocking" for a while and saw my neighbour across the street standing with her mouth open at the sight of the cat knocking to be let in!

bfocusd

My dog can open bottles, she will lay onto it with paws on either side, then opens the lid, the amount if times I've gone into the kitchen and stuck to the floor, I put them in the press, but she can open that too.

Were having major works done in the house and she has two kennels, her new one is still indoors until the work is done, we have these two sofas stacked, I went to let her out one morning and noticed she wasn't in her house or out the back, she was fast asleep inside the pocket of both chairs, she slept there because they are beside the radiator, the heat circulates into the gap she sleeps in! It's like sitting on the sofa, it's got all the cushions in there with the other sofa as a roof!

In her kennel we have human pillows in cases, she always rips the doggy cushions to shreds and I figured out why, with the pillow cases, in winter she will climb inside them, a few times she's gotten stuck, but she still gets inside to go asleep.

Out the back, she will only lay on fresh cut grass, if it's too long she will only lay in the plant pots! I think it's for the heat off the compost, but every pot has a patch where she's been chilling out!

She can open doors too and when going for walks she knows which car to get in.
On the other hand, I was sitting out the back one day, there was a bee flying about and she was following it, next thing she jumped and ate it, the look on her face was hilarious, she wouldn't spit it out though.

I've an Congo African grey too, shes constantly opening the cage, I've been through 3 different sets of locks, next up combination locks!

The parrot does wind the dog up constantly, the dog will wait till she's called in at the door and the parrot does be calling her in then will tell her to go back out, the dog doesn't know what to do.

She will call the dog over and throw seed at her!
She called her one day and told the dog to sit, then the parrot flicked water onto the dog, she obeys the parrot because it's our tone of voice.

They were in the same room and I was in the adjoining room, all I could hear was this tapping noise, the parrot let herself out and was on the floor tapping on the glass, while the dog was standing on the sofa, with a look like, will you get that thing away from me!

It's a mad house!

dmg10

Latest trick of my 18mth collie/springer x, I gave her one of these balls that you can hide treats in and it makes a bomb noise. After throwing it in the air a few times, she headed for the stairs. Went halfway up the stairs, threw the ball off the step, watched it hop all the way down, ran down to check it, there was nothing so she picked it up and ran all the way to the top to repeat the process. She had worked out pretty quickly that the higher up she threw it from, the better chance the treats might come out. Kept me amused for ages watching her :-)

gregers85

I have a German Shepherd and an English setter, when the setter was about 6 months (GSD was about 2 yrs) my girlfriend and I went for a walk in some woods about a half hour away from home! we let the dogs off the lead for a run! about 15 mins into the walk a wood pigeon rose up and the setter took off after it like a bullet and disappeared into the forest - we called and called her for about 15-20 minutes running up nd down through the trees like two lunatics but no answer!! In the panic we forgot about our GSD, I looked around for her and she was gone too! I ran back to the pathway where we where walking and to my amazement about 50 yards up the path where the two dogs strolling along with the GSD nudging the setter every now and then!! we put the setter on her lead and after half hr or so we said we'd chance her off it again! every time she tried to leave the path and go into the trees our GSD stopped her!! it was brill!! I never seen anything like it

shot2go

my dog lets herself in and out off the house, turns on the tap when she wants a drink. she knocked ironing board over and used it like a ramp to get up on the counter - was not so easy to get down. our first night out after we got her she got out off crate and took all off himself clothes out off the wardrobe + his shoes and pilled them all up in the hall.
she minds the kids when there outside never leaves there side, and is always checking on them - a big lick on the back off the neck if there being too quiet in the buggy.

BrianJD

I remember in 1985 when i was out walking in the bush, I fell into a big hole which may have been a bear trap. I was stuck and couldn't get out as I'd broken my funny bone. No body knew where I was as I hadn't told anybody but thankfully my Dog Libby hadn't fallen in and I told her to get help. Off she hopped and brought help back to me.

:D:D

borderlinemeath

Coco will open doors if she's on the right side of them.

She'll throw balls at you to throw back at her by tossing her head. She takes a few steps back to make it look like it's gone further than it actually has:D

She learned early on to scrape at the back door to be let out to go to the toilet so she scratches it and turns her head around and looks at us. She then used the same logic when it came to food. If her food bowl was empty she put her paw into it and scratched it to indicate she wanted food and looked over expectantly.

Another (bold) thing she learned to do, we have an acre of land and it is bramble hedges and chain link fencing on posts. One day she escaped into the back fields, we found where the area was "cleared" and the fence pushed back and fixed it up by attaching the top of the chain link to some of the thicker bramble branches. We pretended to go out but sneaked back in and watched her try it again. She went along the hedge and picked another spot - right in the middle of two posts so there would be a bit of give in the chain link fence, she proceeded to start biting away the bramble branches until there was a clear enough space to get her body in and climbed the fence which was giving a bit under her weight:eek: Needless to say we spent the following weekend making more fortifications!

tread_softly

When you were trying to have a lie in on the weekend, my old cat B would roar outside the bedroom door looking for attention.

Being lazy, I'd just flick open my door to let him up on the bed. But that wasn't good enough. He'd sit on the desk beside my bed and continue to meow, or walk all over my face, but I was getting good at ignoring him.

So the little feck learned a new trick, he'd start pushing things on my desk onto the ground with his paw. I watched him doing it and every time he'd knock something off, he'd look over to me for my reaction.

Had to get up and take him out of the room before he broke something. He wasn't even looking for food or to get out, he just wanted loves!!

B was an annoying sh1t sometimes but I loved him. I'm sure he's busy knocking crap off desks wherever he is up there now <3

KKkitty

My mam had a cat called wussy and he also used to jump on the door handle to let himself in and out. My mam would get the slices of ham from a supermarket deli and wussy would flatly refuse cat food and paw at the fridge for the deli ham instead. Freddie our terrier would claw at the door to be let in or out too and especially when my dad was eating Freddie would sit by dad's side and give my dad a nudge every now and again to get something off his plate.

My husky re-wrote a better version of the "Irish-Sopa" law

callmekenneth

my dog is part boxer so apart from finding me he hasnt done anything smart.

kylith

My dogs are so dim. The cleverest things Tegan has figured out are 1) to 'beg' while waving her front paws so she looks extra adorable and 2) to scratch at the back door to be let out. She does that every 15 minutes or so, and when you get sick of getting up and down and ignore one she pisses on the carpet to teach you a lesson.

Mongarra

My brother-in-law (a farmer) and I were, to use his phrase, 'drawing' bales from the field beside the river to the yard. We had my little mongrel terrier type dog with us. When we moved one of the bales about 6 rats ran from under it towards the river. The dog took off after them but to our surprise ignored the nearer ones and caught the front-runner. He killed it then turned for the next one, and so on until he had caught them all. If it had been me chasing them I suppose I would have gone after the nearest and maybe caught 2 or 3 if I was very lucky and the rest would have got away. Scruffy is more clever.

Discodog

callmekenneth wrote: »

my dog is part boxer so apart from finding me he hasnt done anything smart.

I have had 4 Boxers & they are very intelligent dogs - don't be fooled by the clowning.

My Greyhound & Saluki always choose to share a bed. But if the Saluki gets there first she tends to spread out her long legs leaving no room for the Greyhound. So I have to pull her legs over to make a space.

If there is no room on the bed the Greyhound will come & find me, wherever I am in the house, & she puts her head in my lap & whines. I have to go to to the bed & pull a Saluki out of the way. So she has learnt how to come & ask me to do this without me teaching her a thing.

She is also brilliant with a ball. My little guy will wait by my side for the ball to be thrown & he won't be fooled by false throws. But the Greyhound guesses where the ball will land & waits there so she gets it almost ever time - it drives the little fella nuts !

The others will bark at nothing. If my Greyhound barks there is always something there. When we are waking, even on the darkest night, she will sense if there is something around often long before we get near it. Last night she whined as we were leaving the house & carried on for a few minutes. I shone a torch & there was a fox - a very long way away.

MaryK666

My special, awesome, gorgeous, cat will wake me at night if I'm getting a migraine.
I have no idea how he knows as I never know myself but on several occasions now he has nudged me awake in the middle of the night for me to find that I have a migraine aura signalling the onset of a doozie of a migraine.
If I catch it at the aura stage and medicate then, I usually escape the worst of it so he's an absolute godsend.

Another one of the cats almost earned all five of them a trip to the vets and almost got the whole lot banished from the bedroom.
He used to take one of the fabric play-balls, drop it into one of the water bowls until it was soaked throught, take it up to our bedroom and plonk it in the middle of the bed for about 5 mins until there was a nice wet mark there. He'd then come back, take it off the bed and hide it under the chest of drawers until it dried out. For a day or two we were suspecting kidney problems, bladder problems and all sorts of nightmares until I actually caught him in the act. And he just sat there and looked at me as if to say - so what? - it's just a game!

callmekenneth

Discodog wrote: »

I have had 4 Boxers & they are very intelligent dogs - don't be fooled by the clowning.

My Greyhound & Saluki always choose to share a bed. But if the Saluki gets there first she tends to spread out her long legs leaving no room for the Greyhound. So I have to pull her legs over to make a space.

If there is no room on the bed the Greyhound will come & find me, wherever I am in the house, & she puts her head in my lap & whines. I have to go to to the bed & pull a Saluki out of the way. So she has learnt how to come & ask me to do this without me teaching her a thing.

She is also brilliant with a ball. My little guy will wait by my side for the ball to be thrown & he won't be fooled by false throws. But the Greyhound guesses where the ball will land & waits there so she gets it almost ever time - it drives the little fella nuts !

The others will bark at nothing. If my Greyhound barks there is always something there. When we are waking, even on the darkest night, she will sense if there is something around often long before we get near it. Last night she whined as we were leaving the house & carried on for a few minutes. I shone a torch & there was a fox - a very long way away.

hmm, i note you didnt have any "smart boxer" stories my folks have had boxers longer than the 32 years i've been around and while they are adorable and fantastic, smart is not something i could attribute to them.

i was playign catch with the young boxer and a young border collie recently, the boxer got the ball the first 2 times, after that the collie realised if she simply went further down the garden she would get a head start when i threw the ball. she caught the next 50 throws, each time dropping the ball at my feet before retreating, numbskull boxer waited at my feet for every throw and had no chance of getting to it first

Discodog

callmekenneth wrote: »

my folks have had boxers longer than the 32 years i've been around and while they are adorable and fantastic, smart is not something i could attribute to them.

In the book The Intelligence of Dogs by Coren Boxers were rated as average. This prompted a lot of discussion on Boxer forums with most owners regarding their dogs as highly intelligent. It depends on how you define intelligent. I would rate all of mine as having been very intelligent & perceptive. I think that they are intelligent enough to do what they want rather than what we try to teach them

planetX

Discodog wrote: »

If my Greyhound barks there is always something there. When we are waking, even on the darkest night, she will sense if there is something around often long before we get near it. Last night she whined as we were leaving the house & carried on for a few minutes. I shone a torch & there was a fox - a very long way away.

same with my lurcher, if he barks I know there's something up. It's usually one of my cats being terrorised by the local tom, which leads to my clever pet story:D... one of the cats has learned that when he sees his mortal enemy he needs to get to the kitchen window and yowl, so the dog barks, so I get woken up to go out and save him.

Bullseye1

Well my cat fetches like a dog. He loves when I throw an object for him to chase and bring back to me. He also knows how to get us out of bed by scratching the underside of the en-suite door. That drives me mad and I have to get up. LOL

luckyfrank

My dog just passed his driving test :cool:

He drives me CRAZY !!

gud4u

BrianJD wrote: »

I remember in 1985 when i was out walking in the bush, I fell into a big hole which may have been a bear trap. I was stuck and couldn't get out as I'd broken my funny bone. No body knew where I was as I hadn't told anybody but thankfully my Dog Libby hadn't fallen in and I told her to get help. Off she hopped and brought help back to me.

:D:D

Are you sure that wasn't Lassie:D

My old rottie opens doors to let herself in. If the pup starts whinning, she goes back out, with a big long sigh, and gets him and they both lie by the fire.

ppink

We were sitting on the couch 8 years ago with our newest GSD puppy all happy up there between us. Our older GSD walked in looking all disheveled and miserable. All 8 stone of him standing there watching this new kid on the block up on the couch!! He spent a minute watching and turned slowly walking out into the hall with a big miserable head on him. In the hall he picked up the puppy's bone and dropped it with a big bang to the floor. She jumped off the couch when she heard this and galloped ot the door......he passed her in the doorway and hopped up onto her spot on the couch right between us.
She got the bone but he got the "spot":D

Spitfire_24

our collie does something similar...when the OH is sitting next to me on the couch, the collie will stare at him, then go and whine at the back door to be let out...no sooner has he left his seat than quick as a flash she's running into the sitting room to curl up on his spot
when out walking with other dogs she will often herd them back to the group if she feels they are wandering off too far or if they aren't listening to their owners recall...especially with pups! never aggressive in her manner but will cut them off and circle them back, hilarious to watch!

Cherry Blossom

I used to have Connemara x TB, the day after he arrived I left a schooling whip sitting on the wall, turned around just in time to see him galloping down the field full pelt with it in his mouth, he stopped when he reached the hedge stretched his head as far over the hedge as he could reach and dropped it right in the middle.

I also have a laminitis prone pony and thought I'd try a grazing muzzle so he could have a bit more freedom in spring grass season, after letting them both out in the field I was surprised to find the muzzle had beaten me to it when I got back to the back garden. I put it back on and went upstairs to watch from the window just in time to see the same fella very deliberately grab the top velcro strap with his teeth and pull it up, then grab the second one and pull it down, he then picked it up when it fell off and flung it back over the garden fence :rolleyes:

carfiosaoorl

My dog shuts up barking when I tell him to, thats the extent of it though, he is not very bright:(
My cat thinks he is a dog and follows me everywhere, funny until you find him behind you in the middle of Dunnes, not sure if that makes him intelligent or
not:(

Raminahobbin

My dog has an amazing nose- we play a game when I put her out of the room and hide a treat somewhere in the room. No matter where I hide it, or how cleverly I conceal it, she always finds it and reasonably quickly too!

She also trained us to give her treats by collecting the post from the porch (and not letting go until she had her treat) and now sometimes when she wants a treat she just carries anything in from the porch (umberella etc). I haven't put a stop to it because I think it's cute :pac: she does be so proud of herself!!

Dirk Gently

when post comes my dogs eat the bills but leave the stuff I'd ordered online which is fine with me.

When the lab looks like she's about to fart (she does a stretch and sticks her arse out) my shepherd spots it and nips it in the bud by going over, sniffing her and gives her a death stare and a growl. the lab lies back down and moans but doesn't let one off.

skimpydoo

Years ago I had a pet collie puppy called Bowie. He had 2 eyes of different colours. Bowie used to annoy my mam big time when ever she was put out in the back garden. He would get in the coal shed and take a few pieces of coal and then drop them by the back door. He would then get a shovel and drop it by the coal. He would grab a sweeping brush and put it in his mouth before running up to the back door where he began scrapping it. My mam would hear the scrapping and open the back door. Bowie would then drop the brush by the shovel and start barking whilst pawing brush and shovel letting my ma known that's what she would use to clean up the mess he just created. Collies are the smartest dogs.

massey265

this is wat our dog can do...all doors have to be locked to keep him in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cABrKAxpGGg

**Vai**

We have an armchair in our tv room where we let the dogs lie. We are currently fostering a lab mix who has taken a liking to the chair but my GSD, Kimba, has worked out how to get the chair back in her own sneaky way. She knows the lab is very playful so she picks up a kong and playbows in front of the chair then runs out into the hall. Inevitably, the lab jumps down and runs out after her, by which time Kimba has dropped the toy, run back into the tv room and reclaimed the armchair. Talk about lateral thinking!

Susannahmia

Milly-my Jack Russell isn't mad about toys but loves her bones and chews. When she has eaten her own treat she grabs the nearest toy she can find and starts acting like it's the bestest, most exciting thing in the world, throwing it up in the air and yelping in excitement. When the other dog; Jack comes over to investigate she runs straight over and steals his bone.

Jack my Bichon X Jrt will sit beside me on the couch whining dramatically and kicking me every now again with his back legs if he doesn't think he is getting enough attention.

I was also quite impressed today when I told Jack to go upstairs, he ran straight for the stair gate and sat looking up at me. I've never told him to do that before and he only gets upstairs about once a month for a bath.