Are dogs clever or stupid?

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I just had to open the front door and prove to our labradors that there wasn't anyone there.

Now the thing is they heard a doorbell on the radio. But it was a doorbell that sounds completely different to our doorbell (or our old one).

So clever enough to figure out it's a doorbell, but too dumb to realise it isn't the one that announces the delivery man has arrived with a pocket full of dog chews.

Neil

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Dogs and cats are extremely clever, like dog like master! A dog has much better senses than us dumbed down humans and I am sure from a 12 year association with my Airedale that they can read minds. many times I have sat thinking to myself that I would go out with the gun and see what I could get, This without stirring physicaly. Then the dog would appear, tail wagging and showing some facial expression of delight at the prospect of a trip to the orchard, how did he know?

Another dog we had loved cars and he also would sense if we were going out and would beat us to the car and be found sitting in his seat waiting.

There was also that fact that he was very clever, he hated cats and would go for any he saw but the cat next door but one jumped on his back and he stood transfixed for a second and then rolled himself over dislodging the cat.

Cats are cute too, the cat was pleased with us and would bring mice to us, thereby showing intelligence and pleasure. I am sure more tails will follow.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

I just had to open the front door and prove to our labradors that there wasn't anyone there.

It was an unusual sound that might have been a your doorbell (as in you might have bought a new one without telling him) so he insisted on checking… quite right too and better he has you as backup than go solo.

Out here in the sticks my Dalmatian will bark at any sound that might be a visitor…

As to cats bringing mice/birds in … a combination of feeding the colony and showing off. Dumb humans need hunting practice.

My cleverest dog showed great concern at one time when i was seriously ill.. and thereafter insisted on giving me a good daily morning sniff as her health check of me – excellent sniffer diagnosticians for all sorts of metabolic odours. Most suprising to me was when she had a very bad sinus infection and come walkies time insisted on dragging me off-route to a patch of goldenrod which she munched. I looked it up to find it's herbalist properties include a mucolytic

[BC ProfParticipant @bcprof]

Dogs are clever .

Short version of story. After repeated failure to make light bulb Edison kicks dog,

"What did you do that for " says dog . "Just because you are to stupid to try carbon don't take it out on me "

" You can talk and understand Physics " cried Edison.

"Of course I can , but I am not going to talk any more to give you any more answers "

So next time you talk to a dog and it puts it head on one side it is really thinking . Are you that ………stupid !

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

After a short paws whilst decoding the meaning of Clive's " I am sure more tails will follow." : I read somewhere recently (New Scientist?) that whilst dogs had to be domesticated by people, cats chose to move in with us.

That would conclusively prove that cats are smarter than dogs except that dogs have somehow trained their "owners" to run after them cleaning up dog poo. It's true, I know some quite intelligent people who are avid collectors of dog excrement.

The cleverest animal is of course the horse. Mr Ed had his own show on TV.

[Ian ParkinParticipant @ianparkin39383]

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 18/04/2016 12:34:43:

The cleverest animal is of course the horse. Mr Ed had his own show on TV.

This is wrong! White mice are the most intelligent species followed of course by dolphins then humans.

Regards.

David.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 18/04/2016 12:34:43:

After a short paws whilst decoding the meaning of Clive's " I am sure more tails will follow." : I read somewhere recently (New Scientist?) that whilst dogs had to be domesticated by people, cats chose to move in with us.

Dogs have owners.

Cats have staff.

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Let me out! You didn't tell me you don't like mice in your bed!

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

I think my dog is clever, but only uses her brain if the motivation is right. The most reliable motivation is food.

Last week she had a vet collar on which extended past the end of her nose. It took her a long time to work out how to jump up on the sofa but didn't take her long to work out how to eat. Very clever at accessing food – and will wait patiently and nonchalantly until no one is looking. On the other hand, acts very stupid and unable to understand simple commands if they reduce her chances of accessing food.

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Neil

Consider this:-

You flog away editing magazines, keeping the forum together, suffering the snipes, arrows and brickbats from management and the readership alike and all for what is, I'm sure, far too small a reward.

Your dogs on the other hand are housed, fed, exercised and, if they are anything like my Staffie, spoilt rotten! They have no worries about deadlines, job security, the future of the country or the price of fish.

……and you call THEM dumb? !

Norman

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I've had two dogs :

Golden Retriever – lovely to look at, trainable, but with a temper and after a few "incidents" we had him put down.

Black Labrador – ugly for a Lab, being long, large, and "rangy". But his temperament was everything that a Lab. stands for.

But, of these two, either the Lab was more intelligent, or he was downright lazy – and I don't know which. We could threaten to throw a ball, and the Golden would set off even though the ball hadn't left my hand. He would then bring it back to me. The Lab, on the other hand, had to be persuaded to fetch it, and he would only bring it back to about five yards away when he would then lie down and chew it. I had then to go to him to take the ball from him to throw again.

There was, however, a very strange situation when the Lab died. A few hours before his actual death, he came to me, which was unusual anyway, and when I pushed him away, he slunk off with his tail between his legs: it was so noticeably out of character that I stopped doing what I was doing, and looked at him wondering what was wrong. Later that evening, he got up and welcomed out son-in-law home which was something he never normally did, preferring instead to just lie there. Overnight he died. Since then, I have read about other people experiencing odd happenings just before their dog died. All in all, I now believe that some dogs know when their time has come and try to say goodbye.

I know the above sounds daft and illogical, and I would not have believed it myself prior to the above. I have to say that there was nothing like this when we had the Golden put down.

It does seem though, that there is more to dogs than we humans realise.

Peter G. Shaw

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

We personify when there is a rational explanation.. a terminal patient will often have metabolic products built up that lead to headaches, disorientation etc.. and may just be wanting comfort – or an aspirin

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have owned one or two or three Airedales, they soon try to be Alpha and rule the roost and I have had to pick them up and shake them to gain my own alpha status. One, as he grew up would disappear just after dinnertime and I worried a bit as to what he was up to so one day followed him. He weaved his way around the army camp and ended up outside the back door of the cookhouse! waiting there was the Sgt Cook who called him over and gave him some tit bits. Moving in I asked how he had found the dog and he replied, ' The dog just sat outside the door waiting'. How did the dog find the cookhouse, smell, how did he know he would get anything, he was cute.

One time I caught him in next doors garden sucking Raspberries off the canes. He liked sweet apples as well.

Later due to problems with a Germany posting I gave him away to a farm in Cumbria, a letter came soon after saying that he had settled in and was the children's favourite and he had learned by himself to go and collect the cows for milking , brought them in and when finished took them back to pasture again.

The first Airedale was about 3 years old when we got him during the war. He was given to my Father and he brought him home. The reason was that the owners could not feed him. We were four boys and soon he was one of us and he slept on my bed at night, a great comfort to a 6/7 year old living in bomb alley. During the evenings when the bombers came he heard the bombers long before the sirens went off and he would go and get under the dining table and Mum would say to me, 'Go under the table with the dog'. We would hear the sirens start and we stayed there until the all clear went. While waiting for the bombers to come my Mum and I did embroidery on a table cloth and I still have this cloth in use to this day, her embroidery far better than mine!

The last one, I am too old to get another was a very good dog, and turned out to be a fabulous gun dog, questing to hand signals and retrieving. He also would, 'Point' until told to set up the sitting bird. The look on his face if I missed was a thing to see. He would also act like a sheep dog and round up the sheep. Never chasing or nipping them.

Clive, needless to say I do miss him.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by David Colwill on 18/04/2016 12:54:26:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 18/04/2016 12:34:43:

The cleverest animal is of course the horse. Mr Ed had his own show on TV.

This is wrong! White mice are the most intelligent species followed of course by dolphins then humans.

Regards.

David.

Only 42 people believe that, and they all work for Megadodo Publications!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

The best kind of dog is the hot dog. It feeds the hand that bites it.

[Rod NeepParticipant @rodneep80388]

When I was about 8 years old my grandfather had an Elk Hound. "Boy".

I went on holiday with them from Nottingham to Skegness in the summer.
Bus to the city centre and then a walk to Victoria Station
Train to Grantham
Change trains at Grantham to Skegness.

A week after we returned home Boy went missing. He was found later the same day in Skegness! We never could figure out how he had managed to get to the station, take the right train, change trains at Grantham, and make it there …. only to be picked up at the station by the police as he disembarked the train.

Rod
PS. Grandfather was a real engineer. He worked at the ROF making guns for tanks.

[norman valentineParticipant @normanvalentine78682]

Rod, that just proves he was stupid. I live in Skegness and would never choose to come here!

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

have any of you watched the series by Cesar Millan? He proves dog senses go to a whole new level. If youve not seen them try to. A real eye opener!

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

I was bought up with dogs as a child & they were all well behaved & did tricks, like count or get my fathers slippers from the cupboard etc. When not in the house they were kept in dog runs which our gardener cleaned weekly. They were not normally allowed to run riot or jump up at people. However, one day our alsatian ( which my sister & I rode, pulled, pummelled & played with endlessly) attacked a cyclist & he had nearly a hundred stitches in his legs. . Our office manager played base ball for the England team. One day his pet dog turned on him & cut muscles in his arm & his baseball career ended. Proving dogs cannot be trusted

In my working life I have been in over 15000 houses. 25% have dogs & you can tell by the stink Does not matter how posh the house, Any house with pets that i went in stunk of them. Particularly cats. . Some houses are so smothered on doggy s..t just trod in the carpets you would vomit at the sight & smell.

The number of people who would say " Oh he is alright, he will not hurt you" No mate you are dead right if you do not lock the thing away i will not come in your home & you can whistle to have your work done.

The most common thing when I visited a home was for the front door to open & the dog to run out between the owners legs & go for me. Are owners really so stupid that they do not know that their dogs will do this. I have been near dogs where the owners seem to think it is wonderful for the darned things to jump up at me . Next doors dog has just died – thank god- the endless barking has driven the wife & I mad every time we went in the garden. Now the new neighbours the other side have a b..y dog that does the same

Quite honestly I have been bitten so many times I hate the things. It is not the owner who has to sit in A & E waiting 4 hours for a tetanus injection. It is me.

But If I say just one thing against someone's dog all hell breaks loose. Just see the response this post gets. Every excuse under the sun about how wonderful their particular dog is.

Finally after that rant, there was one house that did not smell. I went in where I had to measure windows . Owner was out, caretaker let me in. House was boiling hot. Caretaker explained it was for residents pets – Tarantulas- The bloke bred them for a zoo & had some left over. There was a stack of 20 No. in 150 mm perspex cube like boxes with hinged lids. One per box.The caretaker lifted one lid & the dirty great spider just sat there – The lid had no fastening

The real frightening thing was that 4 boxes were empty & as I had to move the curtains back to measure the windows I did it really gingerly. Really glad to get out. Would rather have had dogs.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 18/04/2016 12:04:16:

So clever enough to figure out it's a doorbell, but too dumb to realise it isn't the one that announces the delivery man has arrived with a pocket full of dog chews.

 

My Sister had two small dogs (Scottie and Westie) . She had a kitchen clock which played a different tune on each hour. The dogs got fed at 5pm and new exactly which tune that was – at which point they became very excited. They more or less ignored all the rest (although sometimes would raise their heads and listen briefly before going back to sleep).

Edit: "heads" was "head" …. didn't want to create any misunderstanding.

Edited By Bandersnatch on 18/04/2016 22:52:59

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I like having a dog, it gets you out and about and you can meet people who become lifelong friends.

Unfortunately, dog owners, like car owners, and cyclists, can be dangerous, stupid, unsociable and annoying too.

c'est la vie

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

It can tell the difference between a dog barking on the radio and a dog barking in real life but it's still funny to watch him chase his own tail.

They aren't daft but they'll give the impression they are just to look innocent, alot of people let their dogs off too easy, hence why some of them are badly behaved/ anti-social.

Sometimes this isn't their fault, like if they live out in the sticks and the only people they're used to is their owner.

Michael W

 

Edited By Michael Walters on 19/04/2016 06:38:56

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by Michael Walters on 19/04/2016 06:36:17:

It can tell the difference between a dog barking on the radio and a dog barking in real life

Edited By Michael Walters on 19/04/2016 06:38:56

I know the difference too

One I can turn off

[Author]

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