canine confusion
Jan 18th, 2008 by woodstone
R’s new dog, Sweet Pea, is a Pembroke Corgi.
Corgi’s are herding dogs and supposed to be pretty smart. According to this scale rating the intelligence of the various dog breeds, they come in at #11. Border Collies come in first… no surprise there! Afghan hounds are at the very bottom of the list.
Sweet Pea was acting a little like a short, round, afghan yesterday…
Remember the rats that she was so fascinated with? She discovered them in M’s room on Weds. and spent a lot of time just sitting and watching (stalking? planning how to devour?) them.
Before disaster struck I decided to move the rats.
So yesterday morning, I moved them to a high shelf, and moved M’s boom box to the low shelf. I did this in front of Sweet Pea… (who was sitting watching the rats again!)
Here’s the afghan part…
After sniffing the boom box for a few minutes, she went right back to her post. Only now she was staring intently at the boom box. (Waiting for rats to appear?)
No, it wasn’t turned on or doing anything exciting. No lights, bells, or whistles…
As I straightened in M’s room, I kept watching her… waiting for her to tire of guarding the boom box, or notice that the rats were right behind her.
But she never tired or lost her concentration. She was “on the job” and not about to shirk her duty…
For awhile the tables were turned… rat watching dog.
I finished my work and left the room with Sweet Pea still on duty at the boom box. I came back 10 minutes later and peaked in the room.
Yup, she was still there.
Poor Sweet Pea… yesterday was a rough day for her.
oh my, I am still laughing at my SP baby….she is very determined, as you are discovering…distracting her from something is nearly impossible….but as far as intelligence is concerned, you should spend the day observing Winston, the Bassset…the car is moving, but nobody’s driving! like most of us, he is lovable, but not too bright…
Oh my, i laughed out loud at the pics of Sweet Pea intently watching/guarding the boom box. i’m not sure how Maite would act in that situation and i’m not getting rats to find out!
Oh that’s so funny, but Lilly is the same way. I don’t take it as a lack of intelligence though, but an awesome memory. Lilly will continue to look where she last saw something for a few days before she finally gets that it’s not coming back.
Think of it like this: SP knows they were there and is just waiting for them to return.
LOL!
Don’t ya love dogs…they’re so good for a laugh!
That is hilarious!!!
My dog rated number 7! But how can a poddle rate number 2????
…in the first picture, I know I’m wrong but your dog isn’t smoking is it?
My dog has a lot of bad habits. She chases birds, she thinks the cats litter box is a Hor’dourve tray, she passes wind enough for me to keep her from getting too close to the fire and she gets bossed around by kittens.
But at least she doesn’t smoke.
That is terrifically hilarious! Yay for Sweet Pea’s tenacity! (you never know rats and their disguises!)
As for smart dogs…at least according to the survey…looks like Zoey wins! Is Zoey the smartest dog in the family? Zoey is part german shepard (comes in as third smartest on the survery) and part doberman (comes in at a 5th smartest.) Maybe I’ve told you stories about Zoey — the jumping-twisting-dolphin-dog…the dog who knows no medium between being too hyper and too cuddly? She is the smartest?
All fun aside - I do think that Zoey is super smart. Actually, I think that is what gets her into trouble most of the time. She is easily bored and easily anxious. If I had the time I’d try to train her to be a rescue dog…she is that good.
Ok, so we get together your dog and my fat cat and we’ll turn out a dat that stares at a radio half the day and sleeps the other half. Or cross SP with evil cat and you’ll get a cog that stares at a radio and then for no reason what-so-ever tears around the house and runs into her hidey-hole for the rest of the day.
I used to have a seemingly intelligent dog too (a border collie none the less!) that would jump in the basket of my baby stroller everytime a person, dog, cat, leaf, wind, string, bubble, passed her by. Even when she was full grown she’d hop in that basket and stick out on our “walks”.
OMGosh, it does look like she’s smoking! It’s the handle on the dresser! How funny. Blow that one up and label it ‘bad doggie habits’!
RYC: Ok, Zoey is happy to be in the tie. I did Jessie’s rating…she is kind of bringing up the caboose. Her lab heritage gives her a rating of 7, but the chow-chow compromises her at a 76! That gives her a 66 average. Well,….I always knew she was extra stubborn.
I’ve always loved sun-set-in-the-ocean pictures too.
So, Jack is a 20, huh. Well, maybe on a good day; a very good day!
Ok, that is hilarious! That poor dog!
You should get her a TV or something…