I thought dogs were supposed to be intelligent

[Cheria]

Especially golden retrievers. But mine is really thick. He's obedient in exchange for food, but thick. He's scared of bins but will run after a tractor ploughing a field. He'll run away from a rabbit but go and annoy a wild boar (and no, we won't be going to that part of the woods again). And he will swipe my cat around the head even though he knows at some point the cat will retaliate and he will come off worse.

And don't get me started on the crap he eats (and I mean that literally and figuratively).

However he's got emotional intelligence. After my DHs grandfather's funeral he came to the wake - a room full of about 20 strangers. Went straight up to DH grandmother and put his knee on her lap. Hadn't met her before but just knew.

Anyway felt the need for some lightheartedness on here so would like some stories of intelligent dogs. Yes that is an open offer to boast. Or if, like me, you've got a thickie but you love him anyway, how thick do they really get?

My Staffy would be a shoe in for the SAS. He knows when the gates have been left on the latch and not locked, knows if he hurts you that he kisses it better (aww) and has mastered the commando crawl to get under the duvet and steal the space in between me and DP.

SO why can't he train the thick Flupps??

Love the blog slug linked to. Slug is it yours?

Especially golden retrievers. I have never met a Retriever that even has an IQ!
I have a cross breed that I bred myself. He is 50% cocker 25%collie 25%basset hound! We decided that this breed should be called a 'Cock Up'!
Should have known better really!
He is like Forrest Gump! He doesnt like dog food, his preferred snack of choice is A/ my £1000 rawhide leather sofa, B/ The upholstry of my car, C/ Compact discs D/ Biros!
We spent several minutes last night, wetting ourselves laughing, because the spiky stick he brought us had an extra shoot attached. He just couldnt work out why this prickly thing was following him! He ran sideways, jumped, stepped back, and ran away. It just wouldnt leave him alone!!
It is genetic though, his Dad, (the collie Basset) was sitting by his mum, who was doing a jigsaw. She said "yay, this 'bit fits'!" He ran to the kitchen and stood by the biscuit cupboard, looking expectant!!!!

Our neighbours cat will sit in the garden and our dog will see it through the window and be all excited, we let him out and as he gets close to it - it just pops up onto the wall and looks down as he whizzes past it then he acts like it has disappeared. He'll come back in to his window seat and see it on the wall, go out again to right under the wall and still not look up, over and over with mounting confusion. Also, if I am outside the house with the dog and need to ring the doorbell, he gets so excited that there is someone at the door that for about 10 minutes after getting into the house he is still whining to tell us there is someone there.

My parents collie is the other end of the scale, if (through us feeling sorry for our daft wee dog and throwing it right to him) he manages to get hold of the collie's ball and run about with it, the collie goes near him and pretends to sniff at something. Daftie falls for it every time and drops the ball to go to check out the sniff. We did the dog IQ test thing one family Christmas and the difference was so extreme, ours was flummoxed by the biscuit under the cup whereas the collie could follow which cup of three contained the ball in a magician kind of way.

See this ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/funny-pictures-of-dogs-with-captions.jpg?w=500&h=415JRT? this might as well be my Rescue JRT. He is insane, he is stupid but god do I love the bloody idiot.

He won't go out of my sight unless theres food, he sleeps under the duvet as close to you as possible.

He thinks hes a rabbit, we take him out over the fields coming home as soon as we reach a certain field he takes off at 100mph in circles slowly getting closer to your legs then veering off at the last second after a good 10 minutes of this he then starts jumping everywhere he runs into the long grass and just bounds through it proper rabbit style.

He often trys to jump into bed only to hit the side of it then growl at me like its my fault.

He would rather play with an empty plastic bottle than his ball and runs around the garden with said bottle in his mouth growling and shaking his head from side to side at the same time making the strangest noise but admittedly sounding far larger than he is.

He's wonderful and he makes me laugh every day without fail hes loyal to a fault but hes defintly not the sharpest pencil in the box.

I'm so going to do a dog ID test. On my dog of course. Just out of interest. To see how thick he really is :)

The trouble with the blanket test is that our most intelligent dog (collie/terrier) used to play 'statues' under a sheet or a blanket - it was a fantastic game!!! Particularly when slightly less intelligent collie x would join in and not understand where her friend had gone or what that lump under the sheet was (which if you poked it with your nose enough gave you a nip). She would even stop her tail wagging (to start wiht at least) and would freeze whether she was standing, sitting or lying down at the time.

I snorted out loud at "yay, this 'bit fits'!" and the dog at the biscuit cupboard. Dill just raised an eyebrow at me and went off to type something dispariging on Dogsnet.

I am off to check out the IQ test.

Alas glitch, that is an American blog. You should check out The God of Cake for another laugh out loud moment. Tis sheer genius.

OK. Have remembered another one for mine. Recall shite. Until we rattle the lead. Then he comes back all gallopy and enthusiastic, sits down, waits for the lead to be put on... and then tugs. Sits again, looks up mournfully as if to say "Dammit, you tricked me again".

Not sure if my dog lacks intelligence or has very cleverly trained me to do what she wants. She won't open doors with her nose - just stands at them and waits (for me to get up and open them for her). She won't jump in the car (waits for me to pick her up and put her in (have tried treats but nothing works). Despite constant training on 'leave' command, she still picks undesirable things up and waits for me to say 'drop' as this means she gets a treat (as a reward for dropping undesirable object). Think she has me sussed!

OK my goldie has FAILED the IQ test I have found online. Oh well. He was the runt of the litter. But he's still a sweetie!

this thread is making me

dog no 1 is a very clever jrt. she loves playing fetch and if i dont want to throw the ball she has worked out that she can take it to the top of the stairs, nudge it with her nose and then chase it down the stairs, catch it and then repeats and repeats until she decides she wants to play hide and seek. she will then take ball to her bed, hide it underneath the top cushion and then find it. she has worked out that if she lies under the duvet with her head on the pillow she can lie like that all night without overheating. when i was learning sign language a few years i taught her how to follow various directions using sign language. she learnt this in a day.

dog no 2 is a collie cross and a bit thick. or he is so clever he decides to give the impression he is thick. my view on this changes often

dog no 3 is a jrt. he is not as clever as dog no 1 but still bright. i have taught him to do various jobs for me around the house. he loves emptying the washing machine and fetching named items. he is very cute looking and ds likes taking him for walks as teenage girls always want to fuss him

at scuttle's surfer dude wearing friendship bracelets

One of my staffies is an escapologist. We can't use a crate with her anymore as she used to break out every time - this was after a period of about a year of being in it happily. She even broke out of a zip-tied crate. I am not sure if this makes her highly intelligent or highly stupid. I suspect she is stupid but she is very good at recall, whereas the other staffy is quite clever and good at doing tricks but appears not to know his own name.