Do dogs think?

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

Just sat in the garden watching my boy spying on the neighbours and wondered if they have an internal voice like we do e.g "fuck off I dont want to go out for a wee" etc
Dh thinks I've had too much sun

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

Mmm...pretty sure mine (lurcher) just has a single brain cell dinging around her head like a screensaver.

[Eckhart]

@LesleysChestnutBob I don't tell her off, though. It's usually my fault because I've left some food out and she's eaten it, or something. I tell her 'down' if she gets on the table when I'm there, so she knows she's not meant to go on there, but there's no anger from me. She seems to just feel terrible for doing something in my absence that she would never do in my presence.

[Eckhart]

Also if she's left some debris (like a bread wrapper) she'll be back to acting normal, but if she sees me move the bread wrapper, she goes straight back into guilt behaviour. So she definitely knows 'I did a bad thing' and 'The bad thing I did is directly related to that bread wrapper.'

Looks like guilt to me!

[RandomMess]

Mine only jumps on the dining table if there is no one there, she doesn't even try otherwise!!!

When she gets something it's our fault as someone has left food on the table AND at least one chair not fully pushed under 🤬

Like the time the teens couldn't find the left over pizza in the fridge (because not one of the lazy arses had put in the fridge the evening before).

[GinWithASplashOfTonic]

Oh god yeah.
And I can just feel the eye roll when we praise the ddog for doing a pee. She's three. And you just know she's thinking it's a pee not a thesis in rocket science

[RandomMess]

The time I was suspicious as to why the dog hadn't me upstairs (she is a rescue and usually fixated on me when around), mid pee I remembered I had left 48 cakes on the dining table mid icing them and the chair not pushed in...

DH was perturbed at my shouting CAKE and flying downstairs half attired, fortunate DDog had only chosen one to take to her crate to eat rather than licked the lot 😬🙈

[OneNewName]

fortunate DDog had only chosen one to take to her crate to eat rather than licked the lot

Unless she licked them all and then took one to her plate!

[RandomMess]

@OneNewName 😂 the moment of utter fear when I twigged what she was up to mid pee after baking the things all bloody day!!!

[Sinuhe]

My old girl went once on a camping trip with a group of Uni friends. She hated it.
From then on, as soon as I got the sleeping bag out for a wash andready for Camping, she would not get out of the front door or into the car but sit in the middle of the garden as to say: " I am not stupid, I stay at home in my lovely bed!"
Dogs definitely think and remember a lot of details. We took her on many other holidays like cottages and B&B's she always loved those.

[Giggorata]

Oh yeah with the shooting prep and shaking with excitement!
And DDog2 knows to wait until we're shouting for DDog1 in the undergrowth, eating long dead whatever, to sneak back and eat the fresh horse poo we just shouted her off.
DDog1 refused to go out for a walk once in her eight years, the day after she had her pups. But she has rewritten it in her head as DH left her behind and took the others out. Therefore he isn't to be trusted. So twice a day, after meals, she won't let him out of her sight, hangs suspiciously round the back of the van, checks out the boots and generally scowls at him, until the van doors open.

[pigsDOfly]

Unless she licked them all and then took one to her plate!

Now that would definitely be a dog that thinks for itself if she gets herself a plate when eating (stolen) cake

That was my thought too, without the plate, I bet she licked them all before taking the one she thought tasted best.

[Noidea2114]

Before lockdown we had our DS's daughter and dog over night.
Dgd went to bed at 10pm, we were going to leave the dog in the kitchen over night. As we were getting ready for bed he
went upstairs to sleep with Dgd he is not allowed at home to sleep on the bed.
7.30am he came into our room gets on the bed to wake me up to let him out. Dh was nearer the door.

[LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow]

One of ours would not recall properly if we were walking towards him...so if we spotted a car coming down the road and wanted him to come back he would just wait for us to catch up instead "I am not doubling back when you are going to be here in the same amount of time"

he would sit nicely and wait for us too, with a "hurry up or you will get run over" expression on his face!

[Eckhart]

"I am not doubling back when you are going to be here in the same amount of time"

Mine does that with fetch. 'I'm not bringing you the ball if you're coming over here anyway.'

I have to be stood still or walking the other way for her to deem it to be worth bringing to me.

She used to do the same with me going for a run round the park too. She got to know the route, and clearly started thinking 'I'll just wait here by the gate for you, then.' I had to put her on the lead because I didn't like to leave her so close to the exit/road.

[Gingerninja4]

Yes if playing with my dog and he drops his tow and I say can't reach it he drop nearer or in my hand


My kids or any one else says that he ignore them and bark for them to get it and carry on playing or even just give them a look as if to say your legs work you get it

Biggest difference I am in a wheelchair

[RandomMess]

I let mine choose which way to go fairly often and it isn't always the same route tbh Could be that some days some directions smell better I guess?

She also knows when the chopping board has been used for meat and she will sit and wait and wait and wait... she's small and can't see so must be smell and determination that it's there.

If it's not sunny she tries the DC bedrooms in her favourite order to see who she can get into bed with.

[CaptainMyCaptain]

My dog carefully assesses what I'm in changing into to decide whether it is dog walk appropriate or not.... Mine does this. Skirt and smart shoes ..... Not happening. She can also detect the sound of my down jacket being taken out of the cupboard which usually signals a walk.

[PuppyMonkey]

I like to talk in a silly voice to mine, usually nonsense words ending with what a good boy he is and how he's the best of all boys etc etc. And mine definitely looks at me like this

[inwood]

Absolutely yes! Mine knows what day of the week it is as he only sleeps upstairs on weekends (because he takes up too much space and I need decent nights sleep on work nights. He knows work clothes and non work clothes and most definitely knows dog walking coat.

He definitely thinks about whether a tray of high value enough for him to stop whatever he's doing wrong.

[Eckhart]

@Gingerninja4 That's lovely :) Mine takes food softly from my delicate elderly relative. Not news until you see how she takes it from anyone else (think near finger-removal)

[MikeUniformMike]

@FortunaMajor, I used to have a dog that howled when the phone rang but only if there was nobody in the same room.

[MaryLennoxsScowl]

Mine knows the names of his toys and will go fetch them from different rooms but will look behind the door and under the table and on the bed if he can’t immediately find it.

[RandomMess]

Another one, DDog on high alert when he sees a mobility scooter...

In case the corgi is there, whose owner uses a mobility scooter 😂 not sure why it offends her so much but it does!

[JacobReesMogadishu]

My dog isn’t as daft as she looks.

There is a dog in the village she’s obsessed with which is unusual because she normal ignores dogs. If we see this border terrier she will run across a field to get to it, again unusual as she always walks to heel.

If she’s on a lead she’s fighting and straining to the point of choking to get to it.

A while ago she did the pulling and straining on her lead to 2 girls being walked to school by their dad and I could understand it. My friend pointed out the dad is this dogs owner. The dog wasn’t there! So my dog recognised the bloke which is more than I did. Then the next week the 2 girls were being walked to school by their mum. No dog, no dad. My dog knew it was the same girls and went nuts again! Never done it with anyone else.