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Thinking forward


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OK, Torque was thinking ahead - just like a chess player. I just had to laugh.

 

Here is the set-up:

I have a "mud-room" in my house where I keep a box of toys. I have put them there so that they are easily accessible when I go outside with the dogs and want to play with a toy. Since they are all in one place, I can switch them up for variety. I have also kept them in the closed-off mud-room because Torque has chewed and destroyed sooo many toys that I had to restrict access or take out a loan. :rolleyes:

 

Occasionally, I will forget to close the mud-room door and the next thing I know, Torque has picked out his toy and is on the LR rug, chewing away. He is very good and will give it up when I say "drop-it". He looks soo disappointed.

 

Tonight, again, I had something else on my mind and forgot to close the mud-room door. A few minutes later, I saw Torque with a toy in his mouth. So I asked him to "drop it", and I walked to the mud-room, put it back in the toy box and closed the mud-room door. When I came back to the kitchen, he was standing there with ANOTHER TOY in his mouth. (this was a toy that 'lived' in the toy box too.) The stinker had already taken TWO toys out of the box. Was he tired of giving up his toy and decided that if I took one away, he had another one in reserve to play with? He outfoxed me and really made me laugh.

 

Just wanted to share - and wonder if others have experienced their dogs thinking forward. Stories?

 

Jovi

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I do think that they can figure things out and think ahead, to some extent.

 

Celt was chewing on something that Megan wanted. She watched him for a few moments, then trotted over to get a ball, which she brought and dropped on my lap. Of course, Ball-brain dropped his bone to run for the ball, while Megan sauntered over to get "her" bone. She had no interest in that ball at that time, but she knew it was likely that that would get Celt's attention and leave the bone unguarded.

 

The story doesn't tell nearly as well as it unfolded in person.

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Oh geez, Tweed does stuff like that all the time. His favourite trick is, when everyone is chewing on bones, to start toward the door barking. Everyone else gets up and rushes past him straight to the door, and he turns around and methodically collects all the abandoned bones, lays down on top of them, and snarls at everyone when they come back into the room. He's a trip.

 

RDM

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This definitely reminds me of my BC Maya. Tennis balls are her favorite toy. She will ditch any toy for a chance to play with one. I generally take them away after we play for a while because she gets a tad annoying! I'm pretty sure if I didn't stop the game she could go all day...every day.

 

Anyways - I think she has started to realize that I will take them away when we are finished playing. One night I thought I had found them all and put them away. The next day I am in the kitchen and I hear her doing something in the next room over but didn't go check. The next thing I know she is standing beside me with a tennis ball. I end up taking that one away and she runs back in the other room and comes back with another tennis ball. I literally have no clue where she had these balls hidden. It was very entertaining though!

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When I let Whisper play with other dogs, she had zero interest in toys, but focused on the dog who had the toy. My BIL's dogs loved chasing balls. Whisper loved chasing the dog who had the ball. (All play sessions were strictly supervised. Whisper is a wonderful dog, but so snarky towards other dogs that I don't let her play with other dogs at all anymore--someone would end up in a vet's office). Anyway, the BIL's dog had the ball and was racing around and around a parked car, enjoying the game of chase she instigated. Whisper went twice around the car, and had it figured out--she stopped racing clockwise and doubled back to go counter clockwise to meet the other dog head on. The other dog was so surprised she nearly dropped the ball.

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My two boys are stashers as well -- and Sue is right -- the stories don't "rewind" as well as they play out in front of you. Last summer, when they were pups, we'd put new toys out in the yard and within fifteen minutes you'd see Brodie with one in his mouth, headed for the pine trees.... pretty soon, he'd have everything cleaned up and in the "club house." Different things magically reappeared and disappeared in the yard over the summer. Every time Robin drug something out - Brodie would take it back. Every now and then, I find a cache in one of the bedrooms.

 

Liz

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Shonie once got into the kibble bin, (a locked lid, mind you, now do you see why I call her a Devil in a Border Collie Suit?) and DH came home to kibble, chewies and cookies scattered everywhere through the house. Shonie had a stomach as big as a basketball.

 

Over the next few days, she kept trying to get into DH's bedroom, which we kept as a Cat Retreat, and we couldn't figure it out, she'd never ever done that. Then DH was digging for something and found the stash of chewies in his closet.

 

Ruth

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When Zeus and Zena were 12 weeks old we watched Zena grab a toy out of Zeus' paws and go into her kennel with it. Zeus went over to the toy box and grabbed another toy and laid down in front of Zena's kennel with it between his paws and looked at her. She ran out of her kennel and grabbed it out of his paws and took off and he went into her kennel and stayed there with the toy, happily gnawing away.

 

It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen for a 12 week old puppy...

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We had 2 dogs who were always enticing each other with another ball or toy to get what the other had. When enticing with another ball/toy didn't work, then they would actually go to my husband or me for attention. When the other dog left their toy to get in on the attention, the other would quickly leave us and go grab the what the other dog had.

The 2 I have now try that with each other but neither falls for it. :rolleyes:

 

Another thing the previous dogs did was the bone switch or trade. I would give them special bones to chew and each would be happily chewing away near each other. One one stop chewing and stare at the other one and they would get up and trade bones. They both actually got up and switched positions and bones. Either one would initiate this.

The 2 I have now don't do this either.

 

If Chase doesn't wany anyone taking his ball, he makes sure everyone knows it's still his, he just isn't playing with it right now.

 

HPIM1184-1.jpg

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I do think that they can figure things out and think ahead, to some extent.

 

Celt was chewing on something that Megan wanted. She watched him for a few moments, then trotted over to get a ball, which she brought and dropped on my lap. Of course, Ball-brain dropped his bone to run for the ball, while Megan sauntered over to get "her" bone. She had no interest in that ball at that time, but she knew it was likely that that would get Celt's attention and leave the bone unguarded.

 

The story doesn't tell nearly as well as it unfolded in person.

 

 

My housemate's dog does this kind of thing all the time. Daisy is definitely top dog in the household and will generally try to steal any bone that another dog shows interest in, even if it was previously sitting completely untouched. There is also a hierarchy of bones, some being generally more desirable than others. My housemate's dog, who really shows remarkable survival skills in general, will regularly pick up a less desirable bone and parade it in front of Daisy. As soon as she goes for that bone, he'll drop it and then casually (so as not to draw attention to himself) walks over to where he has the "good" bone hidden so he can enjoy it in peace.

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Jody knows which shoes I wear to work and which shoes mean I am staying home. Two days ago he chewed a tiny hole in the toe of one of my work shoes. I believe he thought that if he destroyed the work shoe I would not go away all day

 

Today I got laid off due to a departmental reorganization. I won't be going to work again until I find a new job. I sure hope Jody doesn't think this all the way through. I may never be able to own dress shoes again.

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I once had two Collies, Treve & Melanie. Melanie was a ball-freak and Treve couldn't care less about them. One day I was out in the back yard eating an ice cream cone. I was playing fetch with Melanie and Treve was watching. When Melanie brought the ball and dropped it at my feet she got a lick on the cone. This went on for a while and then Melanie got side-tracked by something. Treve was sitting next to me. He looked at me, looked at the ice cream, looked at the ball, and then back at me. then he got up and sauntered over to the ball, picked it up, sauntered back, did a perfect "front" and dropped the ball. Then he licked his chops.

Treve wasn't always the life of the party, but his reputation of being "not the sharpest spoon in the drawer" was undeserved. He got a few licks on that cone and went off for a nap.

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