My female mini-dachshund is very smart and very commutative. She has a whole range of modulated barks, whimpers, snarls, whines, yips, facial and ear movements that she draws on when she is trying to get her point across. Her physical and facial reactions to you the human not quite “getting it!” are hilarious. It’s the look of, “Can these two legged creatures really be this dumb? “. As she has gotten older she has become the “Grand Duchess “ of the house. She has her “spot on the couch” and there is a protocol about her spot. She has to get on the couch first or she sits in front of you and “complains” using all her communication skills. I have to shoo the other dogs off. They’re oblivious to the protocol violation. She gets on then either myself & the other dogs. She doesn’t care about the order. She is the smallest dachshund we have ever had but by far the most “dachshund-any”. She also doesn’t like you to pick her up until she decides its “ok”! She is very friendly with kids, people ,etc but always on her terms.
Our older group of cats are very smart and can carry on the longest conversations. They are constantly coming in telling me about their great adventures or something. They understand us but we’re too dumb to understand them.
When they were first introduced to their collars, I told them they don’t belong to a family without collars. They have only lost one collar. Whenever they get one off, they pick up and carry to me or leave it where they know I’ll see it - on the bed, on my desk or in the living room. This last collar that was lost, a neighbor found it immediately and called so don’t know if he’d have brought it home if there was time.
Too bad they can’t seem to catch on that I don’t need to be shown their trophies. We walked in after coming in from Thanksgiving dinner a little while ago and they had a 2 foot long snake in the living room!