Posted on 09/16/2015 5:24:45 AM PDT by C19fan
They may be man's best friend, but dogs have little to thank humans for it seems. Research suggests the domesticated pets can't solve problems as well as their wild cousins because living with us has made them 'incapable of thinking for themselves.' In tests, experts presented a 'puzzle box' containing food to a group of dogs, and a group of wolves and while the wolves were capable of breaking inside, the dogs looked to humans for help.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
;D
We lost Barkley to old age/cancer. He was 16 1/2. We had a dachshund, Thunder, decades ago who had diabetes. Daily shots. But he went downhill fast. He was the smartest small dog I knew. He was free range in a college town and would range all over town. One New Year’s Eve party we were at he showed up with a german shepherd bitch. They came in, wandered around and then left I guess for another party somewhere. He showed up the next morning, tired but happy. He was also able to catch rabbits. He figured out that they ran in circles. He would establish the direction one ran and then cut the circle. Best dog movie ever My Talks with Dean Spanley. His theory was that at any given time there were, I think, five great dogs on earth. Sounds like our blue heelers and my dachshund were in that category for a while. We were privileged to have them in our lives.
I've got a cat that has different meows, each one different according to her needs. One for "I'm hungry", another for "I need attention or petting", and one for "hey fella, I just took a dump and I need my kitty litter cleaned out". She won't use the litter box if there's another turd in it. I hate that meow the most...lol
I am amazed at how many words my dogs understand. Some words like bath, they have even learned to spell. If I accidently say bath, they go off and hide.
Seven *loves* to play fetch.
Instead of handing me the ball, she “spits” it at me with amazing velocity and accuracy.
When her ball gets all slippery from her slobbers, she sometimes starts to drop it but quickly flips her head around and presses it back into her jaws firmly, using leverage against her arm/shoulder/chest.
Her ability to retrieve balls that roll under the furniture is uncanny.
Amazing dexterity and almost “hand like” use of her toes and paws.
She will play with a particular ball and sometimes ‘spits’ over my head and it rolls behind the sofa.
No matter how many other balls, exactly like it, that I offer her, so I don’t have to get up and move the furniture *again*, she will go look at where it went and bark endlessly until I get *that one*.
Often, I think she only *thinks* her ball went missing but after extensive searching, she has never been proven wrong.
If she “says” her ball is behind something, no matter how much I cannot see it, it *will* be there.
Man, that sure is one “stupid” dog!
:D
Lions don’t “meow” at each other.
Cats are smarter than lions.
:)
We did a pretty good job with the kids, no reason dogs shouldn’t follow.
I absolutely totally agree! In fact sitting on my shelf are several copies of “How to be Leader of the Pack...and Have Your Dog Love You for it!” by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.
We train and condition dogs to recognize the human is their pack leader. So it would only follow that dogs look to their ‘pack leader’ to solve the problems in their lives.
My youngest JRT now aged 7 , has always been a fierce ball player.
Hoot had glaucoma and has had to have both eyes removed.
He still plays ball but the rules have changed. I can’t throw it as far as before and he has to be close enough to hear it bounced. He runs to the sound and snatches it up so quickly that if you didn’t know better you would think he could see it.
But, unless they are the Alpha pair, do not get to have sex.
Now, I'll admit that your average wolf covers a lot of ground and marks an impressive amount of territory in its life, however...
My last two dogs peed in more states than most long-haul truck drivers.
Show me the wolf that can top that!
They are smart enough to talk to us, or is it that we learned what they were saying? I can decipher my dog’s barks but is it because she is speaking to me, or speaking to me as her ancestors spoke to each other?
Had a husky/wolf mix long time ago. Best dog EVER and I have had many. Our dogs are capable of so much more, but just like us, if they are supplied with food and shelter and don’t have a job, they become socialist democrats.
LOL
My uncle had a wiener dog named Zilch because that’s all the
dog knew was zilch.
Dogs are apolitical.
They lack guile and malice aforethought.
We feed them and they give their lives to us, cheerfully, even dying for us, if need be.
The dogs I had a choice in, as in *not* my rescues, *are* intact and shall ever remain so.
Cutting edge vet science has proved the benefits of leaving a dogs’ complete and fully functioning endocrine system *alone*.
“Hey, cracker. I don’t need to solve no stinkin’ puzzle! Just gibsmedat.” Human training courtesy of fedzilla.
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