My blue heeler “Digger” was absolutely the smartest dog
I’ve ever owned. My shop gate was on wheels and instead
of just pushing it open she would put her paw on the
wheel and roll it open.
When she was a pup, I got down on the floor in a play
posture and she got SOOO excited, “He speaks DOG!”.
Lost her to diabetes.
Got a Jack Russel now and he’s pretty sharp and very
affectionate too.
For a great but sad dog story look up “Hachi Monogatari”
on you tube, about a Japanese Akita.
If you don’t tear up at some point you aren’t a dog lover.
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.