I had a puzzle box for my blue heeler. It was a hard rubber sphere that I could unscrew and put treats in. Barkley, who was not particularly food obsessed, enjoyed unscrewing it and getting to the treat. Pretty soon he was able to get into the sphere as fast as I could. He knew more words than any dog I’ve ever owned. Some of them were frisbee, walk, perambulate, gorilla (his favorite toy), toy, Biscuit (our other dog), out, load up, the usual sit, stay, wait. Once when he was about 9 months old, we were camping and two little girls ran through our camp. Being a heeler he nipped at their heels. I chewed him out and told him to go to that camp and apologize. He slunk over, went to the pack leader (the mom) and licked her foot.
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.
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.