I said, "Mom, you're spelling in front of a dog."
She insisted he understood the word, so I turned to him (he was just a little dog) and said calmly, with as little inflection as I could, "Tsar, I'm going to get your toys."
That dog went nuts. "BARARARARAR! BARARARARAR!" He ran over to his toys and stood over them, glaring at me. Over the course of the week I learned that you had to spell toys, car, out, and ice cream in front of him if you didn't want to set him off.
And I do not say this in a sentimental cloud of mush; I hated that little mutt. My parents loved him beyond measure. My sisters and I used to joke, "Stay on Tsar's good side, because he's going to inherit everything."
Thankfully, I outlived him. But anyway, he was freaky smart.
I've got one you have to spell in front of. He's smarter than some of my kids.:<(
All you had to do to set my Beagles off was say “rabbit”.
Then they began learning to spell.
My parents’ dog not only knows what “walk” is, but she knows what “w-a-l-k” is.
She’s a lab and apparently has not learned what “l-a-k-e” means yet.
I have a dog who knows what “beer” is (she absolutely loves beer), and eventually figured out that “b-e-e-r” spells “beer” as well. She’s a smart dog.
That’s nothing.....we had a dog..a cocker....who, when he was a year old, as I was preparing for work (I worked swing shift for a high tech co at the time) came to see me in the bathroom.....I said, “Gus, where’s my watch”....just casually, talking to him, as he and I were the only ones home.....my watch had been missing for a few days. Well....he left, and returned a minute later....WITH MY WATCH!!!
We now have a dog that we spell in front of IF we don’t want her to know something. She has quite the vocabulary understanding!
I think a lot of it depends on training.
We have had dogs who understand certain spelled words. They would have figured out very quickly that t-0-y spelled toy. I think the words were b-a-l-l and r-i-d-e among others.
We have a 7-year-old miniature Schnauzer named Kramer — hands down the smartest dog I’ve ever seen. My husband agrees and so do many of our friends. We have been spelling words in front of him for a loooong time now. Especially t-r-e-a-t and b-o-a-t-r-i-d-e and b-a-t-h and we’re pretty sure he knows the spellings now. G-r-e-e-n-i-e is the newest spelling which happens to be his favorite treats.
He knows the names of all of his toys and will go and get them when we ask - even a toy that he hasn’t played with in a long time. One night my daughter and I were watching the movie “E.T.” and talking about it — a few moments later in comes Kramer with his “alien” toy. We were amazed! Another time we were watching “The Devil Wears Prada” — and not talking about it — yet in trots Kramer with his “shoe” which is a plush high-heeled shoe! (Don’t ask...)
He watches dogs on TV. When we go for a boat ride around the lake, he knows were all the dogs live and will jump to his seat in the boat to scan the shore as we drive by in hopes of seeing one of his friends. He especially likes a house that also has 2 miniature Schnauzers and will bark and wag his tail before we even get there. Can he know they are the same breed?? Weird!
Yet - as SMART as this guy is - he doesn’t get it when we say “NO BARK” and he never will. He will go bark-crazy when one of us comes into the house whether we have been gone for 3 days or only 3 minutes to get the mail.