Smartest dog I’ve ever had is my American mastiff. No point telling you everything he understands, nobody would believe me anyway. I switched to hand commands a long time ago, just o keep things quiet. Baby talk bores him, and he turns his head away, likr it’s an insult.
The two-year-old has a long way to go to catch up, but she's learning fast. And she has tons more drive to retrieve than the older one.
I was just at a seminar where they did a "test" as part of an after-dinner game . . . you sat in a chair, dog at heel, and a bird boy out about fifty yards fired a gun and tossed a bird. BUT . . . on either side of the path to the bird, about 8 feet apart, were plastic plates filled with chicken alfredo (left over from dinner), cold cuts, cheese, and dog treats.
I am pleased to say that young Ruby ignored all the plates on her mad dash to the chukar. On the way back you could see her nose wrinkle as she glanced at a plate, but I shouted, "NO! HERE!" and she trotted on back to heel.
She stole some dog biscuits later as we were crawling under benches with dog biscuits on top.
Strangest retrieving game I've ever been involved with . . . there WAS a photographer there and I'll post pictures if he got some good ones.