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68 People Share Surprising Displays Of Intelligence They’ve Seen In Their Pets
If you own a pet, there’s a good chance you consider them to be the cutest, sweetest, smartest little creature on the planet. It’s important to provide kids with plenty of encouragement, so why shouldn’t our pets receive the same?
But it turns out that many dogs and cats are actually way more intelligent than you might realize. Pet owners have been sharing stories on Reddit of the most brilliant things they’ve ever witnessed their animals do, so we’ve compiled their most impressive stories below. From finding new ways to communicate to playing tricks on their owners, there’s no question that these animals would do amazing on an IQ test.
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#1
MY dog absolutely loves to swim. She is so obsessed with swimming that if you take her to the beach and show her a treat she will ignore and go splash around in the water. A couple years ago on a really hot day, she sarted whining pitifully at my mom. We couldn't figure out what she wanted, it wasn't food, wasn't bathroom, wasn't that she wanted to play, so we ignored her. Finally after half an hour she runs off into my moms room, grabs her bathing suit and throws it at her and then looks at us like "there, now do you morons get it?"
tl;dr dog makes connection between clothes and getting wet.
Crystalwitch60 1 hour ago
When it’s hot here ,my staffie comes to me n whines , so i say show me, it two words i always say , so he knows n he will take me up to the bathroom n jump in the bath for a cool shower lol, that’s at night , in day he has a lovely pool to splash in dogs are so clever , ,
RELATED:
#2
Knew a dog who once investigated my purse, removed burrito leftovers, *carefully unwrapped* said leftovers, ate the burrito, hid the trash, and then placed a toy inside the purse. I couldn't even be mad.
**TL;DR: dog is Indiana Jones.**.
#3
So I used to work at a butcher shop and would bring home whole cow femurs for my dog. Usually they would have some meat scraps still on them and that would keep her busy for a while. However what she really wanted was the marrow.
At the time I was living at my parents and my dad drives big water trucks for a living. One day he comes home to grab something he forgot, and he leaves the truck running.
My dog takes one of the femurs and places it under his trucks wheel, so that as he backs out of the driveway the bone shatters and she can get to the marrow. She did this on multiple occasions and I have no idea how she figured it out.
#4
My dog has gotten to the point where if he needs something, he'll come up to me and sit down in front of me and stare. We'll then shuffle through the series of phrases he knows. "Do you need to go outside?" -- "Do you want food?" -- "Do you want to play?" --"Do you want a treat?" After he hears the phrase for whatever he wants, he'll immediately stand up and start jumping.
It always blows my mind that I can basically have a conversation with my dog and get him what he wants. As a college student living in an apartment, this has become very helpful.
Edit: He's an Italian grey hound.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 hours ago
My Belgian Malinois will do this. He'll give me the Sad Dog Look (ears flat to head, eyebrows pulled into supplication mode) and will whine lightly. Similar to OP, I'll question him as to what he wants (except I usually phrase it "What, bruh? Do you need xyz?") and he'll jump up and spin around happily when you say what he wants XD I talk to him a lot, though (both baby talk and real words/conversations) so he probably recognizes way more words than I give him credit for XD
#5
I have a Great Dane, my boyfriend has a Pit Bull. We moved in together officially about two/three months ago.
The dogs knew each other and were "civil" to each other in the past, but living together was a different story and I was worried. They both adored me and jealousy factors come into play a lot with growling and showing of teeth ( never attacks, just "brotherly" quarrels ).
One night I'm home by myself while boyfriend is at work. It's nice out, so I go outside in the backyard with the dogs, who are all too eager to play. They each pick up a stick and parade around, trying to get the other, if not me, to chase them. So while they're prancing around and chuffing and giving little playful growls at one another, the Pit Bull happened to break his stick and all he had left in his mouth was a twig off of the stick. No matter! He disappeared around the side of the house where they do their business and I thought nothing of it. I remained with the Great Dane and was enjoying watching him "buck" and prance with his stick, when all of a sudden he freezes, shoots his head up looking over to where the Pit Bull disappeared to. He paused for a moment and then dropped his stick and ran in that direction. I was oblivious, I thought maybe they had heard something on that side of the house and were going to investigate together. Suddenly, the Great Dane is rushing back at me, bouncing and looking extremely antsy. He's whine-barking at me ( like he does when he wants something ) and switching directions from running to me to running to the side of the house.
He's never done anything like that before, so I am instantly alarmed, and I follow him to the side of the house, where, before I even round the corner, I hear choking.
The Pit Bull had the twig in his mouth and he was choking on it. One end was lodged in the back of his throat and the other end was at the roof of his mouth. His gums were bloody from his furious pawing at his mouth and his hind legs were buckled and on the ground out of exhaustion.
I raced to him in horror and shoved my forearm in his mouth to hold it open without a second thought. The dislodging of the stick was pretty easy to do once I unlodged it from the bottom/back of his throat. All the while, the Great Dane watched on with perked ears and a serious face.
When I calmed down and let them into the house, the Pit Bull went in first, turned around and gave the Great Dane licks on his nose. Every night since then there are always licks to his nose.
**TL;DR: Great Dane heard Pit Bull choking and alerted me to help.**
Also, once my Great Dane wanted up on the bed with me and he does his whine-barking. Well, I had just washed the sheets, and I didn't want him up on there just yet so I ignored him. So he kept whine-talking and it went something like this: "AwwrrrorrrmmmmMOM!"
I wouldn't think TOO much of it except after he blurted out "MOM" he stopped and looked at me and perked up his ears like "Yeah, that HAD to have impressed you into responding."
He impresses me all the time and I'm sure I have more stories, but he still is a pretty big oaf regardless.
Crystalwitch60 1 hour ago
Never play with sticks with dogs , this happens way to often all vets advise against this, my staffie loves sticks, well in his case TREES as they always so big, he will pick em up on walks n bring them home, but we never throw them ,to big to do so.,
#6
To indicate they want to go outside, our family's dogs have always been trained to ring a small bell hanging from the doorknob on a shoelace. Once when I was home sick from school and sprawled out on the couch, the dog rang the bell and looked at me - clearly wanting to go outside. I got up and went to the door to let him out, only to turn around and see that he had immediately seized the opportunity to hop on the couch.
#7
My step-dad's "hunting dog" is always so keen on catching squirrels that he spends all day looking up at a tree. On thanksgiving when it was raining outside, we brought him inside and he stared for hours at a landscape portrait.
#8
The other day I heard my cat puking and I ran around the house trying to find her so I could put her outside. She was in her litter box. She has never puked in the house and I always thought we were lucky, but apparently she has just been doing it in the litter box. I was so proud and thought she was so smart. Then later that day she jumped in the toilet, now I am not so sure.
#9
I watched my dog start scratching his ear and then get annoyed at the leg that was scratching him, so he started biting it.
#10
20 years ago a saw a lost dog on our street. A Golden Retriever mix. We're dog people so I saw he had a collar and was well fed so i got him into our fenced back yard and called the number on his tag. No answer. Figured the owner was at work. Called again over the next 24 hours but got no answer. Gave the dog water and fed him and he looked fine, if a bit sad. The second day, finally got through to his owner. The owner had been out of town and realized the dog had managed to get out of his fenced yard and was clearly worried when he come home and find his friend missing. So I give the guy my address - and an hour later a truck pulls up at my house.
At the sound of the truck, the dog leaps up and RUNS to the window his tail wagging. The owner gets out of his car - I open the front door and the dog LEAPS out and beelines toward his master. They embrace and obviously both the owner and the dog are overjoyed to be reunited. The owner comes over to shake my hand and thank me. Offers money, but as dog people know, this is NOT a money thing.
Then the thing I'll never forget happens...
The guy and dog walk back to the truck, the owner opens the passenger door. The dog crouches to jump up. Then stops cold.
The dog looks directly back at me. Then at his master like for permission. Then the dog sprints back across the lawn to me. I kneel down to give him a goodbye scratch on the head. The dog literally plants a kiss on my face. (lick to you non dog-people)
Then spins and runs back to his owners truck to resume his life.
One of my favorite memories.
#11
We used to have a retired racing greyhound and a jack russell terrier. They were great friends and played together really well. The greyhound liked to bark, though, so we got him one of the anti-bark collars that sprays citronella.
So the greyhound wears the collar for a few days and realizes that when he barks, he gets sprayed, and he doesn't like it. He stops barking so much.
The JRT learns this, too, and since he was pretty small he could run under the greyhound. The JRT would run up to the greyhound's neck, bark at the collar so it would spray the greyhound's face, and then run off. I like to imagine the JRT cackling with glee as he runs off and the greyhound has a face full of citronella.
#12
My golden was terrified of lightning. If we were not home then if he was indoors he would destroy door frames to get out and if outside he would run away to a friendly neighbors house. When he ran away he would take his dog bowl so they could feed him.
#13
Till recently we had two dogs. One was a shiba inu mix female, the other a yorkie-poo male. We just had to have the shiba inu put down three weeks ago, she was 14 years old and when the cold weather hit her arthritis became so bad she could no longer get up from laying down without our help. In the days before we took her in, the yorkie-poo would not leave her side, wherever she was, he would be also. When we would give him a treat, he'd take one to her and give it to her, then come back and get one for himself. I was really amazed because up until this point he had always been a little selfish jerk and try to steal her treats and such.
Now, after the shiba inu is gone, he still takes a treat to her bed, places it there and then come back for another one. We left the treats there for two days just to see if he would eat them and he wouldn't. It was like he was trying to lure her back with treats. That little stock has skyrocketed during this whole ordeal.
#14
While trying to teach my cat to sit and wait for dinner, my dog would push her bum down with her paw.
#15
Our cat was sick last summer and he needed medicine administered via syringe in the mouth. My wife is a former vet tech and animal control officer so she knows how to handle a cat. He jumped up on the kitchen counter thinking he was going to get a treat. She did some weird over arm hug-grab-thing and held him in place. She got the syringe, put it in his mouth, pushed in the plunger, and he swallowed it. He didn't run off. He sat there for a moment swallowing and sticking his tongue out. He obviously didn't like the experience. Once he regained composure, he gingerly put his paws up on my wifes chest as if he was going to nuzzle his face on hers, like he often does. He stared at her for about 10 seconds and then BAM! Slapped her once across the face. No claws. Just a bare paw slap. One. He then gingerly sat back down and started licking his bum. If he could talk, his exact words would have been, "Don't you ever do that again. I'm serious."
The next day... it happened the exact same way, except he got three slaps in.
After that she made me hold him.
#16
This will get so so lost, but here goes:
Back when I was 14, we got 2 pedigree Japanese Akita pups. We knew they were going to be fairly big dogs, but boy we did not expect what we got. At 1 year old, they both weighed around 12 stone (168lbs), and both got to about 16.5 stone (230lbs) - walkies were so much fun when you were 16 and had your own personal dog army. Anyway, when they were about 3 years old, they both took a lot of interest in my mother, or more specifically, her belly. They would try lick it, nuzzle it, etc. Sure enough, about a month after they started doing this, she realised she was pregnant with my little brother. She started showing, and this confused the dogs more, so they wouldn't leave her alone, just in case. Now these were very friendly dogs, didn't look it, but very friendly. When my mother was about 8 months gone, nobody was allowed near her. They would sit either side of her, and get very angry very quickly if they didn't approve of your presence.
Mum gave birth to little Jack, everyone very happy! Dogs couldn't really be around him at first, a 10 lb baby with 460 lb of dogs... you get the idea. Jack got a little older and started crawling, which Alfie and Charlie did not approve of. Alfie (the bigger of the two) decided that when Jack had crawled far enough, he'd go over, pick him up as if he were a puppy , bring him back to Charlie, set him down and sit back in the exact same space, watching him. Jack turned 1, mum got pregnant again. Charlie sat with mum, Alfie sat with Jack. Always. Wherever they were in the house, the respective dog was too. One day, mum and Jack were in the garden, and a rogue crisp packet (chips wrapper? I dunno) blew into said garden. That day, was the scariest day of my life up to that point. I thought they had ripped someone apart. The fiercest imaginable reaction, the loudest poo I'd heard. Came sprinting outside with a kitchen knife hoping I wouldn't need it for what I thought I would... and bits of the shed were EVERYWHERE. The crisp packet blew behind the shed, and they tore into the shed.
tl;dr - almost 500lb of giant dogs saved mother, foetus and baby from errant crisp packet.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 hours ago
Nope, Japanese Akitas are not that large. Saw a pic of the dogs on OP's comment - they were American Akitas, not Japanese Akitas XD
#17
My parents have a lab and a boxer. The lab is the "mother" of the two, and the boxer is a little bit clumsy and skittish so the lab is always looking out for her.
One day the boxer fell into the pool at my parents house, which she had never been in because she was scared of it. The lab, on the other hand, would voluntarily jump in any time you let her in the backyard (she actually has a pool float that she likes to climb up on and lay in the sun while floating around, it's hysterical) -- so when she saw her sister flailing in the deep end, she just dove in and swam over. She grabbed the boxer's collar in her teeth and pulled her over to the steps.
The boxer ran and hid for the rest of the day, and the lab got extra treats and free run of the pool for the afternoon in exchange for saving her sister.
#18
I lived alone with my dog. One day I was in the kitchen and heard a loud noise in the other room. I went to investigate and found that "somebody" had knocked a lamp over, and it couldn't have been my dog because she was on her bed pretending to be asleep.
#19
My parrot told me a joke the other day. He said, "Where's poo?"
I said, "I dunno ... where?"
"Your shoulder."
#20
Once me and my mother were watching a talk show and the topic was pet intelligence. So the lady on the show was saying in order to determine how intelligent your pet was you needed to throw a towel on its head and count how long it took for them to get it off. So I had a doberman/ rottweiler mix (she was huge 150~lbs). I took a towel and threw it on her head, but she just stood there, then rolled on the floor and went to sleep with it on her head.
My second story is about my manx cat. She is a sly jerk with vengeance in her heart. So one day I was walking into the next room and accidentally kicked her, I then pleaded for her forgiveness knowing that she would end me. Then She looked up at me with hatred in her eyes and just walked away. I kid you not like 10 hours later, she got revenge. I was just standing there and out of nowhere she leaps out of the darkness and wraps herself around my leg and attacked the hell out of me.
#21
Sometimes I'll throw a treat on the ground next to my dog, but he won't see it. So, I'll point it out, but instead of looking in the direction I'm pointing, he'll just sniff the tip of my finger. On the other hand, he is smart enough to know that if he acts like he's about to throw up, he gets to go outside.
#22
My younger dog tricks the older one into giving him whatever toy/bed she's on by pretending there's something outside. He'll bark and then run outside and she'll follow and then he'll come running back inside and take whatever she left.
He might be a little too smart for his own good.
#23
My dog recognizes landmarks/scenery when we are driving anywhere. He bases his reactions on where he knows we are headed. My mother's house? Pure excitement. The dog park? Extreme happiness. The vet's office? Trepidation. My brother's house? Fear.
#24
My cat used to ride with us in our vehicles. Once my truck broke down, my mom gave me a ride to work and we brought Sam along with us. My mom later told me that on her drive back home, he wouldn't stop meowing and tapping her arm As soon as they got home he ran to the litter box to poo. Ever since then, he runs and uses the litter box when we ask him if he wants to go with us. Lesson learned.
#25
$1200 worth of vet bills later i learned my cat limps heavily when she wants attention. Yep, my cat figured out that while i can ignore the meowing cat, the limping get get sympathy.
#26
My cat is a rescue. The shelter found him under a tree at two weeks old, half starved to death. As a result, he's mildly psychotic about food.
As a kitten, he was precocious, but manageable. As he got older, things started getting... Ridiculous. I would come home and the kitchen cabinets had been opened up, cereal boxes upended and ripped apart and scattered everywhere. Boxes of uncooked pasta, loaves of bread, and his absolute favorite.. Bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos ripped out of the top cabinet and devoured. He's pure white, so when he would come greet me at the door with red powder all over his face and paws, I knew.
I started velcroing the cabinet doors. He worked on them and worked on them until he was able to open them. His food was originally kept in the kitchen too, and he ended up eating a whole bag in a day and getting sick everywhere, so I started devising better places to hide it.
We had a folding closet door and I thought, that'll work. Put the food in the closet. Sat down to surf the web and heard a curious, insistant rattling sound. I glance down the hallway, and there is my cat, feeling for the HINGE on the folding door. He tests it close to the middle, feels it give, moves his paw over, feels it give a little more, and yanks. Bam. Folding door opens. I just sat there and watched, slack jawed, as he climbed up the two shelves and started shoving the bag off. Clever boy...
He is my baby, though. I love him and I've raised him from 6 weeks old to the manic 3 year old he is today. He's just a little special, is all.
P.S. He really loves to nurse on blankets and ends up getting so into it, he humps the air. He came on my mom, once. Awkward.
#27
I gave my dog a biscuit and he managed to get a piece caught in between his cheek and his teeth so he couldn't swallow it.
Called him over, told him to relax, and he let me be a doggy dentist. He immediately started bouncing around after I fixed it for him. Just knowing that he could understand me and trust me that much is pretty indicative of intelligence, I think.
#28
From the "lack thereof" category: I had a cat (Lex) who was absolutely apeshit about McDonalds Chicken McNuggets. Thought they were just the best thing humans had ever invented. One day I come home with some nuggets, toss one on the floor for Lex.
Lex walks over to it, starts to lick it and -*zoom!*- in swoops my other cat, Millie, who starts eating it. Lex looks at Millie eating his nugget. Lex is sad. I throw a second nugget about ten feet away from the first. Lex goes over to the second nugget, starts to lick it when -*zoom!*- in swoops Millie again, and she starts eating the second nugget.
Lex looks at Millie eating his nugget. Lex is sad.
Lex isn't very **bright**, though, because he can't figure out that **Millie can't be in two f*****g places at the same time**. So I have to pix Lex up and put him back on top of the *first* nugget so he can eat that.
Dumb as a bag of hammers, that cat.
#29
My bearded dragon, Glint, is smart enough to know that when I get home I'm probably going to feed her, so when she sees me walk into my room after work she runs over and perches on the edge of her food dish.
She's also dumb enough to not understand why pooping in said dish is a bad idea.
#30
My dog, shortly after I brought him to his forever home, disappeared for three days. I found him stuck *IN A TREE* in my back yard. No idea how he got up there
On the other hand, he does a lot of very intelligent things. Never needs a leash, he just listens to me, though I've never trained him. Wait for mama, stop, go inside, come here, out of the way, etc. Mother fricker has shown up at my then-boyfriends house, 7 miles away, where he has never been before, two times after I left him home and went to spend the night. I've locked him up and gone to the library only to find him sitting on the libraries porch when I was heading home. S**t like that, all the time.
TL;DR my dog isn't stupid, just does stupid things.
#31
My dog Deuce was one of the most prank loving dogs in the world. We would s***w with one another on regular occasion but this was one of my favorite interactions.
I had gotten back from Whole Foods and had one of those small paper bags and I was thinking "I've never really seen anyone pop one of these like in a cartoon to scare someone." So rather than wait for the opportunity to do it to a person, I walked over to where Deuce was sleeping and popped it right next to him. He jumped up and looked about as startled as you'd expect, looking all around for the source before he focused on me cracking up. He stared me down for a second, then laid back down and went to sleep.
Cut to that night when I'm sleeping in bed. I woke up to him breathing directly into my face. He had walked around and laid his head on the bed so that it was right in mine. I came to and managed to get out "What are you-" before he licked completely up my face, inside my mouth and as I gagged he went running back around to his bed where he laid down and pretended to be asleep. He curled up faced away from and refused to move no matter what I said to him, but as I was brushing my teeth and I told him I was going to get him back his tail would thump and wag.
#32
One fall evening I was walking my 6yo Golden Retriever when she suddenly broke her reins to play with some children across the street. As she was approaching a busy intersection I yelled at the top of my lungs, "Stop!" And then she proceeded to collaborate and listen.
#33
I used to go play in the woods by my house as a kid and sometimes I'd get lost and not be able to find my way back. My dog always came with me so I'd look at her and order her to go home. She'd look really sad 'cause she'd think she did something wrong. Then she'd slink straight back to the house and I'd follow her. She ALWAYS knew exactly which way to go.
Daya 15 minutes ago
Our girl is a living route guidance system. Wherever we had been once, she knows where to go. The next day or the next year, it doesn't matter. So if I am not sure where to go, next I ask her to show me the way. The only thing I need to do is following her and soon I will know where to go.
#34
My dog has 3 legs. While going down the stairs, she leans on the wall for support.
#35
I thought my dog to ring a bell to go outside and pee. Soon he learned to ring the bell and pretend he had to go pee to just go outside. He would even pretend to pee (squat down and turn his head to make sure im looking)...
oh the other hand, when he farts he would turn viciously around to find the source....
I am a very proud parent.
#36
My cat likes to play fetch. I'll throw a hair tie and she'll run after it and bring it back.
When I'm sleeping sometimes she'll bring a hair tie over and drop it on my face so I can throw it for her. So cute but annoying.
#37
I have a 4mo puppy named Nuba. He doesn't exactly like the outside so I will take him out and if I didn't let him in when he wanted to come in he would slam his little 3lb body into the door, look at me, and cry. The problem was that the door was open and he thought I needed to be with him to go inside.
Nuba also looks for monsters for me. Each night before bed he runs around the inside of the house, searching corners and reports back to me. He sits and lifts his chin to me and barks a small squeaky bark and leaves. So dang cute.
On the other hand he taught himself "cozy mode" which is when he grabs his stuffed animal and his towel that he sleeps with, puts them in his chair(we gave him a little round chair to hide under in the laundry room) then jumps in it and snuggles. He's really short so it takes a few jumps but he is a brave little monster!
#38
My cat woke me late one night. It wouldn't shut up and eventually dropped enough things to wake me. I got up gave it food and realized a burning smell. My fan had stopped working and the motor was burning the plastic or something. Unplugged it and took it out of the room and went back to sleep. Still not sure if my cat was just hungry or could smell the burning motor.
Phantom Phoenix 31 minutes ago
Really OP? You can't figure that out? Your cat saved your life, Moron. It's owed servitude and all the treats for the rest of its life
#39
I used to live in an apartment building where 6-8 apartments shared a common door with a central hallway/stairwell. On each landing there were doors to two apartments. The building had multiple doors like this, so the whole building had at least 24 apartments.
Anyway, one time my cat got out by escaping my apartment's door, down a few flights, and out the front door which had been propped open. He came back by climbing the outside of the building and getting onto my balcony. I saw him out there through the sliding glass door and was stunned.
First off, I didn't know he could shimmy his way up the concrete blocks, but more incredible to me was his ability to spatially figure out which balcony was mine in a building that was just row after row of identical balconies. I mean, I'd gone back there myself before, and failed to pick out the correct one; I'd see the one I was sure was mine and then be all "Oh, no, wait, that's not my grill.".
#40
As I'm typing this, my parakeet is violently attacking my left hand. It has started to challenge me all the time, because it wants to take my place in the hierarchy in my home. It bites me all the time, but when my brother is having him (my parakeet feels like it's above him), he wont bite at all.
This has been going on for about a month now!
#41
When my dog was younger, he would eat anything he found on the ground: undies, cigarette butts, rocks, etc. So understandably he also would throw up all the time. I lived on the top floor of an apt building, and couldn't always get him down three flights of stairs quickly enough, so I would just put him in our bathtub because it was easier to clean up than the carpet. This became my barometer for how he was feeling--since he started just going and getting in the bathtub by himself when he was going to puke. I'm sure the vet techs thought I was nuts when I would tell them, "he's been feeling very nauseated."
He still goes and gets in the bathtub when he's not feeling well (even though he finally stopped eating everything).
#42
When I was a young boy our dog and I used to rough house all the time. I would try and pin him to the ground and he would try and get out. And he would try and pin me in return. When i would walk around outside he bump into me to indicate that he wanted to play. However when my sister with Downs Syndrome was born he behaved totally differently. He lay next to her and be a back rest, and return her toy toys that got thrown away. When she was starting to learn to walk he stand next to her to giver her something to balance on. I thought his ability to recognize what different family members wanted was incredible.
#43
OK, this is when I was quite young....
I was with my family, visiting some friends in America. We were staying at their house and I had a stuffed animal of some sort amongst all my clothes / bags etc. The family's dog took a keen interest in the stuffed animal. The dog had his own batch of stuffed animals downstairs.
One day, we were out sight seeing, and when we came back, I noticed that I had a random old stuffed bear in my travel bag, which was in my room upstairs. I asked one of them about it, and they said it was the dog's..... So, we went downstairs to where the dog lived, and in his small pile of stuffed animals was mine! (it had actually tried to be hidden in the corner / under other stuffed animals)... The dog's just sitting in the room looking suspicious as hoping that we wouldn't notice.
Turns out that when we were away, he grabbed an animal he didn't like, and replaced it with mine, hoping that I didn't notice. I thought that was very smart.
#44
My cat understands when i tell my dog its 'walkies' time, and he comes along for the walk. that is pretty cool. but i've saved the best for last, about a year ago, my mum was alone in the house with the dog and went hypo [she's diabetic] and she couldn't get up off the sofa, my dog brought her a bar of chocolate from the fridge and gave it to her which she ate and it helped her blood sugar level. never the less my dog got alot of treats that day.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 hours ago
The dog opened the fridge and just happened to choose a chocolate bar? Wonder if the dog was trained to open the fridge - otherwise that's a bit far-fetched.
#45
Yeah I have one story of remarkable dog intelligence that was actually the reason I began to like and respect dogs (I grew up with a Cat). It was my ex-girlfriends dog, a hungarian-viszla, at her place, in the dogs small but ample backyard.
I was on my own, standing at the back of the grass area on my day off having a billy. The dog got locked outside everyday while everyone was at work etc, and today she seemed pretty interested in suddenly having company in her domain. But I wasn't engaging with the dog, I didn't understand them or have much interest in them. I was just smoking away admiring the sky and such things. Then out of nowhere, she gets up and takes a flying leap at the clothesline, expertly removing a single white sock. I'm already in the middle of a w*f moment, thinking it was pretty random and skillful, but then she brings it over and places it about 3 feet in front of me on the grass then moves backwards roughly the same distance and lies down in front of it, looking straight at me.
I just stood there thinking, this is weird but whatever. She waits a few minutes, then she pounces on the sock and bolts, I mean she ran faster than i've ever seen her move, there was hardly anywhere to run in this yard, but clearly she spent everyday there and she had this path mapped out and just dissappeared behind the bushes and came out entirely somewhere else.
In a flash she'd circled the yard twice and returned to me, carefully placed the sock in front of me, backed away and crouched. Now i'm completely flipped out, I see what's happening, she just showed me how to play the game, she want's me to try and take the sock. So I tried.. and got completely owned. As soon as I lunged forward to grab it she took it and was gone, like a brown blur of super dog around the yard, something out of a cartoon. I was laughing my bum off by this point, I really wanted to get that sock. I had been sucked into her game, I suddenly realised the intelligence of this dog, I couldn't believe she had the thinking processes to invent a game using a prop off the washing line and give me a tutorial in how to play it, whilst at the same time baiting me into wanting to play it with her.
**TLDR** Girlfriends dog who i'd previously ignored turns out to be a mastermind of gameplay.
#46
This is from my boyfriend's parents:
Their dog was trying to get a toy off of the counter where he couldn't reach it and, after some time of jumping and whining, he eventually walked away in what looked like defeat.
Instead he goes to find the cat. He barks at the cat a few times, so the cat stands up and follows the dog to the room with the toy. They stop in front of the counter, the cat meows at the dog, the dog barks at the cat, the cat jumps up onto the counter and knocks the toy onto the floor. The dog is ecstatic and jumps around with the toy while the cat just saunters off back to his bed.
*They're communicating*.
#47
My cat will fall asleep next to me and while he's sleeping, he'll fart, then after he farts he wakes up and freaks out and ends up falling off my bed.
Then 30 seconds later he'll do it again.
#48
Whenever my 4-month old cries, both my cat and my dog will come running to make sure he is ok. The cat will also watch me while I'm bathing him, but I don't know if she is watching me to make sure I'm taking care of him or if she is waiting for me to turn my back so that she can drown him...
#49
My cat meows constantly and runs to his food bowl until I eventually get up to give him breakfast. By the time I get back to bed, he's fast asleep where I was just lying. What a jerk.
#50
We were having tea one evening, and one of our cats decided to jump up on my dad's lap and start sniffing at his plate. Obviously, dad put him back down on the floor. He tried jumping up again a few times with the same result.
Finally, he walked to the other side of the room and jumped up on the worktop, which he knows he's not allowed to do so dad got up from the table to go and get him down. Before he gets there, the cat jumps off the worktop and sprints to jump on my dads chair before he gets back, then puts his paws on the table and starts eating my dad's food.
#51
I don't understand why cats and dogs don't watch more TV. Obviously they aren't going to be able to follow the plot or internalize what's happening on the screen, but just in terms of raw stimulus - how is the TV not more exciting than the wall? Just starin at the wall when the TV is on right in front of them. WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE WALL??????????
Daya 1 minute ago
I don't know about cats. Dogs can not see a movie on a TV like we so because of the shutter frequency. Although some dogs seem to enjoy looking at a TV, most of them just see a confusing coloured picture. Maybe the wallpaper is the better alternative then. Sometimes there are flies and spiders crawling around!
#52
My cat walked around randomly sniffing and licking the floor last night. Not in any particular path or pattern. Just walking around and licking. She also sits 1 foot from the wall, stares at it, and meows for long periods of time. She's not very bright. :/.
Stephanie Did It 3 hours ago
There's a Reddit sub that shows cats chasing those little invisible somethings (greebles) that make us wonder what they're so excited about. Check out r/greebles.
#53
My dog also falls prey to the old enemy of the house cat, the laser-dot. this leads to fights over who gets to eat the photons. He will also attck himself if they light is on him, so we have to be careful, because if the light touches him he will either ravage himself or the cat(s) will.
#54
My dog (Yorkshire Terrier) was a scaredy-cat. Any time there was thunder, a loud car, or one time even a strange shadow passing over the house, she'd run to a little corner in the kitchen and into a crawlspace underneath the cupboards. She would then promptly shake for an hour and need help getting out because she would ALWAYS get stuck.
#55
I used a laser pointer to play with my dog. I put the laser on a wall and she ran into it.
Twice.
#56
I was on the couch working on a paper when my cat kept rubbing against me and standing on my laptop. I didn't want to be mean so I picked him up and set him down on the ground next to my opened soda can. The jerk then looks me dead in the eye, walks over to my soda can, and sneezes in it. Then he walked off in the other direction head in the air proud of himself.
I tried to get him back but ended up embarrassing myself. I waited until he walked into the kitchen where his food bowl is and I crouched down and attempted a sneeze into his food. My mom walked in and I had no words to explain. Then, he smugly walked to the food bowl, ate a few bites, then walked off high and mighty just like before. TJ-2, Me-0.
#57
I fake throwing stuff at my dog, he is the only one of all the dogs I had that doesn't fall for this trick.
#58
My dad locked himself out of the house, and my dog let him back in. Presumably after evilly cackling and plotting his little doggy schemes.
We have a round knob. We have no idea how he managed to turn it.
He does it all the time now, though. Always forgets to close the door behind him, though.
Geoffrey Scott 44 minutes ago
Our cat figured out if she sat on the armrest of the bench between the front door and bedroom door, and r-e-a-c-h-e-d out, she could open the bedroom door by turning the knoob.
#59
My Mainecoon cat who lived to be 14, would hop up in bed and hold his nose under mine whenever I was sick, and then cuddle with me. It took me a few times to realize he was checking my temperature. I then realized animals really care about their humans and he was welcome to sit with me on any furniture and slept on the corner of my bed for the rest of his life, until I moved to SC, where I unfortunately could not bring him with me, but my dad could take more than enough care of him. :( he died a week after I left....
#60
My pup!
When she was just a puppy, my friend used a laser pointer & she went crazy trying to chase it. When ever he comes over every time, for the past 8 years, my pup looks at the ground expecting the laser. (it had only been that one time he had used the laser pointer in her presence).
#61
My Grandparents had an old poodle that figured out the he could push the rolling chairs across the kitchen and use them to get on the counter and steal food. He also seemed to know when my Grandmother left work to head home, he would get very nervous and start pacing the large window over looking the back yard/driveway. And know it wasn't just timing she worked odd hours and had no set schedule, anytime between 4-7 pm he would start pacing and I knew she was ~20 minutes away.
#62
My boyfriend's dog is crazy smart. Last year, he stole the Christmas present labeled for him from under the tree. We thought he just found it by smell (it was stuffed animal; his favorite thing to shred), but there were two other similar toys wrapped for the other two dogs under the same tree. He only stole and opened the one with his name on it.
Also, if you go to give him a treat and don't give him a command for a trick fast enough, he will just go through his entire repertoire of tricks. Over and over.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 hours ago
Cute, but coinkydink XD If OP's dog could read, the world would have heard about him. (The dog, that is.)
#63
My kitten went into the unfinished part of our house and started mewing. so i called him and he ran back in, looked at me, ran back out, and started mewing again. so, thinking my cat was lassie, i went out and walked around trying to find him but he jumped out from behind a box and pounced on me. he totally lured me out there just to jump me. my cat is a pedofile.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 hours ago
That word, I do not think it means what you think it means, OP XD
#64
When my cat was still alive he would do this thing where if he wanted to leave my room he would just sit by my door waiting for me to turn around and see him, he didn't meow ever, he just waited. If for whatever reason (Reddit) I didn't see that he was sitting there he would come up onto my bed, since it is right next to my desk, and start slowly sliding things off my desk with one paw while staring at me. If I still ignored him he would move to larger, more important, objects like my phone.. the TV remote.. my glasses.. most of the time I would ignore him just to see how far he would take it but the coup de grace was my drink. He would start batting the side of the drink softly, not enough to knock it over but enough to see it move an inch or two.. that was when I had to put a stop to it and let him out. He won that battle every time because if he ran out of things to knock on the floor he would just get on the desk, sit on my keyboard and stare at me with what I can only describe as a look of "come on, guy." I miss that cat, he was pretty sharp.
#65
Our Irish Setter used to go to a nearby lake and fish out freshwater clams. The surprising part was that he would race home, climb on the roof of the car with the clam, drop it from there onto the concrete carport to claim his squishy treat. Not rocket science, but a fine practical use of gravity.
#66
Our rottweiler used to play fetch with us by robbing the overenthusiastic bird dog as she brought the ball back. He would also become angry with the younger dogs for doing things like begging and putting their feet on furniture before we could even notice it. If the offender was a puppy he would often bring it a toy to distract it from the offending behavior (not the best long term plan, but we think he just hated it when we scolded any of the dogs).
#67
Not terribly impressive, but my puppy will go find a toy if you tell him to. If you say something like "go get Blue Dog!" He'll look at you, glance around the room, then trot off to find his toy.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 2 hours ago
I've trained my Belgian Malinois, Fenring, to differentiate between about 5 of his favorite toys by "name" (terms I've named them, not like "Fred" or "Kevin", lol) and I'm working on increasing his named-toy ID repertoire XD
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Janissary35680 3 hours ago
The smartest dog I ever had bar none was Urger, an Anatolian shepherd. Many stories to tell but the most amazing was when our other dog at the time, Kanyak (GSDxDobe), suddenly dashed off when I took the two out for their morning walk. I tried to put Urger back in the yard so I could go after him but Urger wasn’t having it. He moved away in the same direction and kept moving as I approached, remaining within sight but just out of earshot so he could plausibly deny he couldn’t hear me. We reached a fork in the road and Urger was sitting there waiting for me. ...
Janissary35680 3 hours ago
… At the same instant, I caught a glimpse of Kanyak racing ahead and only then it dawned on me that Urger was leading me to him. I followed. At one point Urger stopped. Waited until he was sure I could see him. Then turned off the road up a hill. I followed him up the hill. From the top of the ridge I could see a ravine below and a farmhouse surrounded by a fence. Trying to get through the fence was Kanyak. On the other side of the fence was a bıtch of some sort that was trying to get to Kanyak. I realized she must be in or close to heat and Kanyak had caught the scent that morning. Our house was at least a mile away.
Load More Replies... Geoffrey Scott 7 minutes ago
Years ago, I was pedaling the trail, and I saw a 3yo and a yellow lab in the middle of the path. I slowed down and waited, as I didn't want to trigger the dogs 'protection' instinct and heard a yell and looked across the road to a woman running around the yard frantically. I whistled, and she looked and saw me pointing ahead, where she saw her child. She came across and thanked me for alerting her. "You REALLY need to give that dog some love for his staying by and protecting the kid". Could've sworn the dog smiled at me before it followed the owner across the road.
Rika 1 hour ago
My friend's dog loved beer and figured out that walking by and *accidentally* knocking down a can with her tail meant humans would let her drink it all off the floor as opposed to just pouring a little for her. (She never had health issues and actually lived several years longer than average for that breed. Vets said she was indeed a special case.)
Janissary35680 3 hours ago
The smartest dog I ever had bar none was Urger, an Anatolian shepherd. Many stories to tell but the most amazing was when our other dog at the time, Kanyak (GSDxDobe), suddenly dashed off when I took the two out for their morning walk. I tried to put Urger back in the yard so I could go after him but Urger wasn’t having it. He moved away in the same direction and kept moving as I approached, remaining within sight but just out of earshot so he could plausibly deny he couldn’t hear me. We reached a fork in the road and Urger was sitting there waiting for me. ...
Janissary35680 3 hours ago
… At the same instant, I caught a glimpse of Kanyak racing ahead and only then it dawned on me that Urger was leading me to him. I followed. At one point Urger stopped. Waited until he was sure I could see him. Then turned off the road up a hill. I followed him up the hill. From the top of the ridge I could see a ravine below and a farmhouse surrounded by a fence. Trying to get through the fence was Kanyak. On the other side of the fence was a bıtch of some sort that was trying to get to Kanyak. I realized she must be in or close to heat and Kanyak had caught the scent that morning. Our house was at least a mile away.
Load More Replies... Geoffrey Scott 7 minutes ago
Years ago, I was pedaling the trail, and I saw a 3yo and a yellow lab in the middle of the path. I slowed down and waited, as I didn't want to trigger the dogs 'protection' instinct and heard a yell and looked across the road to a woman running around the yard frantically. I whistled, and she looked and saw me pointing ahead, where she saw her child. She came across and thanked me for alerting her. "You REALLY need to give that dog some love for his staying by and protecting the kid". Could've sworn the dog smiled at me before it followed the owner across the road.
Rika 1 hour ago
My friend's dog loved beer and figured out that walking by and *accidentally* knocking down a can with her tail meant humans would let her drink it all off the floor as opposed to just pouring a little for her. (She never had health issues and actually lived several years longer than average for that breed. Vets said she was indeed a special case.)
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