smartest dog you ever had

[bullhead44]

what was yours and why? Another post got me thinking about a dog I had years ago. She could learn to do almost anything. Every day when I would come home from work, we would play in the yard for a few minutes. When I sat on the recliner, she would bring me the remote control, pull my socks off and lay them by the chair, then open the fridge and get me a beer. One day I went outside, and she was digging in the neighbors flower bed. I started scolding her and yelling at her to get home, but the neighbor said to let her go. Turns out, he was digging holes for some new plants and she saw him and went to help. She would dig wherever he pointed. She was a border collie / red healer mix we got while in college from a professor at Tarleton who gave her to us because she was mixed breed. She got sick one night and died the next day before we could get her to the vet. Turns out she was diabetic.

[Playa]

A GSP that I have been dragging my feet to put down, she is about 15 now. She was a rescue dog that i found in a Walmart parking lot. When i found her she was gun and man shy, had been mistreated. We shared a cheeseburger and have been best friends since.

She learned to hold pheasant, running blue quail and covey's of bob's. She was great at sneaking into cover, rather than busting through it. Later when i started waterfowl hunting she figured that game out as well and would use her nose to locate downed birds, track the winged and anticpate where diving birds would resurface.

She got hit by a car and lost half of her right back foot, she just adjusted and adpated her running gate to keep on hunting.

The funniest/smart thing she ever did was learn to scratch her back on my Christmas tree. I walked in one evening to ornaments with bells jingling. She was in a trans going back and forth letting the pine needles run across her spine!

My Draht is a close second and truthfully is "smarter", but she's hard headed and less biddable so the GSP edges her out on sheer will to please.

[jerp]

This is Abby, a Gordon Setter/who-knows-what mix we got from the shelter. Great personality and the smartest dog I've ever had. Escape artist extraordinaire. She defeated all my escape control measures including spools of concertina wire and guard towers. We finally gave up and let her stay in the house. She seems to know what I am thinking and stays one step ahead of me too the point it's kinda creepy. Another thing I have not been able to figure out is how she knows what day it is - or at least she knows when it's Sunday. Every morning of the week I let them out of the utility room where they sleep and they make a beeline for the backdoor to go pee. Except on Sunday, the day I take them to a nearby lake and let them run. On Sunday as soon as I open the utility room door she goes to the door leading to the garage and sits there all excited and wagging her tail.

[txpitdog]

Had a Jack Russell in college that was very smart. We taught her all kinds of stuff, speak, whisper, the other usual dog tricks. She seemed to "get it" as far as being trained.

My blue Lacy though has been the most fiercely loyal dog I've had about minding and wanting to learn. She wants to do things the right way every time. Very very focused and only wants to please. I don't worry at all about her being off leash, because if I say heel she will stop what she's doing and high tail it back to me. She also continually makes eye contact so that she doesn't miss a command. These lacys are more than a little on the turbo side, but dang if they aren't my favorite dogs I've ever had.

Our American Bulldog on the other hand is dumb as a brick, but probably the most gentle dog I've ever been around

[stinkbelly]

Izzy, my Deutsch Drahthaar, is by far the smartest dog I have had. I taught her how to learn and since then she has always been able to do anything I need her to do. It is almost like she can understand what I am saying. When we are hunting, she knows exactly what I need her to do even before I know it.

[76aggie]

My first Lab was a black lab female named Booty. She was the best duck dog I have ever seen or hunted with. Early in her life, she learned to pick up wounded ducks first and save the dead ones for last. She learned to pick up two big ducks at once and could bring in three teal at one time. She figured that out on her own. I always think of what she could have done if she had a professional trainer. I trained her and I am certainly no professional. She was just a natural born hunter with great instincts and a will to please.

[DaveS903]

We had an Aussie Shepard mix named Grizzy who was a dog genius. She just kind of came walking up one day and decided she was going to live with us. Her coat looked kind of like a road-kill possum. You could watch her and see her figure stuff out. One time, she dragged up a whole cow quarter. I figured it was best if I didn't ask her where it came from. I always told my wife if there was ever a nuclear war, we were following Grizzy.

[BrianL]

I got a pup off TBH a few months back, Assie/red healer mix. She is smart. Self crate trained, house broke, hunts, fetch, reasons, stops on command, and she is only 5 months old. When fetching with her and the border collie, she will let the border collie fetch it, then when the border get about 10 feet for me, she will grab it and bring it to me. Saves all the extra energy.

One other thing she does, the border plays pretty rough with her, but she will catch the border setting looking off, then run up full speed, launch sideways, body slam, then run under the lounge chair till the border no longer mad..... Funny as heck.

[bloodstick]

My wife owned a black lab (named Bear, of all names) who once ate a light bulb metal and all and then drank nearly a gallon of antifreeze. (Have no clue how she got the jug off the top shelf) Never even got sick.... But her pup Bo, he now has a lazy eye... Lol.

Smart? no
But tough as nails

[Mexico]

Cool stories guys! Thanks for sharing! Most of my dogs have been dumber than a box of nails except one...a black female lab named Sarah. I trained her myself and she was an amazing retriever. I never had to get off my butt while hunting....and most of the time she always saw the birds way before I ever did. I would usually just watch her, as she would lock on doves or ducks coming from way out before I ever saw em..man i miss that dog.

[Black_foot_]

Our 7 year old Border Collie who you would think is half his age. The energy that dog has is something else. Astro can speak, crawl, sit, shake, high-five, say please, roll over. He has a toy box with many different things in it. You can ask him to bring you the rope and he will bring it to you, or frisbee and he will bring it to you etc. We can tell him to go to bed and he goes and gets on his dog bed and goes to sleep LOL! Also, sometimes I ask him "who is here?" He will start huffing and puffing then proceed to check every window and door around the house, if no one is outside he will come back and at down. If someone is outside he will bark. We hung a bell on a string on our backdoor, when he needs to go outside he will reach up and smack the bell. When we take him to my MIL house I will ask him to "find the kitty" he will sniff that cat out and proceed to try and get her to play with him. He is the most loyal dog I have ever owned, total sweet heart as well. Just wants to play with every other animal. Protective of my wife around strangers but not aggressive either. He has so much personality as well, I swear he knows and understands me when I joke around and call him names LOL the look on his face. I will be an utter mess when he dies. My MIL had a border collie that lived to be 20 years old when she was a kid, I'm praying he makes it that long.

[DTala]

easy...Taz, my Belgian Malinois K-9 partner when I was a GW...



Taz prolly knew 70+ words in English, excelled in tracking (people and deer), evidence recovery, handler protection, bite work(criminal aprehension), drug detecting, game detecting, playing with kids.

I started to teach her the "fetch a beer from the fridge trick" , but I got scared she would go in there when I wasn't home and clean me out....

She had a sense of what I was fixing to tell her to do and would already be doing it as I thought it. Read me like a big letter book.

Wife and I were having a small argument one day in the bedroom. Wife is sitting on the toilet and I tell Taz to grab her pants leg and snatch her off the toilet..she has never heard this command before...Taz loooks at momma...momma says hail no...Taz snatches her five feet into the bedroom with one swipe. Momma hits butt first on the carpet. Mommas eyes are like saucers, I'm crying (and runnning), Taz follows. Sleeping in the truck ain't all that bad for on..er two nights.

[Beerkat]

Blue Heeler name Blue. We had Jedi mind communication. Coolest dog ever.

[hooligan]

My lab Kalani. He's 12 and starting to slow down and get achy joints but still the best and smartest dog I've ever had. Until about 2 years ago he used to go to work with me 2-3 days a week and either curl up somewhere or guard the truck. Most impressive is his work as a therapy dog. We used to go a couple times a month to the hospitals and seeing him go from a goofy hyper lab to a calm and quiet friend to people who were sick was awesome. He was the bright spot in a lot of people's days.

Gonna be a hard day when he leaves

[ren087]

Sasha

The smartest and by far the best dog I have ever had is Sasha, my current dog, a black Lab rescue. She picked up everything I taught her lightning quick and has a nose like no other.

A few things stand out...She never watches for dove, but when I shot, she knew to watch me and see if I got up. We would walk out and I would say fetch it up and she would find it. I was hunting with her the second season I had her and she was about 1 1/2 years old. Some idiots came up and parked right next to my buddy and I when there was whole field open. Drinking, shooting song birds, cranes, at anything that flew and over houses in the subdivision behind us. They actually shot a few dove that fell in a deep ditch behind us and didn't even bother to get up and look. They finally left and my buddy suggested we get Sasha to go look. I am thinking there is no way but we went over and I told her to fetch it up and in a few minutes, she came back with a dove in her mouth. I sent her back and after about 1/2 hour, we had all 3 dove they shot.

When I go camping, I toss whole peanuts in the shell in the tallest grass I can find and she has yet to come back without finding the peanut. A loyal companion and best friend and has been there for me over the years when I needed it most. She is far and away the best dog I have ever had. Will be hard to say goodbye to her. She and I will be at it again this weekend at WWA XI!!!

Oh...and she can sleep ANYWHERE!!!