Canine Intelligence

Dogs are amazing creatures. I am amazed at their intelligence sometimes. Not like they are geniuses or anything, but I’ve noticed recently how they communicate and what they understand.

For instance, when I get ready in the morning, the last thing I do before walking out of the bathroom is spray my perfume. Once I spray my perfume, both dogs run out of the bathroom into the living room. I also spray hairspray earlier in the routine, but neither one reacts to that.

When I flush the toilet, especially when I’m upstairs, usually I go downstairs because I’m done checking email. This is a cue to head toward the stairs. There are actually a couple of them for heading downstairs – if I turn on/off this little fan up here or if the computer “dings” like a program is closing, they understand that business upstairs is done.

I believe Rudy thinks that when I sit down on the couch and get comfortable it is her cue to want to either play or go outside, unless she desires love and affection, which will cause her to jump on the couch and lay down nearly on top of me so that I can pet her more easily.

They are also very in tuned to the time of day that it is. Miraculously, they both know when it’s about 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. Bradley starts wagging his tail, rather, he thumps it on the floor or the footboard of the bed and Rudy comes out from her under the bed “cave” and shakes and props herself up on the side of the bed so that I know, that she knows that it’s time to eat. And if I don’t look at her or notice that she’s up, she’ll do her little whining thing, which is really more of a whimper. If I say no, she’ll go back under the bed for another 30 – 45 minutes and wait patiently for me, OR if she’s feeling cuddly and she can see a spot on the bed where she can land safely, she’ll jump up, start kissing me and then crawl under the blankets and cuddle with me.

A similar thing happens around 4:00 p.m. (which is weird, I don’t feed them until 5:00). They both look at me like we’re ready to go for a walk, their tails start wagging, Rudy starts running back and forth like she just won the lottery and they look at me until I ask if they are hungry or want to eat.

It’s as if feeding time is their favorite time of day. It’s funny because when I ask if they want to go for a walk, you’d think that was their favorite time of day. And before I put the infant seat in the car, I would take them both to get ice cream (for me, not them) and now I can only take Rudy, but when I ask if they want to “go”, it’s like that is their favorite thing to do today. I guess they just like to be involved and get out of the house and eat. I do feel a little bad for them when they are stuck in the house all day. Rudy wants to go outside so bad, but it’s been too hot for them.

Oh yeah, and when I leave the house and tell them to "be good" it's like they completely understand that they are not coming with me. Rudy will not even make an attempt to go into the garage, which she normally does to sniff around the dog food.

I just looked at Bradley and asked "is it time?" and his ears perked up, tail started wagging and he flew down the stairs, knowing that I plan to feed him any minute now.