This thread has absolutely nothing to do with woodworking but I am just amazed about something that has happened with my dog recently.

The dog is a female part border collie and part blue healer and perhaps seven or eight years old, She was given to us by a family that had rescued her from an abusing situation when whe was about a year old.

Anyway, I feed her in the mornings and in the evenings I spend time with her and feed her dog treats, that's the high light of her day.

The only commands that she knows is sit, lay down, stay and come to me. When I take my walks she of coure goes with me. There is little to almost no traffic out here where we live so she is not on a leash. when we go for our walk and ranges off from me quite ofen doing what dogs do.

If an occasional car does come along and Kelah, that's the dog's name, is not close to me I just yell out "stay" and where ever she is she will sit and stay and until I tell her O.K. This gives me control that I need to protect her though she has never offered to chase a car.

Now I need to set the stage for what I'm going to tell you. In the evenngs when I give Kelah her treats she will take one and run off into the yard and eat it away form me unless for the occasional time that I ask her to to lay down first, which she quickly does. Or sit if I say sit. Well a couple of evenings ago for some reason I just whispered "lay down" and she instantly laid down. I was surprised that she could hear me. Then yesterday evening I tried an experiment and simply mourthed, the command she obeyed the same way as if I had actually said it. Later after giving another treat and she had taken it to the yard to eat it and had come back for another one, I mouthed the command "sit" and once again she immediately obeyed.

I tried it again this morning when I fed her. Once again she instatantly laid down when I mouthed he command to lay down.

I am simply amazed at this and wanted to share it with the forum.

Jerry B.

I'm not surprised as those dogs are incredibly smart. That's quite Amazing though and makes you wonder how much they interpret threw speech snd how much from gestures .
I seen one years ago that the owner couldn't keep in his truck as it had the power door locks and door handle figured out lol

It is amazing, when Kelah is laying out on the front lawn can tap on the window to get her attention and then just point to the right which is the direction she needs to go to go around to the back patio and away she goes with no hesitation, she does get a treat of couse but it just a hand gesture that she reads.

Jerry

My dog will do trigonometry if a treat is involved. The rest of the time she is dumb as a stump. Border Collies are razor sharp though.

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Well said Rick!

Nothing is more frustrating than a stupid dog and conversely very few things are more satisfying than an intelligent and cooperative dog. Many dogs are capable of having a large vocabulary - but synonyms are not how to win your pooch-over. As dog-trainers, we must be consistent. Dogs can learn synonyms, but certainly they don't begin as wordsmiths.

It is great to let dogs be dogs and to interact with other dogs, but it is also important for many dogs to be socialized with humans as needs dictate. Our marriage of 41 years has included ownership of only a handful of dogs: A homeless dog joined us when we were first married and we found her a good home - because we were in an apartment that didn't allow dogs or cats. Immediately after buying our first house, we purchased two female Brittany Spaniel puppies (one liver and white / one orange and white). The orange and white one we kept until age 12, at her age 6; we gave away the liver and white one to our veterinarian - so we could breed the orange and white one. We kept one male puppy and named him Rusty. Rusty was a cool dog and went with me everywhere. All he cared about was chasing the Frisbee. Rusty lived to be 8 and died of lung cancer. My wife and girls bought a female Golden Retriever and named her Margie - she grew to become a true family member in every way. She had a huge vocabulary and could perform amazing tasks. She lived to be 11 and died with liver cancer. We learned of a Boston Terrier which had been severely abused. She had been treated by our veterinarian for broken pelvis, both rear legs broken (3- separate incidents) and numerous kicked-out teeth. We adopted her and her name was and remained Molly. She had more "spunk" than all of our previous dogs together! Molly was euthanized in June of this year, due to arthritis reducing her ability to inhale enough to get proper oxygen. Sadly, we lost a very loving pet. On my birthday in August, we got a young Belgian Malinois. Little is known about him, but we went through all of the legal processes necessary to obtain ownership of him. By now, we've spent quite a bit on vet expenses - as he had been shot with bird-shot. Joy named him Jericho. He was skinny, covered with ticks and fleas and in need of immediate medical care (which we got for him), but I guarantee you he knows we came to his rescue and is appreciative of what was done for him. He is as quick as lightning. He has gained 13 pounds. He is very playful, but if someone were to bother my wife - they would quite likely lose an arm!

NASA uses Calculus to determine when a rocket will land on the moon and at exactly what time. Jericho uses Calculus to determine exactly where he will intercept squirrels in our back yard. We do not know his history, but one thing we have observed - he can catch squirrels with relative ease - and he eats them ENTIRELY.

Otis Guillebeau from Auburn, Georgia

I had a border collie that new when earthquakes were about to happen. Chois would run to a doorway standing on his hind legs with his paws on the doorway
Jk

Yep! Dogs are amazing aren't they? We had a dog in Viet Nam that ignored our outgoing artillery without a sound. If he started howling it meant we were about to receive incoming rocket or mortar fire. He was an uncanny canine early warning system.

they can read minds and tell time too...

Hey maybe Jerry's the real dog whisperer

Dogs communicate with each other by body posture and differing vocal tones. They are very adept at both vocal and hand signal commands, Yes it is extraordinary she read your silent communication. I wonder however if its lips or body posture being read.

I think in the 1930's there was a counting horse that when asked an addition problem would tap out the answer with its hoof. Scientists eventually proved the horse "knew" the answer because it read the trainers body tense as the answer was close