@simonharper
All animals are a story a minute if we're paying attention, aren't they?
Discussion
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Discussion
@elliek
Joni is so beautiful and intelligent! Thank you for sharing her with us.🐕💖
@GertrudeZane
It's our pleasure, I'm glad you enjoyed hearing of her antics!
Have a lovely Caturday, you and yours, my friend!
@elliek Perhaps Joni could be given dog-scale jobs that help with whatever you're doing. For instance, while vacuuming, tell her to pick up and put away all the shoes and dog toys that may be in your way (and seed the area beforehand, so there's something to put away). She's really saying, "You should let your smart, beautiful good girl help you with that!"
@log
Good idea!
I do tell her to put her blue ball in the bed so the vacuum doesn't get it. And she'll mostly do that, but I think she's irritated by the noise (aren't we all?). So she can't concentrate on a job fully while it's running.
@elliek
We have 2 Bichon brothers. 1 smart the other no so much. The smart one knows a lot of words and I think it’s because I’ll talk to them as if they understand. They always go outside and start barking, unless I tell them “no barking” before I let them out
@Nerde
Amazing creatures. How do they put up with us?
@elliek border collies are incredibly smart as a general rule. In this specific scenario, for example, she seems to have trained you! 😂 when she wants to play the blue ball game, all she has to do is bark non stop beside you.
@tatonka
They realise how stupid we are and that they have to shout to us to make us understand.
But if she'd wanted me to play the game in the first place why didn't she just hide it and bark? Maybe she thought I wasn't bright enough to get what she was trying to tell me.
@elliek I’m generalizing but dogs as a whole tend to be indirect communicators, especially with their favorite people. They can’t speak so they try roundabout ways. You may not have noticed she hid the ball. You seem to derive joy from noticing she responds to your words. Dogs can smell joy in you. She knows responding to you makes you happy, and that makes her happy. That means the game only starts when you call for it. We don’t deserve dogs, it’s a joy that they choose us, isn’t it?
@simonharper
All animals are a story a minute if we're paying attention, aren't they?
@elliek Border collies are terrifyingly smart (in my experience anyway). She's gorgeous.
@StaceyCornelius
You're right. I guess they have to be to do the job they were bred to do. In part they were expected to use their initiative when out of sight and hearing of the shepherd, when they saw a situation which needed a different behavior from the one they were sent out to perform. Amazing!
@elliek
I think they just face challenges in communicating how much they know to us... mostly because we rarely pay attention and give any real thought to the concept of "how would someone with no hands who can't talk, go about communicating with me..."
What you describe @ Ellie Kennard is really good. I know that border collies understand what we say better than any other breed of dog. Professionals can teach them to understand 350 words. But even without human support, they can learn 170 words. They are very intelligent animals.
Say hello to Joni for me.
@elliek lovely story ! Waaay more!
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