What's the one smartest thing your pet (nonhuman) understands?

[Onlooker]

When he can't find a piece of shrimp I toss across the room, I go over to the shrimp and point to it. He understands what I mean.

In case you're wondering, here's what this genius looks like:

[Modem Butterfly]

1. My Shar-pei can open the fridge

He'll saunter over to it, kind of move it with his paw, open the meat drawer with his mouth, and get himself a snack if I'm not careful. Little bastard can't figure out that tampons aren't toys, but knows how to make a damn sandwich.

My Chow knows how to ask for a walk. She'll put the leash in your lap and stare at you, performing Chow Chow mind tricks when I'm using the computer. "That's not the leisure activity you want,"

[Patiod]

32. chow chow mind tricks!

Kind of like Tabbycat Mind Tricks - "If I stare at her long enough, she'll wake up and give me wet food"

[Hugin]

2. My pooch has selective hearing...

It's only on when there's food involved.

[AlienGirl]

3. I have two amazing pets

Huntington once put a dish under his water bottle to catch drips from a leak. He also understands the concept of reciprocal play: one day my friend was tickling him, and he deliberately ran up to her ear and stuck his nose in it to tickle her back.

And Gideon understands that if he says "I'll be good!" and looks cute, he can get out of trouble! He also understands that if we're in the car he has to tell me when he needs to go potty so we can pull over.

Tucker

[MissMillie]

4. As I start turning off the TV, lights and computer

I say to Millie "You wanna go to bed?" and she heads for the stairs.

[radwriter0555]

8. A few weeks ago, we were ready for bed. I had kicked Joey out since he's

a bit of a bed hog, when I was done watching teevee, I was finally ready for him to come in and hog the sheets. (Dog, not husband)

I heard him go out and come back in, and heard him jump up on the couch. I called out, "Joey, you can come to bed now!" and he jumped down and came trotting on in tail wagging, resumed his place between the sheets near my knees.

I dunno who's smarter really, but it was amusing.

My kid calls me the dog whisperer because I talk to poochies and they do what I ask.

[bertha katzenengel]

26. Toby knows that when the TV or lamp goes off, it's time to beg for

bedtime treats. He's a funny little bastard. :hi:

[Vanje]

5. My Border Collie, Zeek

When I tell Zeek, "That one!", he will chase down and gently catch a lively lamb, or chicken, by holding it down with his paws and his mouth. I never taught him how to do this. He just figured out what I wanted.
He's indispensible at lambing time.
Never leaves a mark. Yesterday, he even caught an escaped guinea fowl for me.

[tenshi816]

30. My border collie, Riley

isn't a working dog and we live next to a moor in Yorkshire, so the first thing he had to learn as a pup was not to run sheep, which took remarkable restraint on his part.

Also, if we say "Riley, where's your frisbee?", he'll go fetch it from wherever he has hidden it in the house or dropped it on the moor.

One of my friends likes to go rambling on the moor every day at exactly the same time, 3 p.m., and she doesn't like going alone because it's pretty remote up here, so she takes Riley. At about 2:30 p.m., every day of his life, he goes to sit in front of the door waiting for her. My friend's name is Heather, and now he even gets excited when we spell H-E-A-T-H-E-R.

He can also open doors, and if I tell him to go get one of my sons, he will.




Edited to say that border collies are simply amazing dogs!

[Patiod]

33. My parents started spelling W-A-L-K

so as not to excite the dachshund, but eventually they had to discuss going for a W-A, and finally had to talk around it: "I think I'll go get the leash"

[tenshi816]

35. Ha! I used to have a dachshund too, but that poor sweet

dog was the laziest thing I have ever seen. The only walking she liked to do was between the food bowl and the refrigerator - which she would sit worshipfully in front of for hours, just gazing at it (she knew it was a magic place where food came from). She was so obese, poor baby, and eventually had to be put on a diet by the vet because her tummy got so big she got a callous on it from it dragging the ground. Didn't affect her health other than that, though - she lived until she was nearly 14.

I used to find her burying milk-bone dog biscuits in the back yard.

[Patiod]

39. They're pigs

Ours would check his bowl every time he walked by, just in case someone had put something in there without notifying him.

Their new one doesn't have much of an appetite, and we can't figure out what's wrong with him. Completely un-dachshund-like behavior.

[Blue Diadem]

6. My dog understood spelling

We would spell words when we didn't want to deal with his excitement(he was 120#'s of chocolate lab!) He quickly learned w-a-l-k, c-o-o-k-i-e, r-i-d-e, etc.

We'd play games with him after that..like we'd spell T-a-l-k..just to watch him perk those ears and tilt his head looking at us goofy. Then as soon as we said W-a he'd run to the door where his leash hung.

[Modem Butterfly]

7. We used to watch "Good Dog U" on Animal Planet

We had to stop when our dogs kept following the commands and wondering why they weren't being rewarded.

[Blue Diadem]

9. That's so cute!

Mine used to love watching animal planet. We left the channel on for him whenever we went somewhere without him.

[Richardo]

16. We do that too!

HA!

[Modem Butterfly]

20. We leave our TV tuned to Hawaiian music

It soothes the savage beast (namely, my Shar Pei who has bad separation anxiety).

[Blue Diadem]

37. Mine never liked anything about horses though

he'd woof at the TV screen when they came on. Otherwise, he'd kick back, hog the couch and watch away.

[TlalocW]

10. Ferrets...

I have three ferrets - all are around two years old - that I have had for just over a month. Ferrets can be litterbox trained, but they'll still scoot into a corner to do their business. To train them, you have to be there when they wake up from one of their naps and watch them and when they begin to back in, you pick them up and put them in a litterbox.

Anyway, one of them, Sneakers, woke up while I was playing with the other two, and he started backing up against the wall - the litterbox was a foot to his left. I said, "Sneakers..." in a disapproving tone. He looked up at me and then moved to the litterbox.

TlalocW

[CornField]

11. Mr. CornField's cat, Jennifer, can open any door

She gets her paws on the doorknob and then twists her whole body to get the handle to move.

The most amazing thing Belle does is read my moods. She can sense immediately if I'm in a foul, happy, sad or even indifferent mood and she adjusts herself accordingly. For instance, if I'm happy, she'll run and get her ball so we can play fetch. If I'm in a foul mood, she'll often bring me her leash so we can walk it off. If I'm sad, she just hangs out and watches for an opportunity to sit close to me, lick my face, etc.

I'm shocked at how quickly she has come to know me.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. My dogs know what time it is. They start to wake me up every

morning, exactly 2 minutes before the alarm clock goes off. One knows when it's bedtime and will go sit at the top of the stairs, saying, "Hurry up, it's time".

[Trigger Hippie]

13. My cat, Petunia,

knows what "treat" means. Everytime I say, "Kitty wanna treat" she heads over to the cabinet where I keep them and waits for her goodies. :hi:

[undeterred]

14. That I love him so much I will forgive him for just about anything.

[LynneSin]

15. My cat figured out how to turn on a touch lamp

I had one of those lamps in my bedroom where you touch it and it turns on/off. Abbott figured out how to do it himself and would play around with the lamp. I finally had to get rid of the damn thing because he'd turn the light on in the middle of the night

[crispini]

17. My cat comes to me when I call her.

Only cat I ever had that did that. And she only does it about 80% of the time, but the rest of the time she gives me a look that says, "I heard and understand you, but I just don't feel like coming over there now."

My other cat is stuuuuupid. She still doesn't even know her name.

[skygazer]

18. That when I have coffee, he gets a taste of whipped cream

I don't drink coffee - I drink tea. When I make tea, he ignores the whole procedure. When hubby makes his coffee, he ignores that. But when I get out a jar of coffee, he becomes Mr. Purrmeister, wrapping around my legs and running to the refrigerator because he KNOWS the only time I have coffee, it's Irish and that means it has whipped cream in it.

Here he is -

[trackfan]

19. My dog can talk

The first thing we taught him to say was "wine". Then he learned "burger" (which, admittedly, sounds more like "rerrrer"). His best is "I want"

I know - you think I'm full of shit. Everyone does until they hear the dog.

[Modem Butterfly]

21. My first Chow used to talk, too

He could say "hello" "I love you" and "mama". He used to do it when I came home. Scared the hell out of the UPS guy one afternoon. I opened to door to set my purse down so I could sign for a package, and my dog was waiting for me and said, "Hello!", only it sounded more like "hhhhhheehrrrroh!". The UPS guy said, "Did he just say hello?" And I said yes, and the UPS guy dropped the package and split.

[grace0418]

22. Oh my goodness he looks so much like my Frankie!

Cutie-pie! Frank knows pointing as well. He also insists on sitting at the dinner table with us when we eat dinner. He cries if we don't pull up his barstool next to us.

[radwriter0555]

23. er if he's so smart, why can't he find the shrimp? Or is he SO smart he

just makes you do all the work?

:)

[Richardo]

24. Our mini-schnauzer passed the 'point' test too - very impressive

As we all know, most dogs just look at (and/or lick) the end of the pointing finger. Ruby actually looked in the direction I was pointing. :applause:

[ironflange]

25. She will play dead on command

Not too impressive? It is when it's a cat! This one:

[kick-ass-bob]

27. When I start making a sandwich,

my dog comes over waiting for the crust (that my kids sometimes don't eat). Also, the pretzel bag or the popcorn plastic rustles and she runs right over.

Even more fun is when I say "Get the cat!" and she tears off running after one of ours. :evilgrin:

[sakabatou]

28. My dog is so smart he knows how to ignore people

[dajoki]

29. my cat loves to play catch

he loves balls made out of aluminim foil. all i have to do is tap one on the floor and he comes running and gets in his cat pose. btw he 's about 30% successful.

[BroadwayBrat]

31. My pets are really smart....

My one cat, Loki, loves to climb in the pantry, especially when the dry food dish is out of food, then she will proceede to chew the corner of the food bag until she gets some food. This of course goes unnoticed by my husband everytime. So the next time he fills the dish, the bag leaves a trail behind. Its funny everytime. Our other cat, Morgan, loves to sleep with us. Especially right in between us, and perferably under the covers, its really weird, I only thought dogs did that kind of things. We even have a crazy turtle. He knows what his food container looks like, and the minute we pick it up, he tries to bite the glass to get at the food container....scary!

[Patiod]

34. A little off topic, but I once saw a Westie body-surfing

Two ladies were standing in knee-deep water at the beach, talking. The one woman's Westie would paddle out to them, carefully turn around, watch over his shoulder for a wave, and ride it into the shore. Then paddle back out, turn, and do it again.

I asked her "is that Westie surfing?", and she said he did it all the time.

I've known some smart dogs, but that was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.

[Beware the Beast Man]

36. My one cat can sit.

It took some classical conditioning, but I managed to teach him. If he was already sitting, I would hand him a treat. After a while of this I would say "Sit" right before I gave him another. Pretty soon, every time I said "sit," he'd do it.

[Heidi]

38. "Who wants chicken for dinner?"

"Meow, Reow, Meeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ow!" = "I do, I do."