I was reading about the adrenal response in dogs last night, and it made a lot of sense. It's from CW Meisterfeld's book, "Jellybean vs. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". He discusses how dogs have an adrenal reaction to stimulating situations, such as meeting new people or dogs. The first 15 seconds is the most intense, and it goes down from there, lasting about one minute. The point is that you have the span of about one minute of adrenal activity in which to teach the dog how to respond to each situation. It's best to not stimulate the dog with excessive praise or correction within that first 15-30 second time frame, but rather redirect with obedience.
What this has to do with whether or not dogs think, I believe, is that dogs are under the influence of a lot of hormones and innate drives at such times, and are not actively "thinking", but rather, are responding to those hormones and instincts.

Hey Van Camp, you must not have had cable tv when you were growing up. Cuz if you had, you would have seen Lassie and you'd know that dogs think. Get it together man! Become a couch potato and broaden your horizons. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Do dogs think..most certainly! A friend of mine has two "fufu dogs" oh..they're about 4-5 lbs tops with big "buggy" eyes and a bundle of hair..just too cute! Anyway; the white dog has a chew and the black dog does too but wants the one the white dog has. The black dog will look around..start barking and head to the door. The white one would drop her chew and run to see what was at the door. The black one would immediately do an about face, run as fast as she could and grab the white dog's chew..just so proud of herself! This went on for several weeks; then, one day..when the black dog ran to the door barking..the white dog did too...but with the chew in her mouth.

Another story: but..horse related..many years ago I had an aged trail horse who commanded the greatest respect of all around him. He was a massive creature (Saddlebred/TB) with an aura unlike any other horse I have ever had the pleasure of. One evening; a mutual border and her teenage daughter were trying hopelessly to catch their horses who were running in a 50 acre pasture. They had walked the hills for over an hour with their horses staying just out of reach of catch. Discouraged; they made their way back to the barn. My horse had been watching and followed them up to the barn; knowing they had treats. They stopped and offered him a treat which he expected and listened to their conversation of woe.. The mom asked my horse in a joking way to go out and round up their horses..with that..he spun around and galloped away...a few minutes later; they heard the thunder of hooves. As they looked out; they saw their two mares running as hard as they could with my horse behind them; ears pinned flat..driving them to the paddock area. My friends open the gate to allow their mares in and my horse stopped just short of the paddock. My friends yelled their appreciation and my horse galloped off to green pasture hollering his "your welcome".

Barbara, It sounds like you have been hanging around me! I had a Kelpie that just for the fun of it would run off towards the bush at the back of the place i was living then all of a sudden stop turn and trott back tail high and grinning from ear to ear, (i would watch from the upstairs window so she could not see me soit was not for my benifit) The poor old dog that she would lead astray would be standing there going "where did whatever you were chasing go?"

Also with the horse thing i lost a whole herd of horses up a rainforest mountain, could not find them for the life of me till i decided to put my faith in Yabby (3 time bucking champ) i had to lay down on the saddle because of all the trees he took me under and then he stopped, i sat up to see the whole herd looking at me and him real pissed!
I could go on for days on things that i have seen animals do that show that they are not as simply minded as we think! or would like to think!!!

OK..one more horse story: The man who owned the boarding facility decided to build his house within the known pasture area without providing adequate fencing around the excavation area. He mearly ran a couple of strands of hot wire attached to temporary posts combined with field fence in other areas that was tied up with baling twine. We had a poweroutage during a terrible thunder and lightening storm just about the time I arrived to bring in the horses for the night. With no lights anywhere; the flash light was finally found and I set out to find the horses who were no where in sight but I could hear my horse somewhere out there but sounding distressed. The flashlight finally caught "eyes" and to my horror; I found my horse with the two mares within the excavation area. My horse was standing there very patiently waiting for me to come to the rescue. In surveying the area; their only safe out was straight out as the footing was giving way around them with the hole of the basement within feet but a wobbly woven wire fence blocked the only possible path. The mares were very frightened and began to get a bit squirley..don't know what exactly my horse cried out to them..but they understood and quieted down awaiting their next clue. I was afraid to leave to retrieve the wire cutters so I placed his halter upon him and using him has support; stepped upon the wire fence to force it down and placed a large nearby block upon it. I then moved down and stood upon the other end of the fence forcing it down. As I did this; I instructed him to carefully come forward and shined the light on the fence that I stood upon. With that..he carefully picked up one leg at a time until he had cleared the fence that I stood upon. I then called out the the "girls" and without hesitation..they came out of their prison.

My cousin used to have a miniature schnauzer named Max. Max was the thinkingest dog I've ever seen. There was no door (without a dead bolt), gate, fence that could hold him. At two he could flip up the on the fence. When they put bolts on the fence, it took him three days to move a pile of wood close enough to the fence that he jump on top and get out. I swear you see him thinking his way through solving the problem. You could put him in a room, shut the door and lock it (no deadbolt), 10 minutes later he would be right by your side like nothing happened. This dog would open up a window on the second floor walk onto the roof, jump into a tree, jump onto the porch from the tree and he was free. Put him in the garage and the garage door opener was no challenge. The only way to keep him confined was either a chain or crate with a lock.

Max hated baths, we used to swear he could read minds. If you even thought about giving him a bath, he would wine like you shot him with a gun. If you actually said the word 'bath' he would try to run away. If he wanted you to pet him he had the most polite way of flipping your hand up in the air with his nose and placing his back under your falling hand. If he wanted something off the counter he would open the dishwasher, climb up the racks and get on the counter.

These are examples of problem solving in my opinion. Maybe it isn't deep complex rocket science but this dog could think his way through basic problems and find a solutuion. Some of it was trial and error and some was mimicry but either way it goes have a problem find a solution. This dog was thinking IMHO.

I wish I was everything my dog thinks I am. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> 100 post
Dogs are like humans in that some are smarter than others! I'm glad mine thinks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Dogs really think, no BS. Some good for their capability, and some . . . . well let's just leave it at that. At least that's how I feel with my mother's beagle. That clearly means some DO NOT.

As Lauren mentions, some dogs think better than people. This is true. It's too bad we can't cull & sterilize the human gene pool more often. Then we'd live in a Utopia. Maybe one day though, who knows? Now, that’s what would save tax dollars, forget welfare, lmao!

I had to go to the store, had my male GSD in the car, realized I had forgotten something... I came back out to the car to witness the "non-thinking animal" trying to START MY CAR. This is no joke. I had noticed that he was always intensely interested at how the car started up, would watch my hand very carefully as I turned the key and would then try to see what my feet were doing. He was trying to turn the key in the ignition... fortunately his teeth had more of a hold on the ignition column than on the key itself.

That scared the hell out of me, especially since the car has a manual transmission. Needless to say, I never leave the keys in the car with this dog anymore!

Pete Felknor

Do not EVER leave this dog alone with your credit cards or wallet