I know couple of months ago there was a bit of a discussion on whether or not Dogs could use conscious thinking and planning to solve problems or get something that is not easily obtained.

This last week Loki totally blew me away. He is not the brightest bulb in the bunch normally so I was even more suprised.

Fargo is teething terribly so I have been giving him more chewies.

This is always supervised and both Loki and Nico know that toy stealing is a big no-no.

Fargo wants to trade all the time so I cant give them each one as he will go drop his bone in front of them and bark like made trying to get them to trade.

Twice this past week while Fargo has had a chewie Loki has jumped up from being totally still and let out his full blown alert bark, this is such a loud sharp deep bark that it startles me every single time he does it.

The other two dogs immediately stop what they are doing and run to the front window in full blown alert mode.
Loki then snatched the chewie and was outside with it before Fargo had any clue what had happened.

The first time I thought it was a fluke, that the bone took precedence over whatever he was alerting about.

But he has done it several times since and it is a truly flawless plan. It even works on Nico.

It gave me some serious insight to just how smart Loki can be, and It seemed to me to be something that was obviously concsiously thought out and planned in advance.

They are now separated by room or gates whenever anyone has a bone, as impressive as his thought process was I can see it leading to problems in no time flat!

Edited by Jennifer Lee (02/29/2008 11:51 AM)
Edit reason: typos

This is such an interesting topic.
I think that some dogs can think and reason. Gypsy (the little diva) used to use a trick to steal the other dogs food using deception, no less.

We used to live on a ranch and I would feed the dogs on the back porch, Gypsy couldnt take over the other dogs bowls by force as it wasnt allowed but must have noticed that they would leave if there was something to bark at. I was there the first time she did it; she looked up from her bowl and looked at the other dogs, you could see the wheels turning...while looking at the dogs, she suddennly turned and gave two "alert" barks and immediatly looked back at the other three. they fell for it hook line and sinker. They ran off a little ways barking and looking for the intruder, she Immediatly moved in and surveyed their food, not even glancing around to see if there was an intruder (since she knew there wasnt any) I was shocked, didnt reprimand her because it was so funny, and Im not sure that it should be aginst the rules to be smarter than the competition....

Is gypsy your lab?
Is she full-blood or is she a mix?, it looks like brindle in the picture if that is brindle she is a dead ringer for Nico, and also for Loki.

So interesting to see that another one figured out to fake and alert

I dont reprimand him either, but I do retrieve the chewie from him after a couple minutes, once I stop laughing

I dont want stealing to become an ok thing.

hee, hee. Gypsy is a Lab dachsund mix. In the right light you can see brown undertones where the black tips should be. but she is acutally all black with some white. It was a scream, she is like that though, so high-and-mightier-than-thou, self rightous little... (affectionate insults :grin
Loki is a hound mix? I wonder if it has anything to with breed characeristics...whadya think?

Lady thinks too, but on a different tune. for example, she knows that my little brother isnt allowed in one room of our house and that he, and his friends, arent allowed to run and yell in the house. she has watched the grownups run after them to boot them outside when doing this or saw "no" when he's going into the offlimits room. well soon after she began to "keep im in line" doing the same things. at first I was startled when she ran in front of him when he was running in the house or barked at him for going into that room. But I realized that the little teachers pet is upholding the law. still, its socially unacceptable for a dog to do that (bark at kids) but i think it has everything to do with the herding instincts in her (she used to herd our sheep) and she is observant as to what is allowed and whats not.. so a little freak.

On a different note, Ive decided that one of the wuestions Im going to ask breeders when I go to buy a pup is for stories of things their dogs have done. If they dont have any Ill wonder if they arent kept in a kennel. and I think it tells if the dog "thinks" through things. (Im refering to GSD's though., Im still not sure if this should apply to all breeds...)

I definately believe that dogs are capable of conscious thinking and problem solving. I see it with my GSD "Shadow" when we work the more complicated search problems where she has to figure out how to get to the victim (inside the maze of an old stockyard, through fencing and trees, etc.). She has to come back to find me and then lead me back to the victim. She needs those problem solving skills to do her job.

Sandy

I see them work to get to something or be sneaky, as in take a bone and turn so i cant see their face and then chew on a table leg.

This just struck me as a really complicated thought process
not only did he have to work out the process of doing but also have an understanding of the behavior of the other two dogs in a given situation.

Im not sure to what extent I would want him to flex those thinking skills though.


He is very observant and tells me when something is amiss or someone is doing something wrong.
He wont however act on it, instead he paces and whines until I do something about.

My last problem solver got himself killed and it was horrible.