Dogs Are Smart

My dog, Truman, woke me up at 3:40 this morning. Why? I’ve blogged about this before. Because he knew what time it was and was afraid we had overslept. Normally, by 3:40 my husband has showered, dressed for work and is packing his lunch. And by 3:40, I’m in the shower, getting ready for my day too. But today is Saturday. And the last person to go to bed (not me) forgot to shut the bedroom door. So at 3:40 AM our big brown alarm clock was in the door, softly whining, “Get up! You are going to be late!” So I got up and let me tell you, he was very proud of himself. I checked to make sure he had water and didn’t need to go outside, patted him on the head and went back to sleep (shutting the door behind me).

When I woke up a couple hours later, everything was quiet, just like a Saturday morning should be.

I recently read an article that talked about dogs being able to read facial expressions and pick up on moods. I don’t think this is groundbreaking research for anyone who owns a dog. I wonder how much money they spent doing this research and I wonder if there had been a government grant involved. But mostly I just thought about my own dog.

My husband doesn’t believe our dog is not very smart. I completely disagree. He’s a genius. First of all, let’s look at the obvious. The dog sleeps all day, is always assured food and water without doing any type of work, and humans not only clean up all the hair he leaves behind, they also clean up his poop.

He knows how to manipulate people too. Big time. When I’m home or my daughter’s home, or we’re home together, Truman peacefully lounges around. As long as he has food and water and goes outside once in a while, he’s perfectly content. 

When my husband is home, it’s a different story. Truman whines. Why? Because he knows he will get all kinds of attention from my husband. He will get extra food, extra treats, extra belly rubs, back massages and a thousand walks a day if he really wanted to push it. Just by whining. I’m telling you, this dog is a genius.  

I don’t believe Truman whines because he actually needs to go for a walk. I think he whines because he believes my husband is the one who needs to go for a walk. And Truman is the one who is in charge of getting him out there.

My husband loves to watch sports and he loves to analyze Ebay. He could probably spend hours and hours, uninterrupted, sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap, watching TV and searching Ebay and be really happy! And there are much worse things, right?

I believe Truman’s whining is not, “I need to go outside!” I think his whining is, “C’mon buddy. Time to get off the couch and go out and get some fresh air! Follow me and I’ll show you the way. And as a reward to you for getting some exercise and breathing some fresh air, I promise I will randomly poop in someone’s yard for you. That way you can go home and say, ‘See, he needed to poop. That’s why he was whining.’ It will totally look like YOU are doing ME a favor.

Along with that little triumph, the bending over to clean up after me will help keep your back stretched out and it’s a great way to re-use those plastic bags you keep bringing home from the grocery store. And by the way, your secret is safe with me. I know, that even though you complain loudly, you really enjoy me taking you for a walk. And I have also heard you say that if it wasn’t for you having to take me on so many walks (wink, wink) you’d probably weigh 300 pounds. So let me just say; you’re welcome. I’m there for you buddy!!”

Yes, Truman is incredible, caring and a genius!

What I can’t explain is why such a genius dog will sniff at bird poop, goose poop, road kill and any other gross thing along the road. Hmmmm. I guess we’re not supposed to understand everything. People probably didn’t completely understand Einstein either.

Keep on smiling!

Truman - The Chocolate Lab Alarm Clock

There are two things you should know about my little family.

1)   We get up very early in the morning. My husband is up and on his way at 3:15AM. I follow at 3:45AM and our daughter is up before 5:30AM.  Yep, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch the worms that we early birds catch! Our dog, Truman gets up with each one of us in turn and then goes back to sleep and waits for the next family member to wake up.

2)   Truman is a great dog. He is not a barker unless someone is approaching the house. He prefers to communicate through tail wagging, body wiggling, very loud sighs and occasionally quiet whining. He starts off whining very quietly when he wants someone or something and he continues to get louder until someone notices.  Sort of like some alarm clocks!

And Truman is smart.

This morning, at 3:30 AM I heard a thump on the door followed momentarily by a very faint whine. Sure enough. Truman had head-butted our bedroom door open and was now standing in the doorway of our bedroom, looking intently at the bed and starting his incredibly quiet whining. Sort of like he doesn’t want to wake everyone up. Just one person.

Why? Because he thought we had overslept!  This is not the first time he has done this. It’s like his internal clock knows exactly what time it is and that something in the household is not right!! Either that or he can read the clocks. Hmmm. Never thought of that!?

What a great trick, right?  But today is SATURDAY!!  The day we can sleep in!!

So I got up and he was oh so proud of himself. Tail wagging, shaking out his body and doing his downward dog yoga moves. It would be wrong to get mad at the dog who may have just saved us from showing up late for work or school! So I let him outside, waited for him to sniff around and come back in, filled up his water dish, patted him on the head and stumbled back to the bedroom for some much needed additional sleep, making sure the door was shut securely behind me.

Note to self. On Friday nights, remember to shut the bedroom door completely!

And Truman, someday we really might just oversleep and I trust you will be there for us! Thanks in advance you incredible dog you!

Keep on smiling!

Don't Let the Man Keep You Down!

Our favorite dog in the whole wide world, big chocolate lab Truman, turned none years old yesterday!

When we brought him home from the shelter all those years ago, we were not sure if he would stay in the yard and we didn’t have a fenced in yard. So we always took him out on a leash for nice long walks to let him do what he needed to do.  It seemed like a great idea at the time.  We lived on the edge of a neighborhood development so just one house away got us into the woods where Truman could take aim and pee on anonymous trees in the forest, rather than someone’s prized rhododendrons.

But what it also did was to teach Truman is that he doesn’t want to do any of his business in our yard. He only wants to take care of business if he is out on a walk.

We live in a different city now and there are no woods nearby so we spend a lot of time walking through the neighborhood with our dog, keeping him away from the prized rhododendrons. My husband knows everyone in the larger neighborhood area not by name, but by their dog’s names. It’s too funny. When we meet people in the neighborhood in social situations, we hear comments like, “Oh, you guys are the ones who are always out walking your dog.”  Yes, we’re the crazy dog people.

On the bright side, it’s great exercise for both dog and human! Of course when it’s 20 below zero, the exercise doesn’t seem so appealing..

So all of this walking with the dog gets me thinking about stuff.  Like how does a dog automatically know that he should pee on a fire hydrant?  Truman is constantly on the lookout for fire hydrants. Yes, I know he smells the scent of other dogs, but how did that very first dog know that peeing on a fire hydrant is something that all dogs must do?  And I wonder if they know how cliché they are being.  A dog peeing on a fire hydrant. Yeah, real original. Way to be a trendsetter.

But here’s the one that makes me think that dogs are much smarter than people ever give them credit for.  We have a beautiful walk/run/bike trail in our neighborhood. It runs past a park.  Every time we take the trail past the park, Truman makes an incredibly strong beeline for a certain sign on the edge of the park. I have attached a photo of it below.

There’s no stopping him. He is determined and uses all his strength to get to it. I have to pre-plan how I will get by the park. If there are people in the park or if there are cars going by, I either run by the sign as fast as I can and hope he doesn’t see it or catch a whiff, or I casually turn and walk out on the road with him. Because it’s just too embarrassing to be standing there while your dog is peeing on a “No Pets Allowed” sign!

I certainly admire his “Don’t let the man keep you down!” attitude though! There’s probably some little nugget of wisdom to be learned there. I’ll need to think about it while I’m out there on our next walk!

Keep on smiling!

My Dog is a Con Artist

We have one of the best dogs in the whole wide world. His name is Truman and he’s a big, lovable chocolate lab.  Several years ago, when Truman was just 7 months old, his former owners tied him to a fence at an area Humane Society with a note saying they couldn’t take care of him anymore. And wouldn’t you know it?  There I was, looking for a chocolate lab. It was kismet. He was the one for us. Truman was pretty skinny when we adopted him but it was easy to tell he would become a very big boy.  And that he did!  He hovers around 95 pounds now and lives a pampered life of leisure.  But I digress. This story is about him being a con artist.  
 

Truman is quite possibly the only Labrador Retriever in history to absolutely HATE water. We tried throwing toys into the water, leading him into the water, and tricking him into the water. Nothing worked. We did get him to go out into a river by our home once. He got out there and then froze and couldn’t get back. My husband had to go out and carry him back to the shore. No, water and Truman are not friends. Heck, he doesn’t even like going out in the rain.  A few weeks ago, while we were on a walk, we got caught in a sudden downpour that snuck up out of nowhere.  The rain was coming down sideways in big sheets.  And where was my big 95 pound lab? He was huddled as close to my legs as he could get to keep the rain off from him.  Geez.

 “Something traumatic probably happened to him when he was a puppy”, people would tell us and that seemed like a really logical explanation! Even his vet agreed. So he’s the only lab in history that doesn’t like water. That’s okay. We have always accepted him for who he is!  

When we are traveling, Truman spends his time at a great boarding place.  The dogs roam free within a huge fenced in estate out in the country. They get to watch TV at night with the owner, go for jogs and swim!  This guy actually built a pond for the dogs to swim in, complete with a big fountain in the middle.  Simply incredible.  But as you can imagine, that really wasn’t an attraction for Truman.  I could just envision him when it was swim time.  All the other dogs yelling, “C’mon in Truman!  It’s great in here!”  And Truman flopping down by the edge saying, “No thanks. You go ahead. I’m just going to rest here for a while in the sun, work on my tan, and maybe catch up on some reading.”  Yes, that is exactly how I envisioned it.

Until…. this very incredible boarding place posted photos on Facebook from this past weekend. A weekend when Truman just happened to be there as a guest. I was flipping through photo after photo.  A few photos of Truman playing with the other dogs, Truman running, Truman looking intently off into the distance, etc. And then I saw it. A picture of Truman getting close to the swimming pond. No doubt just checking out what his friends were up to.  Another photo where Truman has his face towards the water.  Silly Truman.  He probably is trying to take a drink from the pond. A few photos more and BAM!  There is our water-phobic chocolate lab in the WATER! I could tell by the progression of the photos that he was NOT pushed.  He went in willingly! 

Unbelievable! All this time he’s been holding out on us! Maybe it was peer pressure. Or maybe he has grown. Maybe going off to the resort is a bit like going off to college – an opportunity to spread your wings, try new things and face your fears.

Or maybe this is just another in a long line of cautionary tales for you young people out there.  We live in a digital, on-line society. Don’t pose for photos doing something you don’t want the whole wide world to know about!  Because eventually, it will get posted on Facebook.

We still love you Truman!  But I’m not holding the umbrella for you next time we go out for a walk in the rain.  

Keep on smiling!