My boy Winston is a Coton de Tuléar (plural is Cotons de Tuléar). He’s not good at tracking, or following commands, or doing anything other than being a fluffy good boy.
We feed him, bathe him, walk him, and play with him, and he doesn’t have to do anything else, and he loves us!
100%. Hair is like cotton candy that doesn’t dissolve. Pain to take care of if long, so we just have him groomed every four weeks in a puppy cut.
He also knows he gets a prize when he goes to the groomer, so when he comes back he goes and sits near the kitchen cabinet that houses the good treats.
I know German shepherds are supposed to be smart and all but man, my experiences with them in the industry has taught me the complete opposite. This insight is likely highly shaded with the influence of my beloved shepherd mutt Maya, who knows a great many tricks and can recognize some of her toys by name (Percy the Penguin is her best friend), but believes any type of poop to be the ultimate in cuisine.
Does my corgi know enough words to make regular conversation a minefield re: her food intake? Yes. Does she sometimes hide a toy and then spend hours trying to find said toy? Also yes. Corgis are a study in contrasts is what I'm saying
Holly *understands* very well, she just doesn't comply. I've always figured that's why they don't do quite as well on that "number of repetitions to do a command" metric: they hear you, they just don't care.
I wrote something long here to defend the honor of my pug, but really what I took away from this is that I need to finally send his photo in for the Friday email. How do we do that? Just email this newsletter?
So I had a job interview, and they asked me to describe myself in one word. "Poor at taking direction," I responded. Here is why my dog Boo was not smart:
She was always keen on my "scent", but instead of a sock or t-shirt, she would delve into the laundry basket, find a pair of undies, bring it out to the couch, and catch some z's snuggled up with her favorite stink.
Really fun when you invite the office mates over for lunch. Or that girl you just started dating. Thanks, Boo!
Oh yeah, she also ate a half of a tube of epoxy, realized this was no bueno, so chased that with a pool cue chalk, and then puked blue vomit on our carpet. Dogs, man.
One of our dogs is a border collie- beagle mix. Understands what "camp grandma- grandpa" means and sleeps in the car until we're 10 minutes away, but does not get that if she sits in front of our laptops, we will make her move.
Soupy, our 14 year old rescue cat, is very smart. His appearance and behavior lead us to believe he is a Maine Coon. He knows his name, fetches, and begs for food. He sits politely at his place at the table during mealtime waiting for bits of chicken or turkey, his favorites. (Don't judge us. We are just eccentric retirees.) If Soupy becomes impatient for his portion and moves to climb onto the table, he responds to the no command. Typical of a Maine Coon, his behavior is more like a dog than a cat.
the ability of dogs to pick up context clues is amazing. within the first year we got Holly, she picked up on the fact that before going for a walk, one of us would invariably say "should we take her?", and it got to the point she'd sprint into the room on "sh--". She noticed the verbal pattern before we did.
Yep. Our discussions about walks evolved into a sad game of synonym-thinking (stroll, jaunt, etc) and now is more just "Are we going to go for a (pause) shmorlk later"
[quietly and without moving lips, in the most deadpan we-are-about-to-try-to-overtake-our-captors-in-an-action-movie cadence] do you think it would be an opportune time to perambulate the canine
I do not have smart dogs. They have some positive attributes, but not brains. Recommended reading: My life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen, if you haven't read it. It's supposed to be a kids' book, and your kids will love it, but so will you.
My cat has recently started licking the bar soap in the bathroom. She is not very smart. However, she's learned that ice cubes are fun to push across the floor so she zooms over when she hears the freezer open. She doesn't realize that ice cubes can be licked. But the soap?? That's a snack, obviously. She's luckily she's so cute (and her antics are hilarious, not dangerous)
My cat does the exact same thing with the ice! She will zoom over and gently paw at the freezer. Then I'll give her a cube and she will promptly bat it under the freezer, then gaze up at me like "please retrieve that for me"
Missing in the 'takes >100 repetitions' for the beagle is that they know exactly what you want them to do, but refuse to do so.
so beagles are cats?
Can confirm. We adopted a beagle mix about 6 weeks ago. The human society told us his behavior was similar to a cat and so far it holds up.
I do not recommend a litter box for your beagle.
I can imagine we’d end up at the vet with his belly full of litter. He seems to like eating almost everything but his food sometimes.
Taking clumping litter out of a blocked animal's GI tract can be one hell of a surgery. We just did one on a kitten two weeks back or so.
It was especially wild because Mark is an accountant.
My boy Winston is a Coton de Tuléar (plural is Cotons de Tuléar). He’s not good at tracking, or following commands, or doing anything other than being a fluffy good boy.
We feed him, bathe him, walk him, and play with him, and he doesn’t have to do anything else, and he loves us!
I work like 50-60 hours every week.
You tell me who is smart one here.
I just googled the breed and they do so seem very soft.
100%. Hair is like cotton candy that doesn’t dissolve. Pain to take care of if long, so we just have him groomed every four weeks in a puppy cut.
He also knows he gets a prize when he goes to the groomer, so when he comes back he goes and sits near the kitchen cabinet that houses the good treats.
he’s great
What an excellent boy.
I know German shepherds are supposed to be smart and all but man, my experiences with them in the industry has taught me the complete opposite. This insight is likely highly shaded with the influence of my beloved shepherd mutt Maya, who knows a great many tricks and can recognize some of her toys by name (Percy the Penguin is her best friend), but believes any type of poop to be the ultimate in cuisine.
Does my corgi know enough words to make regular conversation a minefield re: her food intake? Yes. Does she sometimes hide a toy and then spend hours trying to find said toy? Also yes. Corgis are a study in contrasts is what I'm saying
Holly *understands* very well, she just doesn't comply. I've always figured that's why they don't do quite as well on that "number of repetitions to do a command" metric: they hear you, they just don't care.
I wrote something long here to defend the honor of my pug, but really what I took away from this is that I need to finally send his photo in for the Friday email. How do we do that? Just email this newsletter?
Yes, please do! Reply to the newsletter and it redirects to my email.
I'm a few hours late but found myself thinking the same exact things.
I always enthusiastically welcome new pet photo submissions for the Friday newsletter!
What a wonderful column! I love all your columns but this one just made me
smile and
laugh!
Thank you!
So I had a job interview, and they asked me to describe myself in one word. "Poor at taking direction," I responded. Here is why my dog Boo was not smart:
She was always keen on my "scent", but instead of a sock or t-shirt, she would delve into the laundry basket, find a pair of undies, bring it out to the couch, and catch some z's snuggled up with her favorite stink.
Really fun when you invite the office mates over for lunch. Or that girl you just started dating. Thanks, Boo!
Oh yeah, she also ate a half of a tube of epoxy, realized this was no bueno, so chased that with a pool cue chalk, and then puked blue vomit on our carpet. Dogs, man.
One of our dogs is a border collie- beagle mix. Understands what "camp grandma- grandpa" means and sleeps in the car until we're 10 minutes away, but does not get that if she sits in front of our laptops, we will make her move.
I have two dogs. Neither one of them are smart.
Soupy, our 14 year old rescue cat, is very smart. His appearance and behavior lead us to believe he is a Maine Coon. He knows his name, fetches, and begs for food. He sits politely at his place at the table during mealtime waiting for bits of chicken or turkey, his favorites. (Don't judge us. We are just eccentric retirees.) If Soupy becomes impatient for his portion and moves to climb onto the table, he responds to the no command. Typical of a Maine Coon, his behavior is more like a dog than a cat.
Our mutt seems to have figured out which nights we order takeout? We're not sure how or where she's hiding the calendar
the ability of dogs to pick up context clues is amazing. within the first year we got Holly, she picked up on the fact that before going for a walk, one of us would invariably say "should we take her?", and it got to the point she'd sprint into the room on "sh--". She noticed the verbal pattern before we did.
Yep. Our discussions about walks evolved into a sad game of synonym-thinking (stroll, jaunt, etc) and now is more just "Are we going to go for a (pause) shmorlk later"
[quietly and without moving lips, in the most deadpan we-are-about-to-try-to-overtake-our-captors-in-an-action-movie cadence] do you think it would be an opportune time to perambulate the canine
is thou prepared to circumnavigate the surrounding neighborhoods with our young furry quadruped friend
dog: i am furry, they are talk about me
Me to my wife: hey I gotta go to get something from my car
My dog *jerks awake from a Van Winkle-esque sleep*: someone said the word go, im ready
I do not have smart dogs. They have some positive attributes, but not brains. Recommended reading: My life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen, if you haven't read it. It's supposed to be a kids' book, and your kids will love it, but so will you.
https://www.google.com/search?q=my+life+in+dog+years&oq=my+life+in+dog+years&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l9.5420j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I'll check it out! I was just talking about Gary Paulsen recently, as The Hatchet was formative grade-school literature for many in my cohort.
My cat has recently started licking the bar soap in the bathroom. She is not very smart. However, she's learned that ice cubes are fun to push across the floor so she zooms over when she hears the freezer open. She doesn't realize that ice cubes can be licked. But the soap?? That's a snack, obviously. She's luckily she's so cute (and her antics are hilarious, not dangerous)
My cat does the exact same thing with the ice! She will zoom over and gently paw at the freezer. Then I'll give her a cube and she will promptly bat it under the freezer, then gaze up at me like "please retrieve that for me"