The job of mascot is one that Callie forgot to mention in her October 4, 2007, post, “Top Ten Jobs that Dogs Could Do.”
I still think that dogs are smarter than we think. Here’s an article on “Dog intelligence” from Wikipedia. Does this do the subject justice? I’m not sure it does. The focus is on how well dogs solve problems, or how well they can be trained. It seems to me that dogs have intelligence that goes beyond this.
Every morning on our walk, we stop on a certain bridge for a water break. At first, we trained Callie to “touch the bridge” with her paws. When she did, she got a treat. But now, she touches the bridge without a command (just like Jamie did), knowing that she’ll get her puppy treat. So who’s training who? And who’s the smart one?
Callie invited me to play soccer with her the first day she came home to our house, at age eight-weeks. She now has me trained to play soccer with her every time we’re in the back yard. Who’s the smart one?
One thing most discussions of dog-intelligence are missing is their ability to “sense” what’s going on around them and act upon it. Whether because of their acute sense of smell or hearing, or other senses. I suppose dog-intelligence is different from human-intelligence, but I find it just as amazing.
