Years
ago, I had a half German Shepherd half Great Dane dog. He was incredibly smart, gentle as could be
and a ball to play with. One of his
favorite games was to seek out things with his nose. He got to be so good at this that I often
found myself wondering if he was also part Bloodhound.
We’d
play all sorts of find-it-with-your-nose games.
One he especially enjoyed was to be kept in a different room on a sit
stay command as I went from here to there, ultimately hiding myself away from
his vision. When he was released, my dog
would follow his nose to where I was by literally sniffing out the exact route
I’d taken to my hiding place. Didn’t
matter how many twists or turns I’d taken to try to confuse him, my clever dog
always followed the route I’d taken, in the exact order, ultimately arriving at
my feet where he’d sit, wagging his tail overjoyed with his accomplishment and
my praise.
Another
game he loved to play was to find the last dog toy I’d touched. Usually, I’d play this with a bunch of tennis
balls. I’d place them in a pile off to
the side in a different room. Then I’d
play fetch with only one of the balls.
After a bit, I’d place my dog on a sit stay, head into the other room,
and bury the ball we’d just played with amongst the other tennis balls. Then I’d call in my dog and tell him to “find
it.” Without fail, tennis balls being
knocked this way and that, my dog would find the exact ball we’d just played
with in record time.
My
new dog, Sadie, is just as smart as my dog of years past and equally fun to
play with. Though she doesn’t have the
same sense of smell as my dog of years-gone-by, she does have an uncanny
cat-like manner in which she predicts where I’m going to throw a toy.
A
natural-born fetcher, Sadie will play until she drops. If she could I think she’d play fetch in her
sleep if it weren’t for the fact that every once in a while she has to actually
rest. No matter how many times I throw
her a toy, Sadie will always bring it right back to me, placing it at me feet
and then patiently waiting for me to throw it again.
Like
my sniffer-gifted dog of the past, Sadie takes her favorite game, fetching, to
an all-time level. Just as a cat will
watch, it’s eyes dilating to huge dark circles to observe the slightest
alteration in possible direction an item might go, Sadie does the same. She even goes so far as to stop breathing
once I pick up the toy and begin teasing her with which direction I might throw
it.
Sadie’s
eyes dilate, her breathing stops, her tail freezes midair, and she watches for
the slightest indication of which direction her toy will be hurled. Could be something as simple as a twitch of
my pinkie or slight shifting of my body weight.
But no matter what the tell, Sadie almost always heads off in the
direction I’m about to launch her toy a split second prior to my letting it go.
Today,
our youngest son was playing with a remote-controlled car while Sadie was in
the room. I couldn’t help but think that
the car might not be long for the world, my suspecting that Sadie would pounce
in it as if it were her newest fetch toy.
But I was wrong. Instead of
launching herself at the toy car, Sadie kept moving out of its way.
Hmmm…
After
watching her for a short while, my son and I puzzling over her behavior, I
realized what she was doing. Sadie was
trying to find a way to sneak in behind
the car. Every time the car would
approach her, Sadie would hide behind my legs.
But then, once she was sure the car was going to continue on, she’d come
out from her hiding place and follow it.
Now
here’s the odd part. As I mentioned,
Sadie is a natural-born fetcher, so, I would have thought she’d have pounced at
the opportunity to “get” the car and bring it to me. But she didn’t. Never once did Sadie try to take the remote
car in her mouth. It was like she was
smart enough to know that it wasn’t hers.
That it was okay for her to be entertained by it, but that she wasn’t
supposed to place it in her mouth.
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