Dogs and product recognition

Clodagh

Clodagh

Playing chess with pigeons
Joined
17 August 2005
Messages
29,024
Location
Devon
Visit site
Ffee has a special toy that she only has when I am going out to work and OH is not about, and overnight. (So quite a lot, I just mean not when we are there with her). It is actually my old workboot, which is disgusting. She loves it and is slowly destroying it.
A friend said today does that not mean she eats all the boots and shoes in the house? Well no she doesn't, but we don't leave any in with her as I do not have faith. TBH she is a dog, would she recognise a skanky workboot as being the same thing as an Ugg (for instance). I think she would just chew anything she found unattended.
 
I think my dogs are not "proper" dogs because they never chew. I could leave any number of shoes available to them and the thought would just not cross their minds. It can't be the gundog soft mouth thing because Clodagh's dogs will be better trained than mine, and it can't be that yours chew due to a lack of stimulation either because Clodagh's dogs work, so I can't explain why mine don't chew 🤔. Not that I want them to start! We've had Peril since she was 14 months old and she has never chewed a single thing. Same with Jake, Spot was never a chewer either. Weird.
The product recognition thing made me laugh because I only have to get the bottle of Hibiscrub out of the cupboard and Peril will immediately sit down in anticipation of having something bathed!
 
PapaverFollis said:
It's all chew toys to them. Nothing is left unattended in this house.

Having said that when the spaniel brings one shoe he can be sent to "get the other one" and will select the correct other shoe! So maybe I underestimate him.
Click to expand...

Ah now that's Ffee's party trick too, when it's warm and the back door is open she goes and gets my welly, and then toddles off the 'get the other one'. If you mix them up in a pile she fishes out the pair. Her favourite thing though are my sheepskin slippers, when we come back from last outs she runs into the house to find them, one at a time. :-)
 
Stiff Knees said:
I think my dogs are not "proper" dogs because they never chew. I could leave any number of shoes available to them and the thought would just not cross their minds. It can't be the gundog soft mouth thing because Clodagh's dogs will be better trained than mine, and it can't be that yours chew due to a lack of stimulation either because Clodagh's dogs work, so I can't explain why mine don't chew 🤔. Not that I want them to start! We've had Peril since she was 14 months old and she has never chewed a single thing. Same with Jake, Spot was never a chewer either. Weird.
The product recognition thing made me laugh because I only have to get the bottle of Hibiscrub out of the cupboard and Peril will immediately sit down in anticipation of having something bathed!
Click to expand...

THe grown ups don't chew, but they have all chewed as pups. I think they aren't left alone enough and therefore don't like it, hence chewing. Also, as they love to carry things, if you aren't there to then take it they eat in instead.
Tawny knows her bottle of ear cleaner at 20 paces!
 
The boys’ party trick is take both shoes of a pair into the garden. Sometimes we end up at the park with a shoe in the boot. They have to have something in their mouths when they’re excited, but they don’t chew, thank God, unless they’re given cardboard or trot off triumphantly having stolen an empty box.

Saying that, the pair of them would lie under the kitchen table and chew the spindles of the chairs, must have been a very satisfying texture for teething on.
 
Ours too like to greet you with something in their mouths, Peril has been known to pull the oven gloves off the front of the oven or pick up the kitchen doorstop if she can't immediately lay her paws on a toy or a shoe. If Jake can't find a toy he carries his collar tag in his mouth and Spot would rush to the door, realise she didn't have something to present to you and gently grab your forearm in her mouth as though gifting it to you. *tears again* Does this sadness never leave??
 
There’s a video of a border collie somewhere selecting the right item by name from around 50 different items so I’m sure at least some dogs do have recognition. Also my dogs will have various toys left around for them to chew but they know not to chew shoes/boots etc (after the puppy stage).
 
Many years ago, my friend’s Mum had been persuaded to try feeding their two dogs on kibble instead of their usual tinned dog food. The dogs weren’t keen, but she persevered. Her resolve finally broke while unpacking the shopping: one dog saw her take a tin of beans out of the bag, ran to his food bowl and started doing the happy dance. She went straight back to the shops and bought their usual tinned meat.
 
Moobli said:
There’s a video of a border collie somewhere selecting the right item by name from around 50 different items so I’m sure at least some dogs do have recognition. Also my dogs will have various toys left around for them to chew but they know not to chew shoes/boots etc (after the puppy stage).
Click to expand...


The most important bit being that she was able to work out a name she didn't know went with the toy that she also didnt' know.
 
My aunt used to have a toy poodle who could fetch named toys out of a basketful of toys. Dad's remaining Labrador gave our 2 Rotter pups, matching reindeer toys out of her toy basket the first time they went to her house. She had loads of pairs of toys which had been bought for her and her sister over the years. Despite being Labs, they didn't chew their toys. There are very few of those toys left now - the rotters inherited them and chewed the lot!
I found out later that she had given the same reindeer toys to another pair of visiting youngsters.
 
My older GSD is a marketer's dream.

He recognises a variety of TV adverts, and responds differently to most of them. His most entertaining reactions are to the Specsavers collie advert (he knows that one both by sight and by music, so if you play the ad on your phone he will immediately react to the sound) and to Swinton's nagging doubt adverts. He is particularly enraged by Nagging Doubt.

He has a wide vocabulary too, and understands concepts like 'get me the other ball'. I can send him for different types of toy, he will quickly work out what each one is called. It's a different sort of intelligence to that I've seen in other dogs as he seems able to reason and grasp concepts rather than just follow instructions.

By comparison my younger GSD is 8 months old now and will not sit on command.
 
CorvusCorax said:
My friend's old dog went into a ditch one day and came back with a boot, which no one was able to get off him for the remaining ten years of his life. No other item of footwear would suffice
Click to expand...

FFee will chew any footwear, she's not fussy. My old workboots are her favourites though, impregnated as they are with spilt milk, rotten food and sweat. Nom, nom.
 
Clodagh said:
Probably just proving he is more intelligent than you.:D:p 'So, smaller, slower, weaker human, what gives you the God given right to tell me how to spend my time?'
Click to expand...

Too true. He is certainly more emotionally intelligent than any other member of my household, happy to be hugged and super intuitive about 'good' behaviour. He has great recall but stands there with his gob hanging open and a vacant expression on his face when asked to sit.

We are lucky that so far he has chosen not to take over control of the household in a bloodless coup.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top