Shelties, abstract thinkers?

[SheepOfBlue]

I am lucky Sca is the smart one but he is also a goodie two shoes Spitfire well he earns his name and also is a bull head and grumbler. Once he gets it he remembers but his first solution is force (and usually fails since he is so small)

 

[k9kreationz]

I gotta admit. I am very impressed, Mr. Toffee. Did he know there was an opening to the neighbor's backyard around the fence line first?

Koji's like your boxer, he'd just bark at me saying, get it, or come get me. lol. Not sure if he'd figure it out. Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes I worry about him. Hehehe.

 

[romeosangiovese]

I'm a little cruel - I actually give my dogs challenges so they have to think it through. Like throwing a ball under or over or throughor inside something so they have to work out how to get it out. Tully in particular will look at me first to say - can you get that for me. Then I can see her working through the different alternatives to get to what she wants. I think its amazing to watch them think.

Oh good! I'm not the only one! I loooove watching them think! When I only had Romeo, I spent alot of time playing brain games with him (eg. with Nina Ottosson toys, etc). With Juliet, I did that less. As such I think Romeo's thinking skills are better than Juliet's. He figures things out very quickly. He also doesn't give up as easily if he can't get something right the first or second time. Juliet takes a while and almost always gives me the CAN YOU JUST GET IT FOR ME! look.

 

[Toffee's Mom]

@ Caro
This is the link of what I had watched and then started to think about this the next day when Toffee was problem solving...
I LOVE this one... it's called DOGS DECODED, it has three parts right here...
Also amazing about dogs being able to read human emotion and face recognition unlike ANY other animal, even Chimps!

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dogs-decoded/

Cheryl, LOL I am sure he could think but he doesn't have to if his Mom always takes care of everything for him, hahahaha
Yes, he did know the fence has an opening where the drive way is, that's Scotty's yard (his BFF and my friendly neighbour). He usually doesn't go that far away from me but the first time he figured it out he stopped to ask whether it was ok for him to to the yard.

 

[Justicemom]

Oh good! I'm not the only one! I loooove watching them think! When I only had Romeo, I spent alot of time playing brain games with him (eg. with Nina Ottosson toys, etc). With Juliet, I did that less. As such I think Romeo's thinking skills are better than Juliet's. He figures things out very quickly. He also doesn't give up as easily if he can't get something right the first or second time. Juliet takes a while and almost always gives me the CAN YOU JUST GET IT FOR ME! look.

You know what is funny. Both of my boys show a great deal of natual drive to figure things out. They both keep working and working until they get it. Both of my girls tend to try but then want to give up if it doesn't easily come to them. I will gentle insist and they will go "fine, but we are not happy about it".

I don't know if it is because Justice and Birch are boys or if they are very similar in personality(which they are).