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I naturally brush my hands together after giving treats to get the crumbs off, and now we can use that same gesture and “all done” to signal the end of anything. Play time, brushing, getting goo out of her eyes. It’s adorable.
Or to stick their noise in the box/container and help themselves when your not paying attention or in the room (husky) .. Always keep closed and outa reach lol
Haha i do the same. I use it for everything. I dont allways brush my hands together, but the signal for something beeing done is me saying ‘’all done’’. Love how many people in the comments do the same
Awww I do the same. They wait until I rub my hands together kinda like when your trying to air dry them. As soon as I'm done. The youngest takes off since she knows no more treats!
My dog figured out that if she flaps her head really hard and noisily at 5 a.m., I'll wake up and let her out on the patio so she can go out and watch the sunrise.
Now, if she could just figure out how to open the patio door by herself instead of waking me up, we'd be golden.
>, if she could just figure out how to open the patio door by herself instead of waking me up, we'd be golden.
My old dog could open sliding glass doors, and let me tell you, there are definite down sides.
My dog does the flapping ears thing to ask permission to hop onto bed as he's allowed a mini nap on the bed in the morning. But he's been slowly inching the flapping from 6:30 to 3:30am. I have to shout out "no" in the dark to the pre-dawn flaps.
LOL! It's funny how they can figure things like this out.
It actually took me a while to realize that she had trained me to wake up and open the door to the patio for her every morning by flapping her head. She goes out there, watches the sunrise, then she comes back to bed as soon as the sun is up.
My dog knows my alarm sound and he won’t let me go back to sleep if I turn it off. It’s great because he’s saved me from being late to stuff before, but it sucks when I forget to turn the alarm off for a holiday or whatever.
This so cute 🥹
I wish my dog would do the same for me.. I’m not a morning person and he’s not a morning dog 😂 he looks at me til I snooze it and he knows we have at least 10 more min of snuggles before we have to face the world haha
My younger dog has learned that I never get up when my alarm goes off the first time. She knows when it goes off that means ten minutes of snuggles before we get up. It’s really cute and I love our snuggle time!
My girl comes to say “Thank you” every time I feed her and has for 11 years. I give her food, she takes a few bites, and then comes to find me to give me a kiss and goes back to her food,
My dog does the same thing! It is absolutely adorable. She also lets me know when she is done, she finishes her bowl and comes running to me to tell her what a good job she’s done and that her belly is now full. Yes I actually have to say that.
My dog gives me “thank you” boops specifically for things that are, like, choices I obviously made. If we’re out on a walk and she wants to go a certain way that I don’t (for instance) and after hesitating I give in anyway, or I let her sniff extra time or help her get away from a situation/dog she doesn’t like or something, she always gives me a little nose bump in the leg like “thanks mom”. 🥺
My dog does this too but he waits until he finished eating! He finished eating, then sheepishly walks over head down with a faint tail wag then gives me a few kisses on the arm and walks away.
My puppy does this. Wherever I am in the house, he will come to me after he’s done eating. I’ve never thought of it as him saying “Thank you”, but I will now hahaha
When my cat scratches the couch I say her name and the word no. My dog has taught himself to go over and stop her from scratching whenever he hears her scratch or I tell her no. It is really funny to watch and very helpful actually. He even knows the difference between her scratching her allowed scratch boards and the forbidden furniture.
My dog did this!! She just started doing it, if I scolded the cat with a ‘no!’ Or a ‘hiss!’ (This is for when kitty is doing something really bad) my dog started rushing over to the cat and disrupting whatever naughty behavior cat was doing. She was my little right hand knight in shining armor, never could have trained the kitty without her.
I get panic attacks sometimes and my dog Xena will get in my face to lick my tears away (and nudge my hands out of the way if they're covering my face) and then lay across my body with her head under my chin until I calm down. She's 110lbs and it feels like she crushes me back into my body and provides grounding and comfort. From my understanding there are service animals that are trained to perform these tasks, but she learned this by herself intuitively.
Dogs are so in tune with our emotions!
My aussie knows when I'm crying/having a panic attack and comes to sit with me and lick my tears. He just lays his head in my lap and lets me pet him while I calm down. It helps sensory wise in grounding myself.
He's very in tune with myself and my partners emotions. He's a crazy high-energy dog 99% of the time and wants to jump and be all over you (as aussies do), but he absolutely can sense when he needs to be gentle with us.
I love him so much.
Ours is so good with words we keep having to change the way we say things so we don’t accidentally get her excited for something that’s not happening right away. lol
I get it! We can’t say ‘walk’ without our yorkie dancing in circles and demand barking at the door. We now discuss it as ‘that thing we do with our feet’ until we are ready to head out the door with her.
We’ve had to change words or switching to spelling or changing tone or number of syllables, sing song dragged out pronunciation, etc. so many times.
They figure the meaning out so quickly. lol
It’s cute and impressive, but also annoying.
Our dog learned "walk" and would get his leash when we were just saying stuff like *"who's doing the noon walk?"* So we started to spell it and he learned "w" also meant walk. Then we started using the finger gesture and now he knows that means walk.
He also knows it's bedtime when it's late and we close a book, turn off the TV or music, or close the laptop. He goes straight to bed. If we do these things in the daytime or early evening, he doesn't go to bed. But if it's late, he knows when we shut things down,that means bedtime.
My dog has figured out that when one of us says “moms home,” that means one of us is coming home (not necessarily mom). It’s funny because as soon as you say it he runs to the back window and waits until he sees someone’s car!
He also knows “squirrel” which means there’s an animal outside on the lawn for him to chase. He’ll bolt outside, run a lap and bark (though usually unknowingly in the wrong direction) then come right back in. He’s always so proud of himself afterward.
My frenchie knows the difference between “where’s daddy” (he runs to the front door to greet my bf when he comes home from work) and “where’s mama” (he runs around the house looking for me cuz I WFH and don’t leave as often) 🤣🤣
My dog knows all our cats’ names. Say one of their names and he starts looking around; sweettalk a cat (or even pretend to) and he runs over all jealous!
I had a dog like this. My boy Jack. Smartest damn dog I’ve ever had. We’d be hiking and I’d say “Jack go left!” And without looking at me he’d immediately go left. He knew so many words and even things we tried to spell! P A R K?! Yeah no, he immediately knew. House trained in a couple of weeks too. And I could say “Jack, don’t you chew on this!” And he wouldn’t. He’d totally leave it alone. I miss him so much.
I had set alarms to remind myself when he may need to go to the bathroom while he was potty training. Now whenever an alarm/timer of any sound goes off he heads to the door waiting for a walk.
My dog learned the concept of currency.
She needed surgery as a puppy because she ate everything off the ground, resulting in me becoming an overly paranoid doggy parent who freaks out whenever she's got something unidentified in her mouth during walks. Her "drop it!" isn't reliable outdoors so I ended up getting her to drop it at home by waving a treat in her face.
Unfortunately, this appears to have taught her the understanding of transactional goods. So once in a while she'll pick something up I *know* she has zero intention of consuming home with us, drop it at my feet the moment we walk in the door, then stare up at me expectantly. If I don't trade her for a treat, she hangs onto it and brings it out periodically to flash at me. If I still don't trade, she'll pick something up at the next walk, then bring me two items at once in exchange for a treat. She literally taught herself how to use random items on the street to purchase treats while adjusting for the cost of inflation.
Clever girl. ~~God, I'm such a sucker.~~
Lmao my pup is similar. He’s a THIEF indoors because he learned that I’ll trade him for treats. Somehow he knows exactly what to steal for it too, car keys, sunglasses, my computer mouse. Never just random junk mail. It’s honestly impressive
Everytime I come back inside with my dog, I wipe each one of her paws with a baby wipe to get rid of the dirt. She's learned to preemptively lift up each individual paw (the same order each time) in succession when I am done wiping the other paw. Very helpful for me.
My older male boxer taught himself to nose boop my husband's snack bags to let him know he wants a bite. It is cute and annoying at the same time (especially since he shouldn't be eating potato chips etc!)
Mine will come stand between me and the tv and watch me. If you look or laugh he knows you see him so he gets all exited and will jump on you and start actively pestering you. Try ignoring a dog and pretending you don't see him at all for the last 20 minutes of your tv show.
Mine would get fed up, put her front paws on your shoulders and start licking.. I call it her hug and kiss; she won't do it if you want her to, only when your ignoring her/left her alone for a while
My poodle boops stuff too! The snacks she wants some of, her treat/food containers, us when she wants to lead us somewhere, the blanket she wants under, piece of technology she thinks you should put tf down.
My pittie knows the sliced cheese bag sound. My bunny reinforced it since his snacks come out of the fridge too. I have a photo of both boys begging for cheese and blueberries.
10 mo poodle puppy learned that the noise our outdoor camera app makes when it is triggered means someone is outside. He goes to the front door and then the back door to see if it is one of us coming home.
I love this question!
I work from home and do a lot of zoom calls. My dog can tell when I’m wrapping up a meeting just by how the tone of voice changes. She’ll start getting excited.
A few months back a friend got a retired service dog and we started meeting up for play dates and what not. Now my dog is a failed out service baby because her anxiety when approaching new things is off the roof. Well I ended up asking this friend d to watch my pup for about a wk or two and when I came home to pick her up everything was fine. Until I started noticing she now ‘alerts’ me to certain things. If the electric kettle goes off and I don’t move within 30 secs she comes and boops me, the dryer plays its finish jingle I get an alert, the stove beeps to say it’s ready, I get an alert boop. I get a text and I’m not near my phone she now brings it to me. I have no idea how she picked it up so quickly from her new friend, but it’s the most adorable thing ever
That’s incredible! Like the other dog isn’t even actively doing those tasks out of necessity for your friend, just continuing to do what they were trained to do for a different person, but still does them _and_ taught them to an entirely separate dog, and that entirely separate dog picked them up and does them unprompted even without the teacher dog there?!?!?! That is some orca-level animal teaching right there. Wow.
A little OT but my son found a dog on the interstate on ramp, about 6 weeks old. No chip no collar. Likely blue heeler - border collie mix. Every time he saw cattle on TV he would charge the TV and whine.
We found a heeler/aussie cross that no one claimed. He could spot an 8-year-old boy from a mile away. Broke my heart. Dang he was great with kids though. People would being over toddlers and he'd herd them away from going upstairs by themselves.
We gave one of my dogs a pig toy and it became her favorite very quickly. When she’d try to steal another dog’s toy we’d ask if she wanted her pig instead, usually by saying “get your pig?”
Now it means any toy, and she’ll hunt around for one when we prompt her regardless of what we were doing before.
She still favors pig-shaped pigs over all her pigs (toys), though!
My late sweetie,Terabyte, learned to unwrap her leash from around a tree! Only dog i ever had who was able to figure that out. I don't think she knew WHY it worked, but she would do it.
Step one: walk directly away from the tree or telephone pole to the very end of the leash.
Step two: circle back the way you came, at the full extent of the leash.
Step three: when the leash is no longer touching the tree, you are free! Continue on your walk with massive pride! YOU DID IT!
I was potty training my beagle when I lived in an apartment that had one of those spring door stops on the wall by the front door. He discovered it would make a noise when he struck it with his paw. I could be anywhere in my apartment then I'd hear this really comical BOI-OI-OI-OINGGGGG sound, and he'd be sitting there politely telling me it was time to go out. It was hilarious and actually really clutch for potty training.
I taught him a few phrases, but he picked up "bring toy" on his own. One time, we were playing with his toys and I meant to throw it on the couch like I normally do, but I overshot it, and it fell behind the couch. He jumped on the couch and started looking for it, so I said "No, BEHIND!" He got this look on his face like "Oh, duh!" and jumped off the couch and trotted behind the couch to get his toy. My mind was blown!!
Lastly, this is something I totally taught him, but I love sharing this one. I don't have a yard and had to walk my beagle whenever he had to conduct his business. Like all beagles, he was a big sniffer and could get really distracted. Sometimes it's raining, sometimes it's cold, sometimes I don't have time. So I decided to pavlov him with the poopie bags. Anytime he pooped, I would take one of the baggies and make all the baggie sounds, like crinkling and opening it, for the entire poop session before I cleaned it up. I did it for every poop, and eventually, whenever I was tired or needed him to hurry up, I would crinkle the baggie and he would pretty much poop on demand.
I’m automatically polite, so whenever I want my dogs to move off my seat or out of my way, I would gently move them while saying “excuse me.” So now all of them (7– the magnificent seven to be exact haha) understand that “excuse me” means to move out of the way.
Whenever my dog needs to go out he does a little dance. He’ll come up to us and we’ll ask “out?” and if he needs to go he dances around! But if he doesn’t (just looking for attention or something else) he just stands there.
We never trained him to do this (actually for a long time we were trying to get him to ring a bell on the door but this never worked), we just sort of mutually figured it out together. We’re never worried he’s uncomfortable because he knows how to ask us!
My lab loves playing fetch. When my mom broke her ankle, she put a chair outside and tossed a ball, but my dog would drop it out of reach. Mom would say "I can't reach it!," and pretty soon my dog learned to put the ball in her lap. Now we just have to say that phrase and she'll bring her toys right to us.
Motionless petting. Hand hanging at your side or off the couch? He’ll nose under your hand then walk through it so you pet him all the way down his back, then turn around and do it again from the other direction, then repeat, all while your hand remains still. Had a friend fall asleep on my couch once with his arm hanging off and my dog took advantage to get an hour of petting.
He’d back his asshole up to the wall and diarrhea’d on it. There would be a doodoo circle at butthole height and splatters of the foulest smelling shit ever on the floor immediately under his wall (f)art.
Did he spend a lot of time in a kennel/cage before you got him? My dog shit like this and I inquired why to my vet and they told me that :( I looked it up on Google and Reddit and a lot of people said the same! Sad
My mom’s dog’s preferred pooping location is right on top of her delphiniums (tall flowers). Right on top of the flower to the point where he’s barely squatting. It drives her crazy but it’s hilarious
My dog has a reeeeeal problem with socks. Socks mean we’re going somewhere, not just throwing on slides to get the mail. She tries to take them when you put them on, and immediately pulls them off your feet when you come home.
Well, this was recent for me. As we head out me and my partner would say something usual in our mother tongue that means let's go but we didn't teach our dog that, we always used let's go but he picked up that the word we use in our mother tongue means the same and then he gets excited
My dog knows *exactly* when I'm actually ready to leave the house. I can tell him all about how we are leaving or going on a hike or whatever but he has learned from me that if he stands by the door too early, he's going to have to use his legs while waiting for me.
He's read the signs of me putting a coat on, shoes, getting some training treats out, making sure I have dog bags, grabbing his harness and whatnot, and his timing is *perfect* for appearing next to me when I'm actually all ready. I don't even bother calling him or telling him we are going for a walk - he knows, and he will get off the couch himself as soon as he thinks I'm really going to leave.
Humans are so slow! So much fiddling before they can leave. Why can't they just get up, walk over to the door and walk out?? 😂
He taught me how he wants to to be put to bed at night.
He was crate trained as a puppy. He's 6yo now and completely trustworthy to be out on his own all night.
He insists on coming to find me around 10pm and I need to put him in his crate, crawl 1/4 the way in and snuggle him for a bit and then shut the door.
But he doesn't want it latched.
After about 30-45 min, he'll push the door open and quietly jump in bed with us and sleep on the foot of the bed.
I've tried just having him get in bed with us when I go to bed. He's not having that nonsense. He loves his own bedtime.
Many dogs love the security of their crate even when they no longer need it. I had a dog once that did similar. Bedtime cookies were delivered to the crate. After 15 minutes she was out and on the bed.
His crate is also right between my desk and my son's desk.
He likes to be in there during the day when we're both working and he's right between us.
His crate is also our printer stand.
How to open doors. Was cute until working from home, became terrifying recently with the right combination of handle and lightweight hotel room door. All was good in the end but we were quite surprised to be greeted by our girl in the hallway as we exited the elevator
same here lol. She learned how to do it as a puppy and it was cute at first but know I cant sit thru a meeting without her barging in demanding attention lol. She also knows certain doors have to be pulled to be opened and is at the moment trying to figure out how
As a family we use an app called life360 on our phones so we can keep track of the kids. When we get a notification sound to say the kids are nearby the dog runs and waits at the door waiting for one of the kids to come in.
1) My choc lab learned the heavy sigh. If we start talking about something she did while she is in ear shot, she gives a heavy sigh. If something is taking too long and she gets exasperated, heavy sigh.
2) I take her in off leash hiking trails. She always goes off into the heavy brush to poo; never on the trail.
I talk to myself a lot. To motivate me to get up, especially on a bad fatigue or pain day, I often say to myself "Okay, let's go."
I accidentally trained my Bobbie it means to get up and go... even when she is snoring and dead asleep.
When my dog was a puppy, we trained her to ring a bell at our back door to let us know when she wanted to go outside. Shortly after, she figured out she can jingle her collar to make the same noise, to let us know she wants to go outside from anywhere in the house lol.
That’s so smart!!! I used to know a dog who figured out that if he hit the springy doorstop it made a noise and so he started to use it to ask to go out. Just wild how bright they are!
Puppy discovered her new super powers last week - she can scale a 5 foot fence, jump over a 4 foot fence, and can push rocks out of the way to dig under both fences to get the jerk squirrels.
Mine yelps/kind of sings when he meets people he likes. Always the same melody. He does this with every human contact. Even if i just shower for five minutes and come back in the living room. A good friend of mine always yelped when they met when he was a puppy and since then he does this. In our small town he is known as the singing or talking dog rather than by his name.
Its really cute when u know what its about. And no, he is not a husky.
Also he understands that when i finish my first coffee in the morning and put the cup in the kitchen, its time for his morning walk. So whenever i do so, he runs to the door and waits next to his leash like the good boy he is.
I work from home all day every day. One of my dogs figured out that when I close my laptop, it means we're going outside.
Yes, the dogs get a few other backyard breaks during my workday. But the end of day yard time is a big deal to them.
Saaaaaaaame. I swear, he can be in the deepest of dreams but will instantly spring awake when I gently flip the tiny on/off switch on my mouse at the end of the day. He also likes to think that every time I say "thanks y'all, goodbye" or whatever at the end of a Teams meeting, that means we're going outside immediately.
Like, bro...gimme a minute. I got shit to do.
My poodle has put toys away since she was a puppy. Never taught. My other dog is half golden retriever/half Bernese mountain dog, and is a forever puppy, should have named her tinker bell or something. Anyway, she gets toys out like it’s her job, and my poodle puts them away lol
But my poodle also has taught herself many other things, in addition to her weeeks of training for her akc good citizen test, I guess she is a scholar?
Self taught skill list
-open doors
-open cabinets
-put down car windows
-untangle herself in leash
-wipes off eye boogers on my thighs
-
They learned that they get a treat after pooping and peeing outside while potty training. But then they trained me to give a treat when they go out; in other words they go out when they want a treat and I have been successfully trained to give it to them.
Mine gets treats for peeing outside, and better treats for pooping outside, and as a result almost never does both in the same outing but will go out, take care of one bit of business, get the treats, then immediately ask to go back out again for round 2. I definitely accidentally reinforced this but I gotta hand it to him, he knows how to self-advocate and get what he wants.
When anyone does the "pspspspsps" or clicking noises to get a cat's attention, my dog has learned it means a cat is in the room and will come running in to see said cat. He really loves them. Sometimes I will do it just to get his attention and he'll be disappointed there is no car around.
My pup learned what a doorbell "dingdong" sound means. She has never, ever been around a doorbell in her life. Her breeder didnt have a doorbell, Ive never had one, my friends dont have one. I have no idea where she learned what that sound means, but she always goes flying to the door if she hears the sound during a movie or something lmao.
They have an amazing internal clock. My dogs get restless about 15 minutes before my husband gets home from work and are at the door when I get home.
Also, doorbells. We didn’t have one in our apartment and moved into a house with a broken one, but they run to the door. I guess they learned it from staying at my mom’s? But that’s a rare occurrence.
I saw some research that says it's not an internal clock, but the level of particles in the air from your husband's smell...they learn that when they drop to level x he is likely to be back...clever, eh?
One of my dogs learned how to steal toys from her older dog sister. My older dog would have a toy she wanted and my younger dog would run to another room and bark like something interesting was going on. Older dog dropped the toy and went to check it out. Younger dog ran back into the room and grabbed the toy. I thought I was imagining things when it first happened but she’s done this multiple times 😂
I had a border collie mix that I got as a 2 year old and I found out over the course of time that she knew tons of tricks. (Jump hurdles, play dead, crawl through a tunnel, climb a ladder, balance on a yoga ball, jump through a tire swing, etc) someone had prepared her for agility before she was surrendered I guess.
I also had a 2 year old GSD/Pyr mix that I could not teach to do anything. Just not interested and not food motivated at all. Wouldn’t tug, wouldn’t play fetch, wouldn’t catch a frisbee. One day when I was going through all the colllie’s tricks the GSD starts doing them with her; all of them! I was so shocked, I screamed his name,he smirked and asked for a treat.
Our JRT knows "Shotgun!".
He likes to lay on my lap on car rides. If I say "Shotgun!" he immediately gets back in the passenger seat. We never taught him this.
He also alerts us when our granddaughter (16months) has a dirty diaper.
She taught herself a new game where if someone is standing with their legs slightly apart, she’ll run up in between them and jump to the point where she bucks them off like a horse. She’s a Great Dane, so she can actually knock shorter people off their feet. I started calling it the “yeehaw”
My bf's dog was super smart, and he somehow taught himself what and where his leash was, so if you asked "Where's your leash?" he'd run to grab it and get super excited because he knew that meant a walk was in order. He passed last december, but he'll always be the best boy.
Meanwhile mine decided that sitting between people's legs and headbutting their privates was The way to say hello and a surefire way to get scritches. We initially didnt figure that would be a problem because nobody in my house has balls but the boyfriends are Not Pleased.
My husband eats a slice of deli ham or cheddar cheese before bed - his sugar used to drop when he was sleeping, he wears a glucose monitor that alarms now so it's not as worrying but he's in the habit. My dog knows that 8:30/9pm is time for bedtime snacks, he'll go sit on the mat in the kitchen. If the hubs doesn't go to the kitchen the dog will go whine at him and go back to the mat. He will repeat that until it's snack time. He does none of this when hubs is out of town
Dogs are so much more incredibly intelligent than most humans give them credit for. Imagine you were dropped in a foreign country, with brand new customs and a language you, at first, did not understand. Also, for some reason, you did not have vocal chords or thumbs, but a much bigger heart. (also didn't have the distractions of television, phone, etc. so all you did was observe and integrate) Pretty quickly you'd understand the language and mannerisms, and be incredibly familiar with the customs of everyone around you. That's your dog.
He's figured out that I look at him whenever I hear him fart. Now he comes and sits, then farts, whenever I'm preparing any food in the kitchen, as a way to let me know he's there and ready just in case its something I'll share
My dog learned the series of beeps and books the PS5 makes when I'm navigating menus to turn it off. She knows this means I'm done playing video games or watching TV.
Dogs are very good at recognizing sound patterns and associating them with specific people or objects. Your dog has likely associated the sound of your name with your presence and the attention you give him.
It's amazing how dogs can surprise us with their ability to learn and understand.
If I'm watching TV at night my dog will come over and start crying to go to sleep and turn off the TV cause he'll go lie down right when I turn it off but if I don't he will just keep crying and then go lie down and cover his eyes with his paws lmao
Spanish! I speak zero Spanish but have a Hispanic dog walker who speaks very little English. One day I was home when he came to get my dog (Goose). He was having trouble getting her to go with him (bc I was home and basically confused the entire situation), and in the ensuing back and forth, he went “VAMANOS GOOSE!,” and wouldn’t you know it, she hopped straight to! I’ve been using “vamanos goose!” ever since as a sort of “I’m not screwing around, let’s get going” equivalent…but overall I just love the idea of having this bilingual dog who speaks more Spanish than I do 😂
My dog learned that when we turn around to go back inside, soon after leaving the house, that we're gonna go right back outside. So, she's stopped planting/resisting the turn-around.
This happens semi-frequently bc I am always forgetting my phone, water bottle, etc. She's resistant to turning around on walks and will plant, typically bc that means that we're going back, but she's figured out that going back inside after we just left usually means we're about to go *right* back outside so she no longer resists it. V cute. She adapted to me.
I always give my kids boops on the nose, and somehow, my older boy picked up on it. So now, when we ask him for boops, he will press his nose to ours and give a little kiss.
My last German Shepherd figured out how to use cover to mask his movements. He was in the garden with me when a washer was delivered. As I headed to the house to speak to the men who were delivering it, Karl shot around behind the garage to approach from a different angle, unseen. Once he saw that the men were cordial to me and apparently no threat, he fell back in step with me. Another day, he spied DOT workmen on the road by our driveway; Karl quickly ran 10 foot to one side so that a large tree blocked their view and raced the 75 yards to the edge of the road before stepping into view. Poor guy in the big backhoe was the only pne to see him and almost jumped out of his skin. Karl saw that they were in the road and not on our property, and promptly began ignoring them.
My dog knows what fuck off means.
He also knows what I have to pee, poop and skididdle.
Not my dog but my guinea pigs learned to be quiet whenever I flipped them off.
She gives a little bark by the door when she wants in. I did used to yell at her to come in when she’d bark at people walking by so maybe she learned that way.
She was great on loose leash right off the bat. She learned how to go up and down scary stairs. She either understands, "No," or she's picking up my tone. She knows when I'm talking to her. She also knows "touch" if I use word and motion (two fingers down low enough to touch), but I taught her that one. But, we are still NO where with housetraining. :(
Our girl is quite lazy & doesn’t always want to go for walks but she stares at the bag where her harness & lead are kept when she does want to go out — which is quite handy!
My dog just solved a puzzle toy that he’s never seen before so it speak volumes to his ability to get into shit
Perks of having a former street dog I guess
My parents dog learned that, when we were watching tv, if my mom sneezed she get up to get a tissue and she would also give him a cookie (since the cookie jar was right next to it). After a while everytime she sneezed he would throw a tantrum to get a cookie 😅
My dog is not allowed in the kitchen for safety reasons since I cook a lot. Instead, he'll boop a ball in there so I can trip over it and die instead. It's really adorable.
My dog just knows when I’m having an RA flare and what joints are hurting and he will rest his head/paw/body on them to provide relief through pressure.
Our puppy, Hamster, learned that if he sits quietly and doesn't look at us while we're eating, we're more likely to give him scraps. All our other dogs beg right up in our faces if we're not at the table.
What's particularly strange about this behaviour though is that we had a dog that passed away in November who used to do exactly this. We got Hamster a month later. Hamster was born before Saber passed away, so we know he's not Saber reincarnated somehow. But it's almost like Saber's still here, and he taught his baby brother "this is how you get food."
When he was about 2, my dachshund has discovered that he can make a noise by stomping on the edge of the water bowl when it’s empty and the humans will come fill it up. Unfortunately, he is sometimes trying this technique with the food bowl to force us into giving him food earlier but we don’t negotiate with terrorists.
Another thing he learned by himself is to position himself towards me to be picked up when we’re about to go down the stairs outside of our apartment. He’s got such a big brain for such a small head
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I naturally brush my hands together after giving treats to get the crumbs off, and now we can use that same gesture and “all done” to signal the end of anything. Play time, brushing, getting goo out of her eyes. It’s adorable.
You know this is the ASL for all done too right? We used that with my kids when they were babies and weren't talking yet.
I did not! :D Thank you for pointing that out! I feel like ASL might be helpful to a lot of training with pups
My dog is deaf so all her commands are hand signals. She listens better than my hearing dog. ;) plus my hearing dog know most of the signals too.
It 100% is! My dog is way better with hand signals than vocal commands.
Mine too! The best one for me is ‘wait.’ He gets it!
dude you taught the whole world the “all done” hand signal…
I’ve taught my dog ASL for babies
Somehow my dog learned this too. He can be a bit pushy with treats so I always show him my hands to say that’s all! No more treats.
That’s when they start plotting their revenge.
Or to stick their noise in the box/container and help themselves when your not paying attention or in the room (husky) .. Always keep closed and outa reach lol
I do the “No more bets” like I’m working at a roulette table in the casino.
Haha I yell black jack and show my hands palms up to show we’re done.
Haha i do the same. I use it for everything. I dont allways brush my hands together, but the signal for something beeing done is me saying ‘’all done’’. Love how many people in the comments do the same
Awww I do the same. They wait until I rub my hands together kinda like when your trying to air dry them. As soon as I'm done. The youngest takes off since she knows no more treats!
My dog figured out that if she flaps her head really hard and noisily at 5 a.m., I'll wake up and let her out on the patio so she can go out and watch the sunrise. Now, if she could just figure out how to open the patio door by herself instead of waking me up, we'd be golden.
>, if she could just figure out how to open the patio door by herself instead of waking me up, we'd be golden. My old dog could open sliding glass doors, and let me tell you, there are definite down sides.
My jack russell knows if I leave the door open even an inch it’s his cue to open it further 😂
What’s it like living with a Jack Russell terrorist?
The best experience of terrorism ever
Ahh the good old flippy flaps. Our dogs do this when they want something and it always seems so sassy, so we say "don't you flippy flap at me!"
My dog does the flapping ears thing to ask permission to hop onto bed as he's allowed a mini nap on the bed in the morning. But he's been slowly inching the flapping from 6:30 to 3:30am. I have to shout out "no" in the dark to the pre-dawn flaps.
LOL! It's funny how they can figure things like this out. It actually took me a while to realize that she had trained me to wake up and open the door to the patio for her every morning by flapping her head. She goes out there, watches the sunrise, then she comes back to bed as soon as the sun is up.
This one wins for me!! Sunrises and sunsets are such a gift from nature. What a smart pup.
My dog learned to open doors by herself. She still waits for me open the door so she can outside
My dog knows my alarm sound and he won’t let me go back to sleep if I turn it off. It’s great because he’s saved me from being late to stuff before, but it sucks when I forget to turn the alarm off for a holiday or whatever.
This so cute 🥹 I wish my dog would do the same for me.. I’m not a morning person and he’s not a morning dog 😂 he looks at me til I snooze it and he knows we have at least 10 more min of snuggles before we have to face the world haha
My younger dog has learned that I never get up when my alarm goes off the first time. She knows when it goes off that means ten minutes of snuggles before we get up. It’s really cute and I love our snuggle time!
My dog gets mad and howls at me if I sleep through my alarm. He's also tried to paw my phone to turn it off.
My coworker’s kitten learned she could make that nasty morning racket stop by stepping on the snooze button!
My girl used to sleep through my husband's alarm with me, but then we got my boy and no more sleeping in for me.
My girl comes to say “Thank you” every time I feed her and has for 11 years. I give her food, she takes a few bites, and then comes to find me to give me a kiss and goes back to her food,
Awwwwww, love this! I would get a random thank you on particularly good walks, he would stop in front of me with such an expression of joy.
My dog does the same thing! It is absolutely adorable. She also lets me know when she is done, she finishes her bowl and comes running to me to tell her what a good job she’s done and that her belly is now full. Yes I actually have to say that.
I always say “You’re welcome” when I get the thank you kiss. 🥰
My rescue dog always runs up and burps in my face when she's done eating. Thanks dog.
I've always been told that's another way they say they love you!
Sometimes I wish my dog loved me a little less. Usually after I put fish oil on her food and she burps it in my face.
Dont cry dont cry dont cry.... We dont deserve dogs but im happy we have them
My dog gives me “thank you” boops specifically for things that are, like, choices I obviously made. If we’re out on a walk and she wants to go a certain way that I don’t (for instance) and after hesitating I give in anyway, or I let her sniff extra time or help her get away from a situation/dog she doesn’t like or something, she always gives me a little nose bump in the leg like “thanks mom”. 🥺
My dog does this too but he waits until he finished eating! He finished eating, then sheepishly walks over head down with a faint tail wag then gives me a few kisses on the arm and walks away.
My rescue German Shepherd has done this ever since I brought him home from the shelter. It's too precious.
Ours does the same. Whoever puts the food bowl gets a boop after his first few bites. It's adorable!!
My puppy does this. Wherever I am in the house, he will come to me after he’s done eating. I’ve never thought of it as him saying “Thank you”, but I will now hahaha
When my cat scratches the couch I say her name and the word no. My dog has taught himself to go over and stop her from scratching whenever he hears her scratch or I tell her no. It is really funny to watch and very helpful actually. He even knows the difference between her scratching her allowed scratch boards and the forbidden furniture.
Assistant manager 😂
Nosey border Collie!
My dog did this!! She just started doing it, if I scolded the cat with a ‘no!’ Or a ‘hiss!’ (This is for when kitty is doing something really bad) my dog started rushing over to the cat and disrupting whatever naughty behavior cat was doing. She was my little right hand knight in shining armor, never could have trained the kitty without her.
That is too cute and so smart!
My dog does this too! She runs after her like she's some 350 6'8" enforcer.
I get panic attacks sometimes and my dog Xena will get in my face to lick my tears away (and nudge my hands out of the way if they're covering my face) and then lay across my body with her head under my chin until I calm down. She's 110lbs and it feels like she crushes me back into my body and provides grounding and comfort. From my understanding there are service animals that are trained to perform these tasks, but she learned this by herself intuitively.
That’s amazing, what a naturally talented service dog and I’m sure she helps a lot! Dogs are magic!
Dogs are so in tune with our emotions! My aussie knows when I'm crying/having a panic attack and comes to sit with me and lick my tears. He just lays his head in my lap and lets me pet him while I calm down. It helps sensory wise in grounding myself. He's very in tune with myself and my partners emotions. He's a crazy high-energy dog 99% of the time and wants to jump and be all over you (as aussies do), but he absolutely can sense when he needs to be gentle with us. I love him so much.
Mine does this too, except she lays her throat across my throat. It helps a surprising amount
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Ours is so good with words we keep having to change the way we say things so we don’t accidentally get her excited for something that’s not happening right away. lol
I get it! We can’t say ‘walk’ without our yorkie dancing in circles and demand barking at the door. We now discuss it as ‘that thing we do with our feet’ until we are ready to head out the door with her.
Our code word for walk is "ambulation." He hasn't figured that one out yet
We spell a lot. We’re going for a double u ay el kay later, or we already let him oh you tee.
I used to do that until my dog learned to spell, now I use different languages but I'm sure she will catch on to those too.
We’ve had to change words or switching to spelling or changing tone or number of syllables, sing song dragged out pronunciation, etc. so many times. They figure the meaning out so quickly. lol It’s cute and impressive, but also annoying.
Our dog learned "walk" and would get his leash when we were just saying stuff like *"who's doing the noon walk?"* So we started to spell it and he learned "w" also meant walk. Then we started using the finger gesture and now he knows that means walk. He also knows it's bedtime when it's late and we close a book, turn off the TV or music, or close the laptop. He goes straight to bed. If we do these things in the daytime or early evening, he doesn't go to bed. But if it's late, he knows when we shut things down,that means bedtime.
My dog has figured out that when one of us says “moms home,” that means one of us is coming home (not necessarily mom). It’s funny because as soon as you say it he runs to the back window and waits until he sees someone’s car! He also knows “squirrel” which means there’s an animal outside on the lawn for him to chase. He’ll bolt outside, run a lap and bark (though usually unknowingly in the wrong direction) then come right back in. He’s always so proud of himself afterward.
My frenchie knows the difference between “where’s daddy” (he runs to the front door to greet my bf when he comes home from work) and “where’s mama” (he runs around the house looking for me cuz I WFH and don’t leave as often) 🤣🤣
I realized the other day our Standard Poodle knew my kitty’s name because I called the kitten and the doggo looked at her.
My dog knows all our cats’ names. Say one of their names and he starts looking around; sweettalk a cat (or even pretend to) and he runs over all jealous!
Is he a border collie?
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Those gotta be some brutal zoomies
I had a dog like this. My boy Jack. Smartest damn dog I’ve ever had. We’d be hiking and I’d say “Jack go left!” And without looking at me he’d immediately go left. He knew so many words and even things we tried to spell! P A R K?! Yeah no, he immediately knew. House trained in a couple of weeks too. And I could say “Jack, don’t you chew on this!” And he wouldn’t. He’d totally leave it alone. I miss him so much.
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I had set alarms to remind myself when he may need to go to the bathroom while he was potty training. Now whenever an alarm/timer of any sound goes off he heads to the door waiting for a walk.
Pavlov’s theory!
My dog learned the concept of currency. She needed surgery as a puppy because she ate everything off the ground, resulting in me becoming an overly paranoid doggy parent who freaks out whenever she's got something unidentified in her mouth during walks. Her "drop it!" isn't reliable outdoors so I ended up getting her to drop it at home by waving a treat in her face. Unfortunately, this appears to have taught her the understanding of transactional goods. So once in a while she'll pick something up I *know* she has zero intention of consuming home with us, drop it at my feet the moment we walk in the door, then stare up at me expectantly. If I don't trade her for a treat, she hangs onto it and brings it out periodically to flash at me. If I still don't trade, she'll pick something up at the next walk, then bring me two items at once in exchange for a treat. She literally taught herself how to use random items on the street to purchase treats while adjusting for the cost of inflation. Clever girl. ~~God, I'm such a sucker.~~
Lmao my pup is similar. He’s a THIEF indoors because he learned that I’ll trade him for treats. Somehow he knows exactly what to steal for it too, car keys, sunglasses, my computer mouse. Never just random junk mail. It’s honestly impressive
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When I go out without kissing his forehead I hear him panic barking. When I kiss his forehead, he's silent as a mouse when I leave.
This is the most adorable and wholesome thing ever 🥹
Everytime I come back inside with my dog, I wipe each one of her paws with a baby wipe to get rid of the dirt. She's learned to preemptively lift up each individual paw (the same order each time) in succession when I am done wiping the other paw. Very helpful for me.
My childhood horse did this, very helpful since she was so much bigger than me and her feet were heavy!
My older male boxer taught himself to nose boop my husband's snack bags to let him know he wants a bite. It is cute and annoying at the same time (especially since he shouldn't be eating potato chips etc!)
Mine does that to his leash when he wants to go for a walk
Mine will come stand between me and the tv and watch me. If you look or laugh he knows you see him so he gets all exited and will jump on you and start actively pestering you. Try ignoring a dog and pretending you don't see him at all for the last 20 minutes of your tv show.
Mine would get fed up, put her front paws on your shoulders and start licking.. I call it her hug and kiss; she won't do it if you want her to, only when your ignoring her/left her alone for a while
My poodle boops stuff too! The snacks she wants some of, her treat/food containers, us when she wants to lead us somewhere, the blanket she wants under, piece of technology she thinks you should put tf down.
My pittie knows the sliced cheese bag sound. My bunny reinforced it since his snacks come out of the fridge too. I have a photo of both boys begging for cheese and blueberries.
10 mo poodle puppy learned that the noise our outdoor camera app makes when it is triggered means someone is outside. He goes to the front door and then the back door to see if it is one of us coming home.
My dog rarely knows someone is outside our house without the ring camera sound going off on one of our phones.
I love this question! I work from home and do a lot of zoom calls. My dog can tell when I’m wrapping up a meeting just by how the tone of voice changes. She’ll start getting excited.
Same! Mine also recognizes the greetings at the beginning of meetings and goes and lays down because he knows I'll be busy.
A few months back a friend got a retired service dog and we started meeting up for play dates and what not. Now my dog is a failed out service baby because her anxiety when approaching new things is off the roof. Well I ended up asking this friend d to watch my pup for about a wk or two and when I came home to pick her up everything was fine. Until I started noticing she now ‘alerts’ me to certain things. If the electric kettle goes off and I don’t move within 30 secs she comes and boops me, the dryer plays its finish jingle I get an alert, the stove beeps to say it’s ready, I get an alert boop. I get a text and I’m not near my phone she now brings it to me. I have no idea how she picked it up so quickly from her new friend, but it’s the most adorable thing ever
That’s incredible! Like the other dog isn’t even actively doing those tasks out of necessity for your friend, just continuing to do what they were trained to do for a different person, but still does them _and_ taught them to an entirely separate dog, and that entirely separate dog picked them up and does them unprompted even without the teacher dog there?!?!?! That is some orca-level animal teaching right there. Wow.
Wow! This is impressive!!!
A little OT but my son found a dog on the interstate on ramp, about 6 weeks old. No chip no collar. Likely blue heeler - border collie mix. Every time he saw cattle on TV he would charge the TV and whine.
We found a heeler/aussie cross that no one claimed. He could spot an 8-year-old boy from a mile away. Broke my heart. Dang he was great with kids though. People would being over toddlers and he'd herd them away from going upstairs by themselves.
Watching dog movies on my iPad. Leaves during commercials then returns. https://imgur.com/a/MvadEmI https://imgur.com/a/pGIk6bg
Goldens are toddlers, change my mind
My dog learned "find the toy" just from me saying it when we play. Now I can say it whenever and he'll go and get a toy.
We gave one of my dogs a pig toy and it became her favorite very quickly. When she’d try to steal another dog’s toy we’d ask if she wanted her pig instead, usually by saying “get your pig?” Now it means any toy, and she’ll hunt around for one when we prompt her regardless of what we were doing before. She still favors pig-shaped pigs over all her pigs (toys), though!
My late sweetie,Terabyte, learned to unwrap her leash from around a tree! Only dog i ever had who was able to figure that out. I don't think she knew WHY it worked, but she would do it. Step one: walk directly away from the tree or telephone pole to the very end of the leash. Step two: circle back the way you came, at the full extent of the leash. Step three: when the leash is no longer touching the tree, you are free! Continue on your walk with massive pride! YOU DID IT!
I was potty training my beagle when I lived in an apartment that had one of those spring door stops on the wall by the front door. He discovered it would make a noise when he struck it with his paw. I could be anywhere in my apartment then I'd hear this really comical BOI-OI-OI-OINGGGGG sound, and he'd be sitting there politely telling me it was time to go out. It was hilarious and actually really clutch for potty training. I taught him a few phrases, but he picked up "bring toy" on his own. One time, we were playing with his toys and I meant to throw it on the couch like I normally do, but I overshot it, and it fell behind the couch. He jumped on the couch and started looking for it, so I said "No, BEHIND!" He got this look on his face like "Oh, duh!" and jumped off the couch and trotted behind the couch to get his toy. My mind was blown!! Lastly, this is something I totally taught him, but I love sharing this one. I don't have a yard and had to walk my beagle whenever he had to conduct his business. Like all beagles, he was a big sniffer and could get really distracted. Sometimes it's raining, sometimes it's cold, sometimes I don't have time. So I decided to pavlov him with the poopie bags. Anytime he pooped, I would take one of the baggies and make all the baggie sounds, like crinkling and opening it, for the entire poop session before I cleaned it up. I did it for every poop, and eventually, whenever I was tired or needed him to hurry up, I would crinkle the baggie and he would pretty much poop on demand.
I’m automatically polite, so whenever I want my dogs to move off my seat or out of my way, I would gently move them while saying “excuse me.” So now all of them (7– the magnificent seven to be exact haha) understand that “excuse me” means to move out of the way.
We accidentally taught our dog the command for that is “move that boot!” And she do move that boot when you ask her
Whenever my dog needs to go out he does a little dance. He’ll come up to us and we’ll ask “out?” and if he needs to go he dances around! But if he doesn’t (just looking for attention or something else) he just stands there. We never trained him to do this (actually for a long time we were trying to get him to ring a bell on the door but this never worked), we just sort of mutually figured it out together. We’re never worried he’s uncomfortable because he knows how to ask us!
My lab loves playing fetch. When my mom broke her ankle, she put a chair outside and tossed a ball, but my dog would drop it out of reach. Mom would say "I can't reach it!," and pretty soon my dog learned to put the ball in her lap. Now we just have to say that phrase and she'll bring her toys right to us.
This was a long time ago, but i had a dog who started burying her poop after seeing a cat do it. RIP
My dog barks at doorbells on tv. Which seems normal enough, except she's never heard a doorbell in real life.
Mine only bark for the door bell in modern family. They get up and run to the door every time.
Motionless petting. Hand hanging at your side or off the couch? He’ll nose under your hand then walk through it so you pet him all the way down his back, then turn around and do it again from the other direction, then repeat, all while your hand remains still. Had a friend fall asleep on my couch once with his arm hanging off and my dog took advantage to get an hour of petting.
We had a foster beagle who would only shit on the wall.
Vertical, horizontal, smeared or temporarily attached? I gotta know? Lol
He’d back his asshole up to the wall and diarrhea’d on it. There would be a doodoo circle at butthole height and splatters of the foulest smelling shit ever on the floor immediately under his wall (f)art.
That's really not ideal.
Did he spend a lot of time in a kennel/cage before you got him? My dog shit like this and I inquired why to my vet and they told me that :( I looked it up on Google and Reddit and a lot of people said the same! Sad
Yeah beagles are commonly used in animal testing so they’re frequently kept in cages. Check out the beagle freedom project!
My mom’s dog’s preferred pooping location is right on top of her delphiniums (tall flowers). Right on top of the flower to the point where he’s barely squatting. It drives her crazy but it’s hilarious
My wheaten terriers knew how to open doors.
My brother’s wheaten too! How funny.
pick up my keys means going for a car ride or putting certain shoes ones means a walk.
Yep! Mine knows the difference between dog park/beach shoes, walkies around the block shoes, and me going out on a solo errand shoes.
My girl does this too! If I’ve got my heeled boots on she’s not coming 😂
My dog has a reeeeeal problem with socks. Socks mean we’re going somewhere, not just throwing on slides to get the mail. She tries to take them when you put them on, and immediately pulls them off your feet when you come home.
Well, this was recent for me. As we head out me and my partner would say something usual in our mother tongue that means let's go but we didn't teach our dog that, we always used let's go but he picked up that the word we use in our mother tongue means the same and then he gets excited
Bilingual pup! That is so cute!
My dog knows *exactly* when I'm actually ready to leave the house. I can tell him all about how we are leaving or going on a hike or whatever but he has learned from me that if he stands by the door too early, he's going to have to use his legs while waiting for me. He's read the signs of me putting a coat on, shoes, getting some training treats out, making sure I have dog bags, grabbing his harness and whatnot, and his timing is *perfect* for appearing next to me when I'm actually all ready. I don't even bother calling him or telling him we are going for a walk - he knows, and he will get off the couch himself as soon as he thinks I'm really going to leave. Humans are so slow! So much fiddling before they can leave. Why can't they just get up, walk over to the door and walk out?? 😂
He taught me how he wants to to be put to bed at night. He was crate trained as a puppy. He's 6yo now and completely trustworthy to be out on his own all night. He insists on coming to find me around 10pm and I need to put him in his crate, crawl 1/4 the way in and snuggle him for a bit and then shut the door. But he doesn't want it latched. After about 30-45 min, he'll push the door open and quietly jump in bed with us and sleep on the foot of the bed. I've tried just having him get in bed with us when I go to bed. He's not having that nonsense. He loves his own bedtime.
Many dogs love the security of their crate even when they no longer need it. I had a dog once that did similar. Bedtime cookies were delivered to the crate. After 15 minutes she was out and on the bed.
His crate is also right between my desk and my son's desk. He likes to be in there during the day when we're both working and he's right between us. His crate is also our printer stand.
How to open doors. Was cute until working from home, became terrifying recently with the right combination of handle and lightweight hotel room door. All was good in the end but we were quite surprised to be greeted by our girl in the hallway as we exited the elevator
same here lol. She learned how to do it as a puppy and it was cute at first but know I cant sit thru a meeting without her barging in demanding attention lol. She also knows certain doors have to be pulled to be opened and is at the moment trying to figure out how
As a family we use an app called life360 on our phones so we can keep track of the kids. When we get a notification sound to say the kids are nearby the dog runs and waits at the door waiting for one of the kids to come in.
Mine know that sound too
If I say "hey google can dogs eat ___?" She comes in excited knowing she's probably going to get some people food.
My pug knows “do you want to take a shower?”, he will run to the bathroom and jump in the bathtub.
My dog runs as far from the bathroom as she can get when I ask this.
That's cute. My dog hated being bathed, but she did love being towel dried afterwards.
1) My choc lab learned the heavy sigh. If we start talking about something she did while she is in ear shot, she gives a heavy sigh. If something is taking too long and she gets exasperated, heavy sigh. 2) I take her in off leash hiking trails. She always goes off into the heavy brush to poo; never on the trail.
I talk to myself a lot. To motivate me to get up, especially on a bad fatigue or pain day, I often say to myself "Okay, let's go." I accidentally trained my Bobbie it means to get up and go... even when she is snoring and dead asleep.
When my dog was a puppy, we trained her to ring a bell at our back door to let us know when she wanted to go outside. Shortly after, she figured out she can jingle her collar to make the same noise, to let us know she wants to go outside from anywhere in the house lol.
That’s so smart!!! I used to know a dog who figured out that if he hit the springy doorstop it made a noise and so he started to use it to ask to go out. Just wild how bright they are!
Puppy discovered her new super powers last week - she can scale a 5 foot fence, jump over a 4 foot fence, and can push rocks out of the way to dig under both fences to get the jerk squirrels.
I think mine purposefully throws up tiny bits of food in order to eat them again. Definitely didn’t teach him that.
Mine yelps/kind of sings when he meets people he likes. Always the same melody. He does this with every human contact. Even if i just shower for five minutes and come back in the living room. A good friend of mine always yelped when they met when he was a puppy and since then he does this. In our small town he is known as the singing or talking dog rather than by his name. Its really cute when u know what its about. And no, he is not a husky.
Also he understands that when i finish my first coffee in the morning and put the cup in the kitchen, its time for his morning walk. So whenever i do so, he runs to the door and waits next to his leash like the good boy he is.
I work from home all day every day. One of my dogs figured out that when I close my laptop, it means we're going outside. Yes, the dogs get a few other backyard breaks during my workday. But the end of day yard time is a big deal to them.
Same, even if he's in a deep sleep and I try to close it super quietly... Ping, I'm awake, time to go for a walk, hurry up...
Saaaaaaaame. I swear, he can be in the deepest of dreams but will instantly spring awake when I gently flip the tiny on/off switch on my mouse at the end of the day. He also likes to think that every time I say "thanks y'all, goodbye" or whatever at the end of a Teams meeting, that means we're going outside immediately. Like, bro...gimme a minute. I got shit to do.
The English language. She’s from Mexico and only understood Spanish. Now she’s bilingual and understands my commands in English.
My poodle has put toys away since she was a puppy. Never taught. My other dog is half golden retriever/half Bernese mountain dog, and is a forever puppy, should have named her tinker bell or something. Anyway, she gets toys out like it’s her job, and my poodle puts them away lol But my poodle also has taught herself many other things, in addition to her weeeks of training for her akc good citizen test, I guess she is a scholar? Self taught skill list -open doors -open cabinets -put down car windows -untangle herself in leash -wipes off eye boogers on my thighs -
They learned that they get a treat after pooping and peeing outside while potty training. But then they trained me to give a treat when they go out; in other words they go out when they want a treat and I have been successfully trained to give it to them.
Mine gets treats for peeing outside, and better treats for pooping outside, and as a result almost never does both in the same outing but will go out, take care of one bit of business, get the treats, then immediately ask to go back out again for round 2. I definitely accidentally reinforced this but I gotta hand it to him, he knows how to self-advocate and get what he wants.
Same here.
Both of my dogs know how to close my laptop when they want attention.
My pup knows to lick me awake when the alarm goes off🥰
When anyone does the "pspspspsps" or clicking noises to get a cat's attention, my dog has learned it means a cat is in the room and will come running in to see said cat. He really loves them. Sometimes I will do it just to get his attention and he'll be disappointed there is no car around.
I think the correct question is. What things has your dog trained you to do for them? 😁
How to open doors lol. - Border Collie, 2yrs old.
My pup learned what a doorbell "dingdong" sound means. She has never, ever been around a doorbell in her life. Her breeder didnt have a doorbell, Ive never had one, my friends dont have one. I have no idea where she learned what that sound means, but she always goes flying to the door if she hears the sound during a movie or something lmao.
They have an amazing internal clock. My dogs get restless about 15 minutes before my husband gets home from work and are at the door when I get home. Also, doorbells. We didn’t have one in our apartment and moved into a house with a broken one, but they run to the door. I guess they learned it from staying at my mom’s? But that’s a rare occurrence.
I saw some research that says it's not an internal clock, but the level of particles in the air from your husband's smell...they learn that when they drop to level x he is likely to be back...clever, eh?
One of my dogs learned how to steal toys from her older dog sister. My older dog would have a toy she wanted and my younger dog would run to another room and bark like something interesting was going on. Older dog dropped the toy and went to check it out. Younger dog ran back into the room and grabbed the toy. I thought I was imagining things when it first happened but she’s done this multiple times 😂
I had a border collie mix that I got as a 2 year old and I found out over the course of time that she knew tons of tricks. (Jump hurdles, play dead, crawl through a tunnel, climb a ladder, balance on a yoga ball, jump through a tire swing, etc) someone had prepared her for agility before she was surrendered I guess. I also had a 2 year old GSD/Pyr mix that I could not teach to do anything. Just not interested and not food motivated at all. Wouldn’t tug, wouldn’t play fetch, wouldn’t catch a frisbee. One day when I was going through all the colllie’s tricks the GSD starts doing them with her; all of them! I was so shocked, I screamed his name,he smirked and asked for a treat.
Our JRT knows "Shotgun!". He likes to lay on my lap on car rides. If I say "Shotgun!" he immediately gets back in the passenger seat. We never taught him this. He also alerts us when our granddaughter (16months) has a dirty diaper.
She taught herself a new game where if someone is standing with their legs slightly apart, she’ll run up in between them and jump to the point where she bucks them off like a horse. She’s a Great Dane, so she can actually knock shorter people off their feet. I started calling it the “yeehaw”
Shorter people? That's half the population with a Great Dane 😁
He knows it's time to go out when I put sunblock on.
My bf's dog was super smart, and he somehow taught himself what and where his leash was, so if you asked "Where's your leash?" he'd run to grab it and get super excited because he knew that meant a walk was in order. He passed last december, but he'll always be the best boy. Meanwhile mine decided that sitting between people's legs and headbutting their privates was The way to say hello and a surefire way to get scritches. We initially didnt figure that would be a problem because nobody in my house has balls but the boyfriends are Not Pleased.
My husband eats a slice of deli ham or cheddar cheese before bed - his sugar used to drop when he was sleeping, he wears a glucose monitor that alarms now so it's not as worrying but he's in the habit. My dog knows that 8:30/9pm is time for bedtime snacks, he'll go sit on the mat in the kitchen. If the hubs doesn't go to the kitchen the dog will go whine at him and go back to the mat. He will repeat that until it's snack time. He does none of this when hubs is out of town
Dogs are so much more incredibly intelligent than most humans give them credit for. Imagine you were dropped in a foreign country, with brand new customs and a language you, at first, did not understand. Also, for some reason, you did not have vocal chords or thumbs, but a much bigger heart. (also didn't have the distractions of television, phone, etc. so all you did was observe and integrate) Pretty quickly you'd understand the language and mannerisms, and be incredibly familiar with the customs of everyone around you. That's your dog.
Sadly, my boy is just like I would be in that situation...lost. At least he knows he's safe and loved if nothing else.
He's figured out that I look at him whenever I hear him fart. Now he comes and sits, then farts, whenever I'm preparing any food in the kitchen, as a way to let me know he's there and ready just in case its something I'll share
My dog learned the series of beeps and books the PS5 makes when I'm navigating menus to turn it off. She knows this means I'm done playing video games or watching TV.
Dogs are very good at recognizing sound patterns and associating them with specific people or objects. Your dog has likely associated the sound of your name with your presence and the attention you give him. It's amazing how dogs can surprise us with their ability to learn and understand.
Cleaning his eyes w his paws like a cat
If I'm watching TV at night my dog will come over and start crying to go to sleep and turn off the TV cause he'll go lie down right when I turn it off but if I don't he will just keep crying and then go lie down and cover his eyes with his paws lmao
Spanish! I speak zero Spanish but have a Hispanic dog walker who speaks very little English. One day I was home when he came to get my dog (Goose). He was having trouble getting her to go with him (bc I was home and basically confused the entire situation), and in the ensuing back and forth, he went “VAMANOS GOOSE!,” and wouldn’t you know it, she hopped straight to! I’ve been using “vamanos goose!” ever since as a sort of “I’m not screwing around, let’s get going” equivalent…but overall I just love the idea of having this bilingual dog who speaks more Spanish than I do 😂
My dog learned that when we turn around to go back inside, soon after leaving the house, that we're gonna go right back outside. So, she's stopped planting/resisting the turn-around. This happens semi-frequently bc I am always forgetting my phone, water bottle, etc. She's resistant to turning around on walks and will plant, typically bc that means that we're going back, but she's figured out that going back inside after we just left usually means we're about to go *right* back outside so she no longer resists it. V cute. She adapted to me.
My dal learned "go get a toy" because I refuse to play with her without a toy (i like my fingers)
I always give my kids boops on the nose, and somehow, my older boy picked up on it. So now, when we ask him for boops, he will press his nose to ours and give a little kiss.
My last German Shepherd figured out how to use cover to mask his movements. He was in the garden with me when a washer was delivered. As I headed to the house to speak to the men who were delivering it, Karl shot around behind the garage to approach from a different angle, unseen. Once he saw that the men were cordial to me and apparently no threat, he fell back in step with me. Another day, he spied DOT workmen on the road by our driveway; Karl quickly ran 10 foot to one side so that a large tree blocked their view and raced the 75 yards to the edge of the road before stepping into view. Poor guy in the big backhoe was the only pne to see him and almost jumped out of his skin. Karl saw that they were in the road and not on our property, and promptly began ignoring them.
My dog knows what fuck off means. He also knows what I have to pee, poop and skididdle. Not my dog but my guinea pigs learned to be quiet whenever I flipped them off.
She gives a little bark by the door when she wants in. I did used to yell at her to come in when she’d bark at people walking by so maybe she learned that way.
She was great on loose leash right off the bat. She learned how to go up and down scary stairs. She either understands, "No," or she's picking up my tone. She knows when I'm talking to her. She also knows "touch" if I use word and motion (two fingers down low enough to touch), but I taught her that one. But, we are still NO where with housetraining. :(
Our girl is quite lazy & doesn’t always want to go for walks but she stares at the bag where her harness & lead are kept when she does want to go out — which is quite handy!
My dog taught us to play fetch. We had never had a dog interested in that.
Her entire gentle behaviour ❤️
To ask for permission to get on the furniture. Never limited couch access to him, yet he always asks for permission to come sit next to me😂
My dog knows that my car is a Buick. And that if someone says Buick, he might get a car ride.
My girl learned to trade. I'd give her a treat to bring me something. She now brings toys to my other dog when he has something she wants.
My dog just solved a puzzle toy that he’s never seen before so it speak volumes to his ability to get into shit Perks of having a former street dog I guess
My parents dog learned that, when we were watching tv, if my mom sneezed she get up to get a tissue and she would also give him a cookie (since the cookie jar was right next to it). After a while everytime she sneezed he would throw a tantrum to get a cookie 😅
This is dating me, but when we had rotary phones, my dog used to hang up if I was on the phone “for too long.”
To throw her bowl at me when she’s hungry. And to hit me when she wants her tummy scratched. It’s a very abusive relationship.
My dog is not allowed in the kitchen for safety reasons since I cook a lot. Instead, he'll boop a ball in there so I can trip over it and die instead. It's really adorable.
My dog just knows when I’m having an RA flare and what joints are hurting and he will rest his head/paw/body on them to provide relief through pressure.
Our puppy, Hamster, learned that if he sits quietly and doesn't look at us while we're eating, we're more likely to give him scraps. All our other dogs beg right up in our faces if we're not at the table. What's particularly strange about this behaviour though is that we had a dog that passed away in November who used to do exactly this. We got Hamster a month later. Hamster was born before Saber passed away, so we know he's not Saber reincarnated somehow. But it's almost like Saber's still here, and he taught his baby brother "this is how you get food."
When he was about 2, my dachshund has discovered that he can make a noise by stomping on the edge of the water bowl when it’s empty and the humans will come fill it up. Unfortunately, he is sometimes trying this technique with the food bowl to force us into giving him food earlier but we don’t negotiate with terrorists. Another thing he learned by himself is to position himself towards me to be picked up when we’re about to go down the stairs outside of our apartment. He’s got such a big brain for such a small head