Being Smart Is Not Enough, #7664.

[mrissa]

Ista and I were out raking leaves. She is a poodle, not bred for northern climes, so we put a jacket on her when she's outside in the fall and winter, so that we can get some energy run off her before she's a mass of shivering bones. (She is also a fairly skinny poodle. Gets bored with eating and wanders off: I already smelled that. That's my girl. Sigh.)

Anyway, so she went under the deck, where monkeys cannot go, in her jacket, and she came out nekkid.

I said, "Ista, where's your jacket?"

She looked at me speculatively. We have only done "where's" with Piggy, and Piggy was Inside. The monkeys have been very clear that Piggy Stays Inside. Clearly I did not mean Piggy.

I said, "Jacket. Where's your jacket?"

She went and stabbed her nose downwards through the boards of the deck near the door to the sun porch. I followed her and looked. Sure enough, I could see a little bit of purple fleece. "Clever girl," I sighed. No way could we reach under there. Not even with the fing-longer. Well, someone could go under there.

I said, "Go get it, Ista! Get your jacket!" So off she trotted under the deck, and I heard scuffling and pulling and scuffling, and eventually she emerged without jacket. I think it's caught on something, a board under the deck or something. As usual, being smart is helpful but not sufficient.

Sigh.

Comments

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

I love your little Ista. :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

So do we!

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Wow. Maybe it wasn't sufficient in this case, but that is amazingly smart for a dog!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

She knows words like "weekend," which in her case translates to "stop scratching on the bedroom door, go away for an hour, and come back and scratch again at that point."

I was going to tell you her latest trick, but I think I want the fun of demonstrating it to some of the people who read this lj and might come to my house soon. It's very geeky.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I'm very impressed that she understood what you wanted well enough to make a good try at it.

Rhetorically, though, I do have to observe that her inability to disengage the jacket from the nail or whatever it was stuck on is probably a case where being smarter *would* have helped.

Actually, what I'm mostly thinking, though, is that I'm glad she was able to get out of the jacket once it got stuck. I mean, she wouldn't have actually been trapped under there all *that* long before the monkeys got her out, but the deck might have suffered some. And even being trapped a little while, with weird banging and screeching noises going on, would probably be upsetting even for a very smart bop.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

She may have gone under in order to get the jacket off in the first place. In which case she may have gotten it stuck on something on purpose. Or it may not actually be stuck on anything at all.

It's unnerving having a dog who can think two levels higher than you. Especially when she doesn't do it very often.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's stuck: I could hear her tugging, and I'm not sure what else she would have been tugging on. Gopher butt, I guess.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Smart can substitute for dextrous to a certain extent, but not indefinitely.

But yes, I'm glad she wasn't stuck under there, too, even for just a little bit. Especially as she is a similar brown to the leaves and dirt and might not have been as easy to distinguish as one might hope.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Wow, smart puppy!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I watched her consider it and decide to forgive me after I'd taken her to the vet's and they'd stuck rectal thermometers in her several times. Some dogs don't remember something has happened enough to forgive you for it. She had to consider whether she wanted to for a moment.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Oh WOW! The ferrets are easy. If I have treats, I'm forgiven. Ista must be super smart. Have you considered giving her a whiteboard and dry erase markers and see if she comes up with the cure for cancer? :D

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid she's not that directed mostly. That smart, possibly, but not that directed.

"'It was the best of times, it was the blorst of times'? Stupid monkeys!"

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Small children can be like that, too. (About the pediatrian, not the vet. Though maybe we should try taking the little monkey to a vet.) It took her most of the afternoon to forgive me after I tricked her into taking a nap.

Monkey: no nap! *yawns* don't wanna take a nap! *rubs eyes* no!
Adrian: that's ok, sweetie. You don't have to take a nap. How about a story instead?
Monkey: not a bedtime story!
Adrian: Of course not. You're not taking a nap.
Monkey: no story! *yawn*
Adrian: *takes out e-book reader* This is something my uncle gave me. Careful there. It looks like a pen, but it's just for drawing on this, it doesn't draw on paper.
Monkey: ooo! what is it?
Adrian: A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin...
Monkey snuggles up quietly and is completely asleep in less than 5 minutes.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes Not Taking A Nap is the best thing.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

Poor girl! She tried. Guess she'll have to go shopping.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

When I was still living at home ages ago, a mirror in my bedroom nearly fell on Missy (my family's toy poodle). The incident terrified her so much that she wouldn't go back into my room for *months*. It took me many, many tries to get her to forgive me and trust me enough to follow me into the room.

When I left home for college, according to my mom, Missy would go up into my room and sit on my bed and wait, hoping I'd return. It nearly broke my heart.

I miss my puppy. *$^@ Ed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We love *$^@ Ed. But yes, the source of the *$^@ is well-understood and sympathized with, even though his reaction is, too.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I love smart dogs, and dogs who are smart in people ways-- recognizing words and such, rather than tricking the humans into doing things. Dogs in clothes are cute as well. A friend of mine has an Italian greyhound who goes about in a vest most of the time.

[selkie-b.livejournal.com]

Is she a standard or a mini poodle?

It was good to meet you Friday after having heard about you from others. *laugh* especially the other odd overlap! :)

-Marie

[selkie-b.livejournal.com]

silly me - I should look more closely at icons - she's a little poodle!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Actually this icon is a baby picture -- she's over ten whole pounds now! Most recent pictures are here, I think (http://missista.livejournal.com/10948.html).

Nice to meet you, too, after all elisem had said about you!

[greykev.livejournal.com]

Cursed lack of opposable thumbs!

I wonder if getting her one of those tube-y things with the bits you move around (intended for little ones) would teach her more about moving things around ie how to remove things from snags. Probably not good to teach her it's okay to chew baby toys though, sigh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No, indeed not.

Anyway, she did manage to get it loose and moved enough that markgritter could reach it.

[greykev.livejournal.com]

der vunderhund indeed!