On Jul 30, 11:58*pm, Zombie of Woodstock wrote:
On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:32:03 -0700, "mgg" wrote:

"Wizard of Woodstock" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:59:36 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

However, anybody with a dog will realize their pet is capable of some
sort of reasoning and intelligence.

I wouldn't say some sort - I would say that dogs are fully capable of
reasoning and even the average dog has innate intelligence.

When these discussions come up, I always point to my buddy Duke Doggee
Dog who was a blind Border Collie. *He had a vocabulary of 350 plus
words, he understood complex sentences and even offer an opinion from
time-to-time. *:)

Proof of the pudding that dogs can reason and even rationalize was
Duke and one other dog I had in the service - a Belgian Shepard named
Major. *Duke was blind, but I didn't know it until he was five - I
happened to notice calcium deposits in his eyes and took him to the
top veterinary opthamologist at Tufts Vet School who tested him and
calmly asked me if I knew he was blind. :)

Major could even read body language, had a similar vocabulary to Duke
and had an uncanny ability to work off leash to a complex set of hand
commands.

Even average dogs have 200+ word vocabularies - it's just a difference
in levels of intelligence.

Just like in humans.

I have a 7 year old German Shephard Dog, and I PROMISE you he is more
intelligent than some in this group.

Seriously though, I talk to him in sentances, not commands. He understands
just fine. I just wish he could talk.

He does - you just don't understand what he's saying. *:)

Duke was simply amazing at that - he had about eleven distinct
"sounds" and sometimes could link them together to make a "sentence".
I knew exactly what he was "saying" - others just heard noise.

Same with Major, but you have to understand that both of those dogs
were with me 24/7/365 - I knew the dogs behaviors as well as they knew
mine.

My son's dog is a "Calahu" (sp?) which were bred for herding Florida
Scrub cattle. She has beautiful markings, brown, black and lighter
mix. She desperately wants to herd stuff, unfornately she thinks
herding cars is good. Somebody should start a place for herding dogs
where they can go and herd sheep till they tire of it.