Bart Elliott
Chef de Cuisine
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Just groovin' ... nothing special
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« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2008, 04:54 PM » |
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Here's something I wrote about Sugar two years ago in a thread entitled "How Smart's Yer Dog?"
My dog, Sugar, is a 9-year-old Cocker Spaniel ... and she's very smart, especially for the breed.
She does a lot of the usual tricks: roll over, play dead, speak, shake, spin around, sit, sit up, stand up tall, etc. She will also sit up, have us place a treat on her nose ... and remain there until we say "okay" ... to which she flips the treat in the air and catches it. That last trick she learned in just a few hours!
We talk to her like she's human, so she really does understand just about everything we say. Although sometimes she will think we are saying something that we aren't, simply because the words are similar. As you might guess, having your name being the same word for a condiment can be confusing as well.
Like clock-work, she knows when it's about 5pm and will come asking for her daily walk. She will drive you nuts if you ignore her too. As soon as her walk is over, she expects to be fed, and will again bug you until you give her food. As soon as her meal is through, she gets one treat ... a milk bone ... which she will also bug you for. It's all about the routine you know. Then, later in the evening, after my son goes to bed, she expects her "late night treat" which is typically some small little nibble of a treat ... insignificant in size but NOT in importance! 
Being an inside dog, Sugar will "go potty" on command ... which is very nice when we are planning to leave the house for some time. Guess if I had some neighborhood enemies this would be useful as well during her walks. 
Sugar understands us to the point that often times we treat her like a young children, spelling out words rather than actually saying the word. If my wife and I need to discuss who's going to take the dog for a walk (we often all go together), we have to spell it out ... W.A.L.K. This worked for awhile, but now the dog has it figured out, so spelling W.A.L.K. gets the same excitement as if we had actually spoken the word. It would take some time for me to write out all the words that I know she understands. I can tell her to do something, and she does it. Now only if my wife would ...
She also knows these words, very well, and reacts differently to each one as you might guess ... being a hunter by nature: dog, cat or kitty kat, bunny or rabbit, squirrel and mouse. She really enjoys chasing all of these animals, well not other dogs, but especially the squirrels. We have a lot of squirrels that come around in our backyard. We let her out to chase them ... and she's tackled a few. Back in Dallas she made a few kills when it came to the mice ... they were outside hanging around the watergarden or trying to get bird seed. We have a code name for squirrels ... we call the "tree rats" ... but she has that figured out now too ... so add that to her communicable words.
Sugar will stalk and actually go on point; fun to watch. Sometimes she seems like she is part cat ... getting very low to the ground, like a great cat, inching her way closer, ready to make the pounce. Although her one downside is that she has frequent "blonde moments" when it comes to the chase. If we let her out to chase something, and it's all based on our words ... and she hasn't actually SEEN the varmint ... she can run right past it despite our shouts, commands and detailed directions.
All in all, Sugar is a very smart dog, knows each family member by name, and thinks she is one of our kids. When my wife and I married almost ten years ago, Sugar was a first "kid". Unfortunately she doesn't see my son, soon to be 6-years-old, as an equal ... let alone above her. As he gets older she seems to tolerate him more and let him pet her, but most of the time they act like syblings. She has this certain kind of bark that alerts us to the fact that my son is teasing her ... or just messing with her when she doesn't want him to. It's funny and irritating all at the same time.
We love Sugar very much ... got her when she was just 5-months-old ... and no, we didn't name her. She's very cute and has a sweet heart. She's not as playful as she used to be, and Cocker Spaniels tend to sleep a lot anyway. Our affectionate names for her are "puppy" and "sugar bear" ... all to which she responds to. I hope Sugar will be with us for many more years to come.
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