let us BRAG about our DOGS thread.

[vash]

i didnt want to mess up the other thread.

HANK is by far the smartest dog i have ever had the pleasure to hang with.

notable tricks. he knows, "go get the rope". he can be playing with whatever, and if i ask for the rope he will drop anything and go and sprint to find his tug-o-war rope. with friends, i can ask HAnk and he will run into the dog-door and come back with the rope. its sick.

he will touch my hand if i say "hand". (with his nose)

doorbell: he goes nuts. with wife, he stays nuts. ME? i say, "go lay down". he will sprint to his dog bed and lay there. i can throw open the door and he will stay put. i look at him and he is trembling with that "put me in Coach!" look. but he will not move until release him.

i have a video of him chewing his rawhide. i can ask. "can i have some?". he will bring it do me. i mock chew it a bit, and he sits patiently until i give it back to him.

cool pup. i love him.

[911 Rod]

What kind of dog is Hank?

[Sooner or later]

My dachshund, Mia, is smart as they get.

"Wanna go to school". She plops her ass down knowing I will get down on the floor for practice. Sit, lay down, beg, roll over, dead dog, and shake hands.

Hide and seek from the other thread.

"Where's bear?" She knows it is fetch time and will find the small teddy bear wherever it is. Rarely do I have to suggest the game. She will grab him on her own and growl and bark at me until I get up to play.

"Big jump" and my point to a chair and up she goes.

She loves to lick. Lick, like, lick until my face is covered in slobber and I tell her "enough". Once I let her lick until she stopped on her own. I counted. Over a 1000 licks. Honest.

She hates "touch nose" The goal is for me to touch my nose to hers and look eye to eye without her licking me. When I give the "touch nose" command she turns her head away.

She can be hard headed as they get. If she won't come in from outside I just yell "wanna eat" and she comes a runnin' from wherever she is.

She is a great dog.

[vash]

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

What kind of dog is Hank?

total mutt.

here he is missing his favorite frisbee. (green thing in the air)

[Steve Viegas]

Originally Posted by vash

total mutt.

here he is missing his favorite frisbee. (green thing in the air)

Is that a really big miss, or a really bad throw?

[Steve Viegas]

We had a dog that my wife taught to play dead. You would point a finger gun at her and say "Pow" and she would groan, and then do this awkward pratfall onto the ground. It was really pretty neat.

We did not practice it with her enough or something, and eventually, she would only do it about 2/3 times. My wife assumed we had simply become worse shots.

[LWJ]

My first lab? Damn. He was PERFECT. He knew about 200 words. We just talked to him and he did what we asked. But, this was prior to having children so I had a lot more dog time. Next Lab had serious ADHD. Good heart. A little distracted.

Current guy? He is a total pain. But, I have never seen a dog as integrated into a family. We constantly interact with him. Lots of walks. Lots of play. He is often at the center of our attention in some way. My wife, who was never a dog person, is so smitten that she commissioned a painting of him.

No brags. Just a bunch of great family additions.

[GH85Carrera]

My old doberman was a great dog. She adopted me. There was something about my front porch she just loved. I came home one evening and she was on my porch. Everyone in the neighborhood knew me, and they all knew Betty. Most people are terrified of a doberman. She was as friendly as any dog can be. She would climb the chain link fence in the back yard, and go sit on my front porch. I have no idea where she came from.

She finally learned she needed my permission to be out there. When I mowed the front yard she ran to the gate, and sat down. I opened the gate, and she would tremble in anticipation. I would snap my fingers and she ran to the front porch. I could mow and edge the front, and even when I had to empty the bag in the compost pile in the back yard, she just sat on the porch. When I was all done and shut off the mower, she ran at full speed to the back. She knew front porch time was over.

She loved tennis balls, but ignored other balls. The kids in the neighborhood would bring over several tennis balls they found out in the bushes behind the local tennis courts. I let her pick out one from a box of tennis balls and she would run around in the back yard with the kids throwing the ball. I knew she would never bite the kids.

She was super easy to train and never chewed on anything but bones I gave her or her toys.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

My dachshund, Mia, is smart as they get.

"Wanna go to school". She plops her ass down knowing I will get down on the floor for practice. Sit, lay down, beg, roll over, dead dog, and shake hands.

Hide and seek from the other thread.

"Where's bear?" She knows it is fetch time and will find the small teddy bear wherever it is. Rarely do I have to suggest the game. She will grab him on her own and growl and bark at me until I get up to play.

"Big jump" and my point to a chair and up she goes.

She loves to lick. Lick, like, lick until my face is covered in slobber and I tell her "enough". Once I let her lick until she stopped on her own. I counted. Over a 1000 licks. Honest.

She hates "touch nose" The goal is for me to touch my nose to hers and look eye to eye without her licking me. When I give the "touch nose" command she turns her head away.

She can be hard headed as they get. If she won't come in from outside I just yell "wanna eat" and she comes a runnin' from wherever she is.

She is a great dog.

We've got a dachshund. My sister in law showed them and at one point had 11. When she divorced, the money to spend dried up and she thinned the heard. We got one, eventually my mom got his brother, and my wife's mom has one.

They are smart, but can also be willful. My understanding is that because they were supposed to be hunting dogs, they are smart, but also willful so they can go do what needs to be done without having to be told every thing.

Ours is a long-haired double-dapple (Merle) mini (11#). He's smart, but also beautiful. People stop when they are driving past if we are out walking him to tell us how pretty he is or ask about him.

You may know about this, but just in case...

Be careful with the "big jump." Dachshunds have issues with their backs, both the disks and bones. Jumping up/down and even going up/down stairs can cause problems. Ours had an issue coming down the stairs when he was young and required back surgery. I've known of several others that had issues, and if you ever look at any dachshund rescue outfits, you'll probably see that most of them have back issues and are partially paralyzed.

[Sooner or later]

I know about the back issues. I don't overdo it.

[NutmegCarrera]

This is Finny.
Finny is psycho.

He is also incredibly smart.
“Go get your (insert name of toy here)” - Check.
Sit, lay down, touch, etc... - Check.
“Middle” - he’ll walk behind you and come through your legs and stop.
“POW” - yup. He does that too.
“Give kisses” - he licks my wife’s face. Blech.
Play catch until he drops over - yup.

We researched the breed and knew they were ‘high energy’, but had no idea.
Also learned A LOT about dog trainers. Most would be considered snowflakes anywhere else. By the way - you CANNOT train a herding dog with only positive reinforcement.
My wife was beside herself and thought she was going to have to put him down because of behavior issues until she found a trainer that says, “Yes - you will need to use a prong collar”. 5 minutes into a walk with that tool, and he was manageable.

All the tricks she has tried with him - 5 minutes and a few treats.

Finny goes to ‘doggie day care’ 1x a week to socialize and play with other dogs. They love him there.

But, my gosh - it’s a lot of work.

Good dog, Finny.

[NutmegCarrera]

Most important photo did not upload the first time.

Again - Psycho.

[stevej37]

I have no pics, but my last dog was an English Springer Spaniel.
We had a marsh about a half mile behind the house and being a bird dog, She would bring back baby ducks almost every day during the hatching season. She would never hurt them...but just play with them in the yard until we took them away from her.
Once in a while...she would bring back a small turtle.

[GH85Carrera]

We had a mole invade the back yard. Our male dachshund Reuben was in heaven. He was up to his hips digging a hole to go after the mole. It was like he could not stop. We had to lock him out of the back yard after we hosed him down outside, and had to give him a bath in the house. The mole escaped but was caught and dispatched by the neighbor. I had to shovel a lot of dirt back in the hole and replant the grass.

Reuben is a total hunter. I have had to rescue several of these tiny snakes that are harmless except to earthworms. I wish he would leave the snakes alone. He has killed many of the little snakes.



He really likes to hunt mice. This was a successful mission.



I am always happy when he catches another mouse. He is the early warning system. When he starts circling the storage building, I know more mice have returned. With traps, peanut butter and thumbs I do catch more than Reuben, but he is instrumental in the eradication process.

We have a lot of blue tailed skinks and he has killed a few of them as well.



He was barking like mad on the back porch. He had treed, or "brick walled" a snake. We locked him inside and 30 minutes later the snake was gone. Harmless snake, but he was smart enough to just bark at it.

He has been sprayed by a skunk twice now. I can tell you it is no fun going to a Super Target at 10:00 PM to get hydrogen peroxide and baking powder to make up the skunk smell killer.

He just can't leave toads alone. It is like he thinks they are taunting him. He will poke them with his nose and they puff up, and soon he is foaming at the mouth. He is finally getting better with all the toads.

[stevej37]

^^^ That pic with the mouse is great!

[Tobra]

Glen, you keep the peroxide and baking soda on hand.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Glen, you keep the peroxide and baking soda on hand.

We do indeed. One of the neighbors noticed a skunk go into a den in the common area and we called a pro. He said, yep there are skunks in there. He set up live traps and captured mom and four pups. He said no one at all anywhere wants a skunk, so he gasses them as a euthanasia.

I poured a sack of Quikrete into the hole and that will prevent any other critters moving in. So the live in skunks are gone. We still get roaming possums on occasions.

[cabmandone]

Ace is our Aussie/Golden retriever mix (black as night which seems weird). He's 9 years old. I'm his emotional support human.

Jack is our Goldendoodle. He's a big goofy stick eating dog that listens only to my wife. I think he just likes messing with me.

[Bill Douglas]

Rooney is not good at anything. Anything at all. Doesn't even fetch the ball.

BUT if you are that handsome you don't need to be good at anything.

[Seahawk]

Here is Cassie, Red Heeler:



In her prime, she scored 1600 on her SATs: then, to paraphrase Charles Barkley, killed every varmint and their families.

She is still with us at 16. She is a little slower, but still has, to quote Monty Python, "a mean streak a mile wide..."

I love my Labs but the Heeler is the best in breed in my life of dogs.