# How a Dog Thinks.....



## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

We tend to think that a dog thinks like we do. I'm not sure exactly how their brain works, but I know they definitely don't think like we do. I have an old Springer here who is scared to death of thunder, yet she pays no attention whatsoever to gunfire. To her, thunder and gunfire are two very different sounds. To us they are one in the same. Let her hear a distant clap of thunder and she goes in her doghouse and will not come out until the storm is long gone. Let her see me put my shotgun in the truck and she can't wait to get in and go!!!

Years ago I had a Chessie pup I was working with. Everything was looking good until one day when I decided it was time to introduce her to a shotgun. She was 6 or 7 months old at the time. I'd banged the feed pans around her, shot a cap gun, a training pistol, etc. and everything was coming along the way it should. I let her out of her crate and as soon as I took my shotgun out of the pickup she crawled under the pickup and wouldn't come out. I was completely baffled by this. I put the gun away and finally got her out from under the truck and we went home. A few days later I tried it again.....same thing. Now I was really scratching my head. Then I noticed that she was afraid of anything that resembled a shotgun.... If I picked up a shovel, a rake, etc. she'd flip out. I finally figured out what the deal was when I caught some boys poking a stick at her through the fence on their way home from school. I can only guess, but I think they had been doing this for "fun" whenever they would pass by. To the pup's mind a gun, rake, shovel, etc. all were the same to her as the stick the boys were using to poke at her with. Oddly enough, she never connected the stick to having a fear of kids.....Her brain only recognized the stick and anything that resembled it as something to fear. That was years ago... I never was able to get her through her fear despite trying everything in the book.

I currently have 8 gundogs. I exercise them two or three times a day. I have two dogs I cannot let run together or they will take off and be gone for hours. I can put one of them on a leash while the other 7 run and they all stay with me. I can call in the other "partner in crime" and put her on a leash while I release the other one and there is never a problem, but let me release both of my "problem children" at the same time and they will be gone in a flash. None of the others ever go with them. What is going on in the heads of the two that take off? Why do only those two do it and why do they never do it on their own? I have no idea...... There is some type of thought process going on in their brain that I don't understand... If I did, maybe I could cure them, but I don't.

I'm sure you all can think of things you have experienced with your dogs that have left you scratching your head as well..


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

I recall the first time my Josie (pictured in my avatar) encountered strong wind & good sized waves when doing water marks. It was just before I had her FF, so I guess she was right around 6 months old. I know her adult choppers were in...

Anyway, the waves were probably 18" and running right to left parallel to the bank. I was throwing DFT's maybe 40 or so yards out. On the first one she took a direct line and of course it had drifted well past her by the time she got there, requiring her to chase it quite aways before catching up....

When I sent her on the next mark, she hit the water and rather than taking a line directly at the DFT, she immediately cut left and took a line about* 20 degrees downwind of the DFT *! Her lead was so perfect that she didn't even break her line as she neatly intercepted that rapidly drifting bumper.

She's 6 years old now and I've rarely ever seen her misjudge the angle required to intercept a drifting bird or bumper. All it took was that once lesson.

Have to admit she's a darn sight better at geometry than I am...


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

NDTerminator said:


> I recall the first time my Josie encountered strong wind & good sized waves when doing water marks. It was just before I had her FF, so I guess she was right around 6 months old. I know her adult choppers were in...
> 
> Anyway, the waves were probably 18" and running right to left parallel to the bank. I was throwing DFT's maybe 40 or so yards out. On the first one she took a direct line and of course it had drifted well past her by the time she got there, requiring her to chase it quite aways before catching up....
> 
> ...


I love your signature line on our current leader.... I'll buy you a drink any time! :beer:


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## brittanypoint (Feb 15, 2009)

Did you beat the boys with the stick??


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

brittanypoint said:


> Did you beat the boys with the stick??


Ha!!! No, but the thought did enter my mind!


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## brittanypoint (Feb 15, 2009)

I cant say that i would have avoided it. :******:

i dont deal well with people harassing my dogs. Especially pups


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

Often wondeded about the thinking process too. I had a pair of black labs, father & son. Both crazy to hunt. The old dog would sit in the blind scouting for birds, the son would lock his gaze on the shot gun muzzel and never waver. ?? They were both always hard after flickertails in the pasture. The old dog did the digging and the son layed beside and watched. If I drove in the yard the son would come to get me.

A friend had two black labs and his wife had a weiner dog for the house. There was a small culvert under the driveway. The labs would chase a gopher into the culvert and then one of them, always the same one, would run to the house and bark until the weiner dog was let out, to run through the culvert while the 2 labs waited at the other end.


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

My younger lab is a high speed, low drag FT pedigree gundog. She is one the brightest, fastest learning labs I've ever seen and a highly talented & flashy gundog, but is wired like a ferret on a double espresso. She has more quirks than I care to even relate, some more endearing than others...

One of her endearing ones she started when she was around 16 weeks old (she's 3 now). When greeting my wife or I when we come home, she has to run and get a chew or squeaky toy which she holds in her mouth while she moans & groans in greeting. She's a very vocal dog and has quite the range of sounds. You can almost hear her saying, "Hi, look at me, look what I have, aren't I a good girl"?. As soon as the greeting is over she drops the object and resumes norm labby behavior.

If we happen to get into the house without her noticing, the second she sees she runs off to go find something to hold in her mouth before coming to us & going through this ritual. It's comical to watch her frantically looking for just the right toy or chew to show.

I mean this is every time, no fail....

Here are the girls...


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## dogdonthunt (Nov 10, 2005)

> The labs would chase a gopher into the culvert and then one of them, always the same one, would run to the house and bark until the weiner dog was let out, to run through the culvert while the 2 labs waited at the other end.


arent weiner dogs awsome.... tenacious is an understatement..... not afraid of anything...... mine gets tagged by the cat all the time.. and before he's done whineing it turns to a high pitched bark and trying to get her (the cat) to run....


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