Are there times your dog can make a complicated thought they're having perfectly understood to you?

My dog once peed an attempted solution to the Riemann Hypothesis into the snow. Of course, it was wrong. I starved him for a week as punishment.
Now he only does solutions to Einstein’s field equations.

Maybe she’s only mad because you left her for so long. You probably just need to reassert who’s boss (and give lots of love too). I’m sure she’ll soon come round :)

She’s beautiful BTW

@Val123 Your dog sounds intelligent. Very. Take heed.

Side: Buglers bugle. Burglars burgle.

LOL… Mine say….. SQUIRREL!!!!!

@sebastian_von_tulu No…I’ve been back all this week. She just started this last night. Assert who’s boss? Guess I don’t see how that relates to anything. Can’t get mad at a dog, or a kid, for being sad, worried and confused…

@Zen_Again Yes, she is. Well, if a bugler burgles Dakota won’t bugle!

my dog is also very fashion conscious. here he is in his new suit

@Val123 Oh OK. As to it’s relevance; when a dog turns their back on your it typically means you’re being cast out the pack. Or at least that’s what was led to believe while watching a dog trainer on TV. She was using it as a technique to train unruly dogs.

Watch: The dog whisperer. He’s amazing!

One of our dogs is delighted when my husband goes to the hospital. He figures that now he gets the recliner. However, he doesn’t think he gets my recliner, just my husband’s. That is because I am alpha in the household, while my husband is slightly lower down in the pack hierarchy in the dog’s eyes.

In your case, it would seem that Rick is alpha in Dakota’s eyes and so Dakota is considering taking his place now that he seems to be gone. Dakota is treating you as someone who cannot give her orders that she needs to follow. You need to convince Dakota that you are now alpha (or at least beta to Rick’s alpha).

This guy suggests the following:

“In this situation it is a form of reverse owner dominance. Dogs are pack animals and have a pecking order or hierarchy. Dogs will be subservient to dogs higher up the pecking order and ultimately to the pack leader. In exhibiting this behaviour your dog is showing it thinks it is on the same level in the pack as yourself.

If this is the only behavioural problem your dog is showing then it is not too much to worry about but I think it should be controlled now as the next stage up could be aggression, again because of the dog pack thing. I always say that a dog should fit in with its family and household, not the other way about.

Here is a way to resolve it : Be prepared for the next time and equip yourself with a an empty coke can full of pebbles. The next time the dog turns his back while you are speaking to him throw the can close to her { do not hit her of course } the noise of the stones will startle her and give her a fright. Then just keep talking for a time, she will soon learn that if she turns her back while you are talking there will be a consequence and she will then modify her behaviour accordingly. You should not need to do this more than a dozen times for this to take effect.”

Because I am alpha and my husband is not, I have had to step in a couple of times to tell this particular dog that my husband outranks him. He is a pit bull with a fairly aggressive personality and ranks himself above our other dogs.

Good luck.

@avvooooooo Damnit! Why’d you do that? Now they’re bonzieing the back door! Even Dakota! Nothing will distract her from Pierre!

@sebastian_von_tulu LOL! Trying to imagine Dakota casting ME, The Alpha Female and Provider of Food, out of the pack! No….she just doesn’t have any other way to communicate her distress, and I’m pretty sure she blames me for the situation because I’m around and “Dad” isn’t!

@Zen_Again I watch the Dog Whisperer sometimes. Lots of people have issues with the way he handles the dogs. Me, meh.

@Darwin I really don’t think that’s the situation at all here. She’s just worried, doesn’t know how else to communicate it.

@Darwin Yeah! Just what I said.
Heh. Well that’s that I meant anyway. ;)

My one dog does things very similar to what you just described. When my fiancé is gone too long she gets anxious. He is her master. She loves him to death. When only I walk through our front door, the dog seems so disappointed and depressed. When I try to comfort her, she gives me the cold shoulder, walks away, and sighs very loudly. I think dogs really are amazingly smart animals! And you’re doggie sounds like one of the more intelligent ones :)

@Val123 I hope so. When does “Dad” come home?

I don’t know about my dog. She seems rather dim. My cats, however… that’s a different story. I believe nearly all their thoughts are complicated. And those thoughts seem to be up to no good.

@ItalianPrincess1217 She gets equally sad/excited when when one or the other of us leaves or comes back.

Rick has to travel around Kansas quite a bit. When ever Dakota sees that damn suitcase out and getting packed, she goes to bed with a migraine! She won’t look at us, doesn’t want to talk to us!

@sebastian_von_tulu—It all depends on how well his dad does. I keep hoping he’ll surprise me with a weekend visit (but it’s a 3½ hour drive) but, for now, it looks like Monday at the earliest. Then he’s going to have to turn right back around at some point the travel for business! Dakota’s going to have a nervous breakdown.

Goofball Dutchess, on the other hand, is probably going, “Rick who?”

@AstroChuck Yeah! My cats too. I think it’s mostly, “I“m going to kill you if I can.”

Update. Because of what you guys said, I pulled Dakota over to me while I was standing up, leaned over and murmured words of sympathy in her ear, and she licked my face. That’s a sign of submission, right?

Yes – you made her listen to you. Just keep on making her listen to you in a gentle way and she will be fine (but delighted when Rick returns).

I’m not sure how they do it but dogs do put a whole scenario in my head sometimes. It’s amazing!

* Friend’s big dog came over to the bed while we were watching a movie and immediately I knew she was telling me the little dog had gotten on top of the console table and was eating all the meat scraps/bones and she felt she wouldn’t get any. Sure enough, we went and checked and the little runt had all but eaten everything.

* One of my mom’s cats has been sick but we really didn’t know it until we saw my little dog laying beside her outside on the patio. He looked up at us and right away we knew the cat wasn’t napping, it was dying (it’s really really old).

* My dog has come to me several times and looking at him I knew to go into the kitchen and check the stove or sink after my mother had gone to work- she leaves stuff turned on.

@hungryhungryhortence ESP….It’s pretty cool. Dakota came to me the other day and “said” “The two stupid ones got out of the back yard.” Sure ‘nuff….

My Dutchess, on the other hand, dog can’t tell me ANYTHING without it sounding like it’s a five alarm fire! The message gets lost in all the racket and body contortions.

I have four dogs and they are all VERY smart. They’re American Treeing Feists (squirrel dogs, no I did NOT just make it up!) and each and every dog of that breed has its own personality. Blackjack is the oldest, he likes to think he’s in charge until he gets jumped on for being an asshole and we have to go save him and growls at everyone. He communicates his wants pretty well, but the best thing is that he understands complicated instructions. Like “Go see if we dropped anything cooking, come over for a pet, and then go lie down.” without being told again. Sue is the girlie and she is a ditz, but she is oh so smart and will not be caught to he put in the pen or do anything she doesn’t want to do. She looks you in the eye up close when she’s trying to psychically transfer what she wants you to do… I think she’s trying Jedi mind tricks. You WILL give me a cookie! Or whatever it is you have in the house that I can smell. But you WILL give me something yummy. Oh, and she likes to smell your breath to see what you’ve been eating. She is quick to steal Blackjack’s pillow and poor Blackjack stands there and looks at her with the most pitiful expression wondering how she did it and what he’s supposed to do now.

Then there are the pups… who are nuts. Brown (creative name, right? I was not doing anything to him for that other than subjecting him to a long photo session) and Ike. They’re brothers and fight and tussle and do stupid puppy things and are spoiled rotten. Brown is a more chill puppy who likes to be independent and understands taking turns. He’s become convinced that I am fair and as soon as I get done dealing with everyone else, he gets his. Ike looooooovvveeess you. But me especailly. He likes to be in the middle of the action, wherever you are, and will not wait his turn. Silly pup. They are learning to communicate, but their wants are pretty clear all the same. I’m waiting to see if they try and pick up Jedi mind tricks from their mother like they have some of her bad habits. So far, their main communication is that Ike looks guilty when Brown’s done something naughty that he knows he’s going to get caught for. :)

@avoo – I know you didn’t make it up. Are you a member of ATFA?

@Darwin Nope, but Daddy is. He’s the one who hunts with them.

@avvooooooo Wonderful story! Great pics! The one of Black Jack made me want to grin right back at him!

My dogs are squirrel dogs, but unofficially. Dakota’s idea of getting the squirrel down is to jump up, grab a branch in her mouth, and try to pull the big trees over! Dutchess just screams hysterically. Midas tries to climb the tree. Pierre just sits up there laughing at them and dropping nuts on their head.

Pierre brought a date along for the ride the other night! Oh my!

@Val123 I think the sun was in his eyes, he’s not normally that sweet looking. :D

These babies… Jack doesn’t jump any more because he’s old and stiff, he just finds the squirrel and barks. Sue jumps, but not very high and yips. Brown… off the ground jumps and puts his head more than 5 feet off the ground. I know this, because the squirrel feeder board out in the back edge of the yard is as high as the top of my head which is at 5 feet I can just barely walk under it, and he gets up to look on top of it to see if there are squirrels on it. Ike runs up the tree and flies off into the air to look, again, over 5 feet off the ground. Previous females would climb the chain link fence and roam around the neighborhood, nothing we could do would keep them contained. They’re fun dogs to have.

Squirrlz r evil. :)

@avvooooooo This is Dutchess….she’s skying pretty good here, but I’ve seen her jump higher. One time the very top of her head actually went to the top of this 6½ door….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLWSpVWy-_I

(so there! :)

(But…. at least your dog jumps for an intelligent reason!)

@Val123 – Our pit bull Boudreaux jumps high enough to bump his head on the top of the door frame all the time. It’s just his way of expressing excitement. We call him our “ADD Dog.”

I had a cocker spaniel. The most complicated thoughts he had were ” You gonna drop that food on the floor?” Not hard to read at all.

@Val123 One day they’re gonna catch a squirrel… And I don’t know if they’ll be quite sure of what the hell to do with it when they do! :D

LOL!!!