What's on your mind today?

[Pasta Chick]

Ah, dog stuff. As always, feel free to skip entirely.

I'm starting to think our dog is genuinely dumb. She has been pretty difficult to house train, but I figure she's only 6 months old, so she is still a baby. But. Today we bought and installed a dog door for her. I spent quite a but of time and treats gradually getting her used to coming through the door when the flap was completely open, then when I only held it partially open, and then having her nose her way through it. After that I put her dinner out on the porch, and she came through the dog door with no help, and then back through it again when she wanted to come inside. Success! Two hours later...she has never seen a dog door in her life. She has no idea what it is, or what I want her to do.

Fear periods. I knew a dog this age who developed an overwhelming terror of a floor she'd been walking across 5 days a week since she was 8 weeks old. Also not unusual in general - most likely she was still somewhat fearful/unsure after the initial session, so without a strong motivator and encouragement she had second thoughts.

So then, I gave her a dog IQ test that I found online.

I hate these

Step 1: Call your dog. Do they come? Do they know their name? She came! So far so good! *

That's a training issue, not innate intelligence

Step 2: Put a blanket over them. Do they claw their way out? No.
She eventually started wandering around the house with a blanket over her, like "welp, I guess this is my life now."

This is basically testing their comfort in being covered with a blanket. It's only an intelligence test if we assume that all dogs loathe blankets and will want to be rid of them immediately.

Step 3: Show the dog a treat. In front of the dog, hide the treat under a cup. Do they nose or paw the cup over to get the treat? No. She stared at the cup and stared at me, but never tried to knock the cup over to get the treat.

You have a "soft", handler oriented dog. You showed her something and then blocked her access to it. She looked to you for further information. You would need to teach her that this is a puzzle you want her to solve, then increase difficulty to assess intelligence (although it will still hinge on food motivation - one of mine wouldn't play with treat toys because why expend the effort when I'm going to make dinner later anyway?). This is especially true if you've been teaching her things like stay out of the kitchen and don't steal food from children.

*After the dismal failure of the other two tests, I tried calling "Come here Train Tracks" in the same tone of voice. She came. :/

Also normal. Most dogs exist in a world of tone and gestural context rather than actual verbal cues.

Conclusion: my dog may be dumb.

Probably not. Intelligence tests are such a weird thing. We don't even really have them right for people. You get into other species and there are all sorts of variables - like, raccoons used to test really poorly because raccoons obsessively collect and wash things, so they would rarely actually complete the test goal itself. If you give a cat or an ape a test that involves climbing, they'll automatically score higher than a dog or pig because those animals don't generally climb. And so forth.

[Pasta Chick]

Speaking of dogs, I'm looking at SAR work with Coal. Idk if he'll be into it, since he bombed narc work, but he's got actual motivation to find people. Idk if it will fit into my life, though. Are there really jobs cool with you disappearing for a couple days with no notice to go on a search? Where can I find these?!

[Ali]

Ah, dog stuff. As always, feel free to skip entirely.

I'm starting to think our dog is genuinely dumb. She has been pretty difficult to house train, but I figure she's only 6 months old, so she is still a baby. But. Today we bought and installed a dog door for her. I spent quite a but of time and treats gradually getting her used to coming through the door when the flap was completely open, then when I only held it partially open, and then having her nose her way through it. After that I put her dinner out on the porch, and she came through the dog door with no help, and then back through it again when she wanted to come inside. Success! Two hours later...she has never seen a dog door in her life. She has no idea what it is, or what I want her to do.

Fear periods. I knew a dog this age who developed an overwhelming terror of a floor she'd been walking across 5 days a week since she was 8 weeks old. Also not unusual in general - most likely she was still somewhat fearful/unsure after the initial session, so without a strong motivator and encouragement she had second thoughts.

So then, I gave her a dog IQ test that I found online.

I hate these

Step 1: Call your dog. Do they come? Do they know their name? She came! So far so good! *

That's a training issue, not innate intelligence

Step 2: Put a blanket over them. Do they claw their way out? No.
She eventually started wandering around the house with a blanket over her, like "welp, I guess this is my life now."

This is basically testing their comfort in being covered with a blanket. It's only an intelligence test if we assume that all dogs loathe blankets and will want to be rid of them immediately.

Step 3: Show the dog a treat. In front of the dog, hide the treat under a cup. Do they nose or paw the cup over to get the treat? No. She stared at the cup and stared at me, but never tried to knock the cup over to get the treat.

You have a "soft", handler oriented dog. You showed her something and then blocked her access to it. She looked to you for further information. You would need to teach her that this is a puzzle you want her to solve, then increase difficulty to assess intelligence (although it will still hinge on food motivation - one of mine wouldn't play with treat toys because why expend the effort when I'm going to make dinner later anyway?). This is especially true if you've been teaching her things like stay out of the kitchen and don't steal food from children.

*After the dismal failure of the other two tests, I tried calling "Come here Train Tracks" in the same tone of voice. She came. :/

Also normal. Most dogs exist in a world of tone and gestural context rather than actual verbal cues.

Conclusion: my dog may be dumb.

Probably not. Intelligence tests are such a weird thing. We don't even really have them right for people. You get into other species and there are all sorts of variables - like, raccoons used to test really poorly because raccoons obsessively collect and wash things, so they would rarely actually complete the test goal itself. If you give a cat or an ape a test that involves climbing, they'll automatically score higher than a dog or pig because those animals don't generally climb. And so forth.

As always, thanks for the insight PC! I was hoping you would weigh in.

[Icarus]

SAR pays poorly in my neck of the woods. We have several club like organizations that do SAR for the sheer satisfaction of crashing through the woods looking for a lost or injured person, perhaps a child. There is much bragging, among the group, about the obvious superiority of their dogs.  Search and rescue is not the same as tracking.  Our dog people do tracking trials with regularity. More for fun and bragging rights than critical discoveries, although some of the handlers have found useful trails of criminals or runaways.

I once knew a woman who was involved with one of our SAR groups. She had an Australian Shephard named Tyler. She and Tyler routinely shut down the bloodhounds and German Shephards because Tyler was faster on the trails and seemed to love bounding through the brambles and underbrush.  Your dog does not need to be bred for tracking or rescue work. He/she just needs to like what they are doing and have a handler who knows what they are doing. 

[Tank]

Missing Crow's commentary on the European football.

Go Wales!!!!

[Arturo]

I want to get back in the gym. It's been almost a whole week since I've been. THIS WILL NOT STAND!

[Magdalena]

Missing Crow's commentary on the European football.

[Sandra Craft]

Missing Crow's commentary on the European football.

  I'd be willing to bet he comes back eventually.  Who can resist us?

[Magdalena]

Missing Crow's commentary on the European football.

  I'd be willing to bet he comes back eventually.  Who can resist us?

That's true. 

[Pasta Chick]

I really wanted to reason to something coherently here but I am drunk af

[Magdalena]

I really wanted to reason to something coherently here but I am drunk af

[MariaEvri]

you know it's |those" days of the month when you burst into tears just by watching a vid. of an airplane taking off

[Firebird]

I really wanted to reason to something coherently here but I am drunk af

[Guardian85]

I really wanted to reason to something coherently here but I am drunk af

[Ecurb Noselrub]

you know it's |those" days of the month when you burst into tears just by watching a vid. of an airplane taking off

Planes taking off are inspiring - a metaphor for human hopes and potential.  I can understand your feeling, even tho I don't have "those days of the month."