Thanks LRRSE/Benny update

Lisa, I'm Deuce lol :D Friends call me that on account of owning a Deuce Coupe. Benny went to his first car show with us in our 1958 Ford Pop this weekend. He was too excitable walking around and went every which way but forward. What was he most excited about??? Not the cars, not the people, children, music, and the smell of burgers....He was most interested in all the other dogs and there were loads!! We let him say hello to some as long as there was no snarling involved. He made a few friends especially with my friend's King Charles Spaniel who is usually quite nervouse but they got on like y have always known each other. As walking was not a bright idea we stayed with the car and our picnic basket and Benny had his own blanket which he lay on quite relaxed until any dogs came by. Also went to the vet tonight for a check up. He was 26.5kg when we got him and is now 29kg!! woooohoooo!! The vet was very pleased with him and how happy and well behaved he is. She installed a chip and Benny only flinched a little bit when the needle went in then carried on smiling and wagging tail. She thinks he is fit, happy and strong enough for the snip now. He also has a course of ear drops for a slight infection (scratching ears at night). The vet was also amazed at his reaction to a picture of a rabbit on the reception wall and the fact he recognised a picture of an animal...totally ignored the cat one next to it which is a good thing really. Sorry for rabbiting on a bit but I'm very proud of Benny tonight and how he is coming on. More pics? All taken ithe last few days. One with his rock n roll bandana a must at American car shows.

Fabulous pics, Ade - and what a difference in how he lays on the sofa now!! Re the snip - personally I'd give him another couple of months before putting him through it, unless he has specific problems that are driven by male sex hormones and you are desperate eg scent marking in the house, roaming in search of a mate, sexual frustration etc. His body will have taken a bashing from the rehoming which can take several months to completely get over - their immune systems can be affected, hence them getting tummy upsets, ear infections etc in the early months. Interesting about the rabbit photo! Dogs can recognise shapes and pictures. I have some big pictures of a dog in different positions and taught one of mine to copy what the dog in the photo was doing ie sitting or lying down. Boney may have been taking his cues from other factors rather than just the photos (eg my face) but it was an interesting exercise :D I was on an aggression workshop weekend last year and the expert from belgium who ran it used a big fake stuffed dog. Each dog with an aggression problem was brought into a large room with the fake. My immediate reaction was 'surely the dogs will realise it's a fake?' but apparently the visial signal to the brain from the eyes, registers 'Dog!' before the nose 'it's a fake' so presumably the photo of a rabbit registers 'rabbit!' before anything else :lol:

Thats really cool!! :D Picture training your dog. The vet and receptionist said they have never seen another dog do that at the picture. We new already about him thinking toy cats were real though. He doesn't scent in the house but he does outside so thats not a problem. Though he has been trying to hump us although stops when we pro-*test*-('") and turn our backs. As to the roaming, well thats what worries me most as he has escaped due to our lack of speed and underestimating his pace. However, he has come back when called both times but I worry if he is on a mission for a bitch he will be off. We also made friends with another Lab on our morning walks and have been invited to let them both off leash at some grounds in the local golf club. I would be too worried for off leash traing/playing until he is snipped. Talking of recall. I had him on his long flexi through a field this morning walking along a hedge with a ditch on the other side. He saw a rabbit and was in the ditch through the hedge in a flash. Theres me thinking how I'm going to untangle the lead if he wont come back but I shouted stop then wait which to my surprise he did. Come back and he came back leaving the rabbit behind!! seems he has some training but we are only finding out what training through getting to know him. I will be waiting a couple of months though but it's good that he is doing so well now. Everything you said, Elaine, about rescue dogs has been spot on with our situation so I do value your opinion.

O Ade I'm so sorry about my big foopar! I'll just take my foot out of my mouth and go a dig a big hole with it!!! :roll: :roll: :roll: so glad that BENNY is doing well! What a happy boy he looks and has filled out so well - we had the opposite problem with Willow - she had to shed a few pounds and she really pulled on the lead so finding a harness to train her with at the beginning was very interesting - none of them went round her! The picture recognition is so interesting but then labs are sooo intelligent (unlike some of their owners - err me!). I saw a tv program a few months back where they -*test*-('")ing the intelligence of dogs and labs were tops! Can't remember all the -*test*-('")s but one of them was if you smile at your dog and it comes to greet you, then it's clever enough to read your facial expressions/body language. The other was to hide something in full view of your dog and then take it out of the room for 5-10 mins and then bring it back to find it - although to be honest, didn't think the food -*test*-('") was fullproof -*test*-('")ing of a dog's intelligence - after all - many can sniff a dog treat from a hundred paces! Please keep the updates of BENNY coming!

No worries Lisa, I wasn't offended or anything. Mind you calling the dog deuce would have been no surprise to my friends. We did want to call him Buddy after Buddy Holly but he responded to Benny so well we just left it as is. I smile at him all the time. He just smiles back!!! How intelligent is that? :lol:

so intelligent - you don't have to convince me - labs are bright as buttons - and cunning with it! Funny how we come up with names though eh? Willow was originally named Wendy but we think she was just given a name by a kennel hand as she came without a history - she certainly just completely ignored the name anyway! Anyway, leafing through the Argos Catalogue, I came across a childrens animal play cottage - Willow Cottage - so Willow was renamed!

I think Willow is a lovely name. I just clicked that your story is on the main site. Benny had no history and we thought they must have just given him the name Benny as well but he had picked up on that being his name. They may have called him that at the pound in Ireland as well I suppose and I dont know how long he would have been there.

Yes that's us! We lost Bessie in September :cry: so it's lovely for us that she is on the site.

I saw a tv program a few months back where they -*test*-('")ing the intelligence of dogs and labs were tops! Can't remember all the -*test*-('")s but one of them was if you smile at your dog and it comes to greet you, then it's clever enough to read your facial expressions/body language. The other was to hide something in full view of your dog and then take it out of the room for 5-10 mins and then bring it back to find it - although to be honest, didn't think the food -*test*-('") was fullproof -*test*-('")ing of a dog's intelligence - after all - many can sniff a dog treat from a hundred paces! I find this all very interesting since it was a subject I once had to do a long essay on...I'm guessing they were probably Stanley Coren's IQ -*test*-('")s you saw. Actually, after doing research, I ended up rubbishing the -*test*-('")s because Coren has used them to rank dog intelligence by breed - I seem to remember if you had an Afghan hound you might as well give up, according to him :lol: of course, they are fun to do, but they don't take into account so many important factors eg dog's own personality and learning, breed specific traits etc So for example, a lab might appear super-bright because he learns to fetch a toy quickly (retrieving instinct), but, say, a border collie might appear ten times cleverer because it can herd sheep into a pen. In fact, both are just doing behaviours that come naturally to them :D In a food hiding -*test*-('"), it might depend on the food! A particuarly greedy lab like my Dexter will hunt far more frantically for a tiny piece of boring kibble than my lab-cocker cross Poppy. she would rather chase a squeaky toy. I did a few of Coren's -*test*-('")s on my Boney and Dexter - one was putting a blanket/towel over the dog and timing how many seconds it took the dog to get it off, can't remember the others. Dex shook off the towel much quicker than Boney. But both dogs are used to being told to stand still when I towel dry them after a wet walk, and are quite used to having a towel over their head while I'm doing it. So you could say that Boney's prior learning and intelligence caused him to interpret what was happening in the -*test*-('") and stand still. Dexter might have been faster because he is less obedient, less intelligent (to make the connection with being towel dried in the first place) etc I seem to remember that the -*test*-('")s declared Dexter a canine genius, while Boney's score was much lower. Dex's nickname is Dumbo Dex - sometimes when I play training games with him it's clear that the lights are on but no-one's home (poor love). Boney has been with me since 7 weeks and is super-intelligent and has been encourage to use his brain from the day he arrived. With the smiling -*test*-('")s - that's an interesting one too. Of course, it shows that your dog is reading your body language - but that's the language dogs use to each other and the one they understand best. If your dog does 'read' you, or not, isn't necessarily a sign of great or low intellect - just that you have a relationship with your dog in which he learns things that are relevant to him. eg when my human is smiling he is often pleased with me/encouraging me to approach etc A dog living in an abusive home would pretty soon learn the 'cues' (be they behavioural or facial) that show the human is dangerous to be near eg scowling face, raised voice, coming home smelling of alcohol etc Dogs whose families don't interact with them much, might not learn human body language because they have no cause to, not cos the dog isn't bright. Sorry if I'm rambling, but I'd be interested to hear what other people's dogs do... My own react very definitely to the clothes I am wearing. If I walk around in a dressing gown or PJs, they don't even bother getting out of bed in the morning. The second I reappear in jeans, they all leap up raring to go outside with me. They know that if I am wearing wellies, then I am going to be outside for some time (and outside means Things Might Happen For Dogs!) If I try to shoo them in the house without taking my wellies off first, Boney knows it's a trick - he knows that I am not ready to come inside myself, and therefore I just want to shove the dogs in and go out again. Unfortuantely, teaching him to use his brain did not result in super-obedience, just good intellect :lol:

It is a really interesting subject isn't it! :lol: I too can feel a ramble coming on! :roll: We have found such a difference in our Lab to our Spaniel. I would definitely say that Willow is a thinker - she processes things in her mind before taking action - Finn is much more impulsive. However, I'm pretty sure it's got nothing to do with their level of intelligence - more to do with breeding and their age! It's interesting just watching their methods of searching for dummies or tennis balls. Willow will watch it - ie Mark It- and when sent to retrieve - is straight on to it. Finn is soo completely different - like a typical Spaniel - very busy and didn't at first even try and mark it - he was like a rat up a drain pipe - 'gotta get it - gotta get it' - as he is maturing, he is beginning to now realise that he might save himself some time and energy if he watches what we are doing! I know exactly what you mean by clothing too - my hubby has several pairs of camoflage trousers - they know as soon as he has them on - they're going somewhere really good and not just the park! Even as soon as we open the cupboard doors in the hall to look for something or the drawers in the hall (where all the leads, balls, poo bags etc are) they are fussing around our feet - 'are we going then?' - they really do learn by association! I totally agree it depends on the type of 'house hold' you live in and how you interact with your dogs. We pretty much have the same routine every day, give or take a few hours for weekends or hot weather. Our dogs get between 2 - 4 walks a day and are therefore 'up for it'. We hide up dummies and pheasant wings etc to make their walk varied and interesting. When I compare them to our friends dogs who perhaps only get one walk a day (not enough in my humble opinion) - the dogs just don't seem so sparky - they're very laid back. I'm sure this has a lot do do with the lack of 'doing things'. One of them chews such a lot also - we've tried to point out (politely) this is usually boredom! but hey, what do I know! :wink:

Very very interesting! We are only just getting to know Benny and vise versa. Association? After I let him out before bed he comes in and jumps straight onto his sofa. I lock up, go to the loo downstairs and then the kitchen for a glass of water and he stays put on the sofa. I then put the lights out except the hall light and he lays there watching as I open the stairgate and up to bed. he wouldn't do that when he first adopted us but would be at the stairgate whining, then I started leaving him a Kong before escaping now he is cool about it. In the morning I have a coffee downstairs and he puts his front paws and head on my lap for a cuddle. As soon as I'm up he runs ahead of me to the side door wagging his tail. Yep thats where we go and get him dressed for his walk. When I get home from work he does the same with the side door for a walk with the whole family but only after I've been upstairs and changed. Also when I'm going to work he doesn't hog around the front door but stays back without any fuss. These are all things we do the same everyday. It's funny though that he knows he is not allowed on our sofas unless invited when a blanket is on there and even then he doesn't always except the invitation. But, every morning when I go down he is lying on our sofa!! But thats ok as we leave a blanket on it now for him at night and let him get away with it. :D He sits before his meals and I raise my hand up to him and say stay....and he does until I drop my hand. But I have now discovered that I dont need to speak, just raise my hand. If I raise my hand any other time he will sit!! Hope it works like that when I let him off lead :D

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