Goes without saying that Rocky the terrier is a genius. He knows I am going out before I do and knows lots of escape exits to get to the car before I do.

Daisy is quite clever for a deerhound, she can open doors etc and knows lots of commands.

Mack is very intuitive with people an understands a lot of commands and just seems to know what to do most of the time.

Ozzy (Prince of Darkness) is as thick as a plank. The sweetest dog in the world but just stands there if you attempt to tell him to lie down or go outside, jump in the car etc. Just wags his tail constantly and stares at you as if to say "I know you're telling me to do something but I haven't got a clue what you're saying! . We have never owned such a dense dog!

He's happy though

My current lot are all quite bright, especially Jessie - she's bent on world domination through the use of hypnosis. But one of the earlier ones and I can't remember this early in the morning whether it was Ruin or her daughter Lyra, was clever enough to tell lies. If the other dogs were lying where she wanted to lie, she'd try looking martyred at them and shifting her feet and when that didn't work, she'd go and stand at the door and agitate to get out. When I went to open the door, the others would assume a walk was in the offing and come and stand at the door too. Upon this, the fibber would shoot back and bagsy the bed she'd originally wanted and settle down with a look of triumph. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is smart.

one of our lurchers does that!!!!

He's just playing you lol


Laylas actualy quite bright, untill you tell her something - she dosent want to do,
then she stands there looking dumb.

Her latest trick is recalling and walking to heal to a water bottle,
for some resion she just likes drinking out of water bottles, prefares them
much more than a bowl, so now if she see's you get one out, she comes running over

I think that generally they are much smarter than they let on, Ben's always doing things to give me that impression. It's too their advantage not to let on how smart they are otherwise they'd not have excuses for not doing what is wanted of them.

Ben likes drinking from taps rather than from his bowl, whenever he sees you heading for the bathroon he makes a bee-line and appears just as you turn the tap on.

The terrier is very smart and in his case shows it and doesn't act dumb. As soon as I get changed to go for walks he start running around and getting excited. His vocabulary is very good and he knows dozens of words and is always listening to what you are saying and learning new words.

My Border terrier hitches a lift on the ride-on mower as it goes past..

hairybeasty wrote:


Drove past a mini digger the other day, the bloke who was useing it had his
boarder teriers - in the digger with him, both dogs were stood at the door
watching the world go by, as their owner was digging a hole.

Robb, I'd love to agree with you but my lovely and much loved Freya is without doubt queen of the vacant head space! After our sheepdogs and terriers we have found her beautiful and gentle nature wonderful- but native intelligence seems to have passed her bye. We still love her to bits but just sometimes it would be good to have a positive response to a command!

crackadog wrote:


But isn't this the nature of many Deerhounds.

Isla can also lie. If one of the other dogs has a toy she wants she will find another toy. Then she will make a big fuss playing with it until the other dog decides that it is a better toy than the original one, and abandons the first toy which Isla then grabs.

My elderly beardie Lizzie, beats that though. They all get bones, one each, and have a good chew until somebody gets thirsty and goes to have a drink. When they return their bone has disappeared. Devastated dog. Eventually after I have searched the room and not found the missing bone I have lifted Lizzie up, who appeared to be engrosed in chewing her bone, to find that she has been hiding the missing bone by lying on it. This has happened several times.

our chocolate lab is so funny he cannot catch anything even a piece of food.but he puts on a huge effort to try and catch it front paws will come off the ground head and ears get throwen backwards..but he still misses it!
The other lab is so brainy if we give them tennis balls to play with under supervision (or they eat them) if she has not got the one that she has had before she will lye in wait and when the chocie drops his she will swap them!

Murphy has a great understanding of what you say. I often talk to him like a human, normally when I have been on my own for long periods of time!
If I say "not tonight, but we'll go out first thing in the morning, before I go to work" he will be standing at the babygate at 6am, whining, he knew exactly what I had said the night before. For a treat, I always get a kiss when I ask for one. When we are on the golf course, he will go to the bin by the water fountain, waiting for me to fish an empty bottle out, he too loves to drink from bottles. The other night, there were no bottles, only cans, so I turned the fountain on and said "up", he jumped up, placing two big paws either side of the fountain and drank from the tap. He is clever, though selective on what he wants to understand.
In the mornings, they lie in their beds rather than go out for a wee, so i just shout "tree Rat" and off they go at 100 mph, works every time!

My previous deerhound Flora also acted thick, she would just look at me with contempt if I ever tried any kind of training of command, but she was perfectly intelligent when she wanted something for herself!
When Dirk was a young puppy he loved chasing sticks and I would throw them over a bank down towards a small stream and he found this great fun. One day when I was distracted by something he picked up a stick and threw it down the bank himself, chased after it brought it back up and did this several times! After this he took to throwing sticks for himself for several weeks, I thought this was the deerhound equivelant of a scholarship to Oxford...

That's brilliant! Murphy often goes off and comes back with a stick for me to throw.

I forgot to say that my DH saved my little terrier once. They bounded over towards a swamp/pond on the golf course, DH pulled up and stopped, terrier plopped in and went right under, DH got in and dragged him out by the scruff! I bet he wish he hadn't bothered now, when a new bed gets chewed!

That reminds me, our terrier once fell into a river that was in flood. Terrier couldn't climb out and was hanging on the bank in danger of being swept away when Ben reached down, grabbed his collar with his teeth and swung him onto the bank.

As my illness progresses.. I rely more and more on Zippo....he has never let me down. I am not alone when I say he is brilliant. My homecare support person now is a Deerhound lover and is waiting for a puppy...albiet maybe a yr or so...I was rushed to the hospital last Sunday...Zippo helped as I blindly tried to phone 911...he has become my lifeline in many ways. There are those out there who do not think sighthounds are as capable as say a Golden...but they couldn't be more wrong. He even let me know when I forgot to turn off the stove and dozed off...yes...the yams were ready...get up mom....Strong and steady...Deerhounds are dependable
Cassandra & Zippo