My Dog Tells Time

I'm not kidding. We've long suspected our Pomeranian, the self-described "leader" of our dog pack, always knows when it's time to go on their "last out" for the night, which preceeds their nightly cookies. At ten o'clock, no matter what we're doing, he pops out and gets the other three dogs riled up and ready to do their nightly trip into the yard.

When the time change occured, he seemed a bit confused, but at 10 o'clock, as usual, he popped up and let us know it was time for the "last."

You have to keep in mind, this is the dog that probably understands more of the spoken language than any I've ever met. We have to talk around things rather than say things out loud half the time because he catches on really quick. He knows what "shots" are, and will hide if anyone mentions "bath" or "brush."

Tonight we were watching House and paused the DVR, freezing the digital display with the PAU on the DVR display rather than the clock. I realized what time it was at about 10:08. He was sitting in his usual place under my wife's chair, in line of sight with the clock. He couldn't tell what time it was, so he was a bit surprised when I said it was "about that time." He popped out, looked at the display, and then looked at me like "hey, what's THIS about?"

I keep testing our theory in every way I can because it's so hard to believe. This dog is SMART. Well, they're all pretty smart, in their own way. The two bigger dogs are primitive breeds, so they're they're not smart in the same ways. The Pom knows what a phone is for. He's the ONLY dog in the house that doesn't look like I'm nuts when I hold it up to his ear when mom's on the other end. He cocks his head and listens, and gets excited. The others...not so much.

The Jindo is the guard dog who patrols the perimeter of the yard every night and stays by mom's side any time she is outside, particularly after dark.

The Shiba is cunning. He stands outside the dog pack structure by choice. My wife and I are the alphas--he doesn't care about what position the other dogs take. If there's a conflict, he screams for one of us to intervene.

The Min-Pin is sharp about comfort things. She's always alert for an open lap and when someone's heading for bed. She sleeps with whoever's goes to bed first. Our house isn't kept particularly warm, so she has to wear clothes throughout much of the winter. Her preference is that mom dresses her, but at bedtime, it's Dad's job to undress her. She doesn't believe that this system should be disregarded.

But I can't believe the Pom can tell time. That's just amazing, but everything points to that being precisely the case. Too weird.

If I'm not in bed by 11pm, he let's me know... very vocally. (cuddle time) :hi:

My dog wishes he could drive. Anytime a car door is left open, he hops into the driver's seat, faces forward, and waits expectantly.

sat on the couch while everyone else went outside, resting comfortably, and jumped up, ran over to my chair, snatched a piece of candy that my wife had put there, unwrapped it, and gobbled it down before we came back in.

He'd noted where it is, thought about what he'd have to do to get it, went over to his usual sleeping spot, and waited for the exact moment we'd be out of the room...all without showing any sign he even knew it was there.

He regularly sneaks drinks out of my wife's tea during these times when the rest of the dogs go out and he decides to stay in.

He's just plain sneaky, and smart about it. Where most dogs will give themselves away by acting guilty, he never, ever will. He has the "what, me?" look down perfectly.

but not acting guilty is unusual.

I had a rottweiler who stole a 1-pound block of butter off the counter while I left the room for a few seconds. He choked it down and had tears in his eyes from eating it so fast.

How did your pomeranian get to be the leader? Poms are small dogs, I thought. You'd think the big dog would be the leader.

And he decided he was the boss. No one else except the min-pin cares to argue with him about it. The Jindo ignores it. The Shiba doesn't consider himself a dog at all. Only humans are of particular interest to him, and he certainly doesn't consider himself part of the pack structure with regards to the others.

That leaves the pom as "leader."

It's a weird dynamic all the way around.

Its not about the size of the dog in the fight, it's about the size of the fight in the dog! -Cesar Millan

( www.cesarmillaninc.com )

Cesar says that a dog will assume the role of the pack leader if it has the right attitude, size is less important than attitude.

We don't always agree with him, but he's generally on target. The funny thing about the Pom is he's pretty much the ONLY one in the house that believes he's the boss of all the other dogs. The rest of them really don't seem to care too much. WE'RE the alphas and they don't need any others. It's funny watching him try to assert dominance on the others and seeing them blow him off. They're not particularly impressed.

loveseat by the front window about 4:30 or so and won't budge unitl he sees my car coming. He naps in the LR while hubby watches NBC Nightly news but jumps up when he hears the closing music to come in hear to tell me it's dinner time.

when either of us are gone, just waiting for us to come home. If either of us are later than usual, the Jindo gets really agitated and won't relax until we get home.

takes it to the bathroom and hides it under the bathroom rug, in a pile. I think she is trying to figure out how to get it to the pawn shop. I am really glad she does not have opposable thumbs and a key to the car.

She is also the cat who goes to every sink each night and removes the drain plug and throws them on the floor.

She has little jobs that keep her busy.

LOL!

He likes to drag things around too. Not jewelry, thankfully--my wife would kill him--though he tends to be extremely interested in her work when she's making a piece. The other day he found a piece of a double-leash we'd lost and was running through the house with it, jumping over furniture and making one hell of a racket. Like my wife said, most cats chase things. He'll do that too, but he likes to drag things around as well.

Now that is a nutty cat!
A kick for more pet stories.

ours can open just about any door in the house, and is a master escape artist.

Max was the smartest dog I've ever met.

One day his mistress and I and another guest were going to go on a walk on the old stage road out back from their place. Max was ready to go. Max like walks. Then the master said he was going into town while we were going for a walk. Max hesitated. He looked from us (going on a walk) to the master (going for a ride). His mistress said, "Well, Max, decide. Walk or Ride." He looked back and forth one more time and then loped over to the master. Going for a ride won out over going for a walk.

She's ornery in the hours in between. However, I'll say she's also sensitive to the music on the Today show. They have 1/2 hour (music) markers to when Mommy will get up and she'll get a little rambunctious. She'll hear the signal, if I'm not moving, she'll settle down for the next 1/2 hour.

that knew when I was coming home from school (I walked about 2 blocks to her house after school). At the same time every day, with no prompting, he would go outside and wait for me to come around the corner. He never did it on the weekends, just during the week. It was the darndest thing, but it was so nice to have him waiting for me.