BAD Dog!!! or SMART Do - Page 1

My daughter called me today with a funny story about Astro, her GSD (who was our puppy). Apparently Astro has developed a taste for Saltines, & has developed a strategy to obtain them. When Astro wants a cracker, & has been told 'no', he goes away from my daughter & finds an item to hold 'hostage' in his mouth until he is offered a cracker. Now my daughter & I did discuss why he learned to do this...he had a tape dispenser in his mouth & wouldn't let go of it, so she offered him a cracker, & when he went for the cracker, she pulled the dispenser from his mouth. That was all it took. So she went around the house & removed any small objects that she thought Astro might use as 'Saltine hostages'. Now he is peeling the magnets off of the refrigerator, & bringing them to her, holding them so she can see them, & staring at the crackers. If she doesn't give him one, he whines until she looks at him, then he flips the magnet back in his mouth farther, "Give me that cracker, or I'll eat this magnet!" Knowing how bad magnets are once in the gut, Astro got another cracker !! Now she's had to take all the magnets off the fridge, 'cause now he's extrapolated that behavior to other things he wants! A monster has been created! How do you deal with this, a dog too smart for his own good? jackie harris

I tried to upload a picture, but it won't go! jh

very funny, he expect the prize, a cracket, for his mischief. i think he is very smart! lets see the picture please!

There he is! Astro vom Kalibeck, troublemaker! Also the protector of his young mistress! jackie harris

Oh dear, they are just SO clever !

I'll swear when we are playing two-ball and Taz decides
to grab both at once and run off with them, he  thinks
it is time I should 'buy'  them back.
Fortunately he has never been one to nick the TV zapper
etc indoors.

I got the picture to post Mentayflor, & thanks, I think he's smart, too; too smart!
Hundmutter, that is funny! Astro will throw the ball back at my daughter,  or bounce it off a wall to play with when he doesn't want to 'share' it with the people. He will always bring the ball back to my granddaughter, tho'; she is his person, lol!
Spoiled smarty pants is Astro!
jackie harris

there is Astro with his girl, Maddy. I must apologize for all the typos...I have issues with this new format, I can't see what I'm posting most of the time! 
jackie harris

A long time ago, I had a solid black GSD male that I was doing Schutzhund with.  Came from a long line of ball crazy dogs...that gene skipped him and he would not retrieve for nothing.  We ended up (trainer and I) doing a force retrieve with him.

Once he learned that, anytime he thought he was in trouble he would bring me something (anything he could get his mouth on).  Because he KNEW he would get praise for 'retrieving'.

This same dog also LOVED bread.  He would not jump up to get it, but if he could reach it with his mouth, the loaf was his....I had to buy a bread box because of him. lol.

If you gave him a hamburger on a bun, he would flip the burger off to eat the bread first.

I think he was my favorite of all the dogs I have had, he really had a sense of humor and tried very hard to please me.  He was one dog that I knew would give his life to protect me if he had to.

When the gal in my sig was on her last legs at 14 1/2, I rescued a 3 year old male GSD from Quebec.

Two weeks after I brought him home, Tasha died in her sleep.

While I dug her grave, Ranger, the rescue, stood watching, as though he was expecting me to turn up a nice, juicy bone. Or maybe he was hoping for a good-sized rock, one of his favourite toys. He'd been kept chained to a dog house, and about the only things he had to play with were the rocks he dug out of the sandy soil.

When I stopped to rest, he came and crawled into my lap, and licked the sweat and tears off my face.

A short time later, he picked up a brick that had been part of the edging along a flowerbed, and began prancing around with it in his mouth. He then dropped it on the ground, and began pushing it end over end with his nose. Once he got it rolling down the slope, he began barking at it, as if it was alive!

I swear he knew I was feeling sad, and was trying to make me laugh!

He's 11 years old now, a little stiff in the rear end, and sleeps a lot more, but other than that, he's still going strong! 

And he STILL plays with rocks! 

Knighthawkranch, He sounds like a very special boy, you must miss him a lot.
Sunsilver, I think I remember your telling of his rescue? And now he cares for you...very sweet.
Our breed abounds with individuals who have that spark, intelligence, personality....I still think my dogs can read my mind!
jackie harris