# Random individual stories of your GSD being scarey smart



## selzer

My purpose in this thread is for people to type stories of their dog displaying behavior that indicates the intelligence of the breed. To keep it readable, lets use one post for each incident. I have two to start with.


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## selzer

One day, I was piddling on my computer, working a puzzle, and Babsy came up, and started messing with my hand and then going for the door. She kept pestering me. 

Finally I got up and followed her out of the room and she stopped at the stove, which I had left on and it had a little fire under the burner. Good girl Babsy!


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## selzer

Babs is retired. But I can talk to her kind of like a people. When the younger bitches are having babies, if I am not sure if it is going to happen in the next few hours, I can say, "wake me up if anything happens." 

And she does. She wakes me up when the babies are being born, so I can run in there and help. I did this with each of the two prior litters and she woke me both times. 

What will I do without Babsy???


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## Debanneball

My next door neighbour has a white shepherd 'Sam'. One night, Sam woke her mom 'G' up, nudging her hand..head.. 'G' kept telling her to go to sleep, but Sam kept nudging her. Finally 'G' got up, let her out, she wouldn't go, so back to bed they went. 'G' is diabetic, so she decided to check her reading, she was 1.something... Sam has done this again.


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## Stonevintage

Sorry, but this is not about a GSD. It's about a cat, but well... here it is;

I was in the Fl. Keys. This old Russian sailor man was forcing a kitten to drink beer from his glass in a bar. I said something to him and he said "If you think you can do better, then here" and he threw the kitten at me from 10 feet away.... I caught him.

6 mos later, we were leaving the Keys to move North. My X said absolutely NOT to the cat coming. I had no chance but said. "this cat can do something you would never dream of, a feat he has never done before, obey the command, execute it and not move from the final position, will you re-consider bringing him"?.

When I told him the task, he said absolutely, as that will never happen.  I had tears in my eyes, I looked at the kitten, set him down in front of me and told him he HAD to do this. (he was a wild cat, not even used to being in a house). He had to stay seated in front of me, I threw a little bell ball up into a loft area he had never been, the only way up was a wooden ladder leaned up against the wall. He had to go up the ladder, onto the loft, get the ball, go back down the latter with it in his mouth, return to me (12 feet away), sit, and drop the ball at my feet and not move......

Took him about 8 seconds to complete the task..... he had trouble getting down the latter with the ball in his mouth but he never quit. When he dropped it at my feet - he sat with total concentration at my eyes only. But - it wasn't him - it was something acting through him. That cat later saved me from being killed by that man..... sorry, I just had to share that Blew me away!


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## Stonevintage

Sorry again, don't mean to spam this post up with the cat but I forgot something. That night the old Russian sailor threw the kitten at me, I took him home. My (now X and deceased himself) made me bring him right back down to the bar the next day and let him go in the back yard. (he was from a colony of strays born there). A week later, the Old Russian sailor died walking to his car out behind the bar. 

I ran into the bartender and he told me what happened and said I've got to take the kitten back..... Billy (Russian was laying out back in the dirt busy dying and that kitten got up on his chest and wouldn't let anyone near him. Spitting and striking out with his paws. The owners and bartender lit cancels around the body and said some prayers. Then they called the police. The kitten was thrown off the body by LE and went back into the cat colony. I went down that night and stood there like an idiot with about 18 wildcats in the bushes and called "kitty", he came right into my arms. That's how I got him...... just such a crazy story, hope you don't mind if I told it.


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## selzer

Well, as this is a GSD forum, and I wanted a group of anecdotes about our breed's intelligence... I thought I was pretty clear about what I wanted. I said GSDs, not pets... So, yeah, it kind of didn't follow what I was hoping to get. Once you post something, you really have no control in how it moves along though.


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## Stonevintage

selzer said:


> Well, as this is a GSD forum, and I wanted a group of anecdotes about our breed's intelligence... I thought I was pretty clear about what I wanted. I said GSDs, not pets... So, yeah, it kind of didn't follow what I was hoping to get. Once you post something, you really have no control in how it moves along though.


Well, yea, this is a GSD forum. However, I have seen items posted here about non-GSD's.

I'm sorry. I won't do it again....


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## MineAreWorkingline

Stonevintage said:


> Well, yea, this is a GSD forum. However, I have seen items posted here about non-GSD's.
> 
> I'm sorry. I won't do it again....


I enjoyed your cat stories. As a lifetime owner of German Shepherds and cats, one thing I have learned, the biggest difference between German Shepherds and cats is size. I like to call cats miniature German Shepherds! LOL!

Sorry to derail the thread, but I too have seen so many threads hijacked with posts, or even threads started, regarding other breeds of dogs as well.


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## Stonevintage

Thanks Mine As it went on with that cat - he ruled the roost! My GSD for 13 years did not mess with that cat. He tried to a few times but got velcro nose and gave up pretty quick


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## Stonevintage

Now Selzer... WTH? You chastise me for talking about cats of a GSD forum and this is what you posted to the "Did you adopt your GSD puppy or buy"? on 12/04/2015????



What?!? You BOUGHT a cat?!? Don't you know that they don't even wait to euthanize them, there are so many in shelters!!! 

Just kidding. But, yeah it is he same thinking. I had a rescued Goblin Kitty -- I rescued it. Someone dumped it thinking my small shed was a barn, and it started stealing from my GSDs. I had her for eight years. And my first cat, I fished him out from under my parents' neighbors' porch. Mother had a litter under there. They all died but this one, when the mother got killed or something. Boy I loved that kitten, Monster Kitty. I had him for 7 or 8 years before I had to put him down due to a spinal disease. He was my first pet after moving out.

But I have no problem with people buying cats. Or dogs. Or birds. Or fish. And I am not God's gift to cats because I fed and vetted a couple for a number of years.


Shame on you!


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## Mikelia

Eli was about eight months old and I had him at work with me (pet supply store). He kept trying to steal this one particular small dog treat and the staff kept catching him and making him drop it (which he did every time). He must have thought long and hard about it because finally he stole two and when told to drop it he dropped one and ran off and ate the other. They are so smart sometime haha.


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## Shade

In Delgado's basic obedience class we were doing Rally like obedience stopping at difference locations in the room and performing certain tasks.

To demonstrate the trainer decided to use Delgado, she took his leash from me and starts the course but after two obstacles Delgado is getting mad that she's taking him farther and farther away from him so he starts acting up. She's struggling with him as I'm standing there shaking my head inwardly at her stubbornness so she comes back and tosses the leash back to me and tells me I'm not allowed to run the course because obviously he's not ready.

I took that personally and was very upset at that, so I took him to the side and we had a quiet moment. Reconnected with a few quick tasks and then I ran my own version of the course away from the others so I wouldn't disturb the rest and he nailed each one. She notices what I'm doing so calls me over and tells me to run the course with an attitude obviously expecting us to fail, we do and he perfectly performs each task for me and we end with me beaming from ear to ear. She never said anything once we were finished it was pretty obvious he just wanted the right person at the end of the leash to work with


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## Lobo dog

We have an office in our home that has two computers. Lobo will stealthily crawl under the desk making as little noise as possible so as not to be called out, he puts his paws on the extension cord, waits for me to notice what he is about to do then pulls his paws to him and effectively kills the computers for the half hour it takes for them to set themselves back up (he has done this at least 3 times now). He has figured out how to hit me where it hurts lol scary smart :crazy:


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## MayzieGSD

I had to get up early one Saturday and before going to bed, I said to Bruno, wake me up at 5am tomorrow. At 4:58 am he sat up in the bed and touched his nose to my face.


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## glowingtoadfly

Grim once brought me my pack of cigarettes when he wanted to go outside. He also figured out how to open a crate.


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## MayzieGSD

Lobo dog said:


> We have an office in our home that has two computers. Lobo will stealthily crawl under the desk making as little noise as possible so as not to be called out, he puts his paws on the extension cord, waits for me to notice what he is about to do then pulls his paws to him and effectively kills the computers for the half hour it takes for them to set themselves back up (he has done this at least 3 times now). He has figured out how to hit me where it hurts lol scary smart :crazy:


Bruno knows how to put my laptop into airplane mode and disable the touchpad. :help:


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## WIBackpacker

glowingtoadfly said:


> Grim once brought me my pack of cigarettes when he wanted to go outside. He also figured out how to open a crate.


Similar story here. Tica knows that gardening time for me = outside playtime for her. She'll bring me one of my work gloves if she decides I'm being lazy and should go outside and weed instead.

She also used to hide my Kindle (jealousy issues? how dare I read when we could go to the park?), in increasingly challenging spots. I never actually saw her touch it, she knows darn well it's off-limits, so I blamed my husband for quite some time. Then one morning I found it wedged neatly behind the toilet next to her beloved stuffed hedgehog, which she had started hiding there to keep it away from the puppy. I finally realized who the real culprit was, and now it gets stored in a cupboard.


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## WateryTart

My dog was diagnosed with pano this summer. My husband took her to the vet to get her limp checked out, and the vet conducted a thorough exam and then spent some time talking to my husband about the ins and outs of the preliminary diagnosis.

The dog had really not enjoyed the exam, although she tolerated it. She finally got tired of my husband and the vet carrying on this conversation (and I guess she was tired of being there), because she picked up her leash and with an expression of utter disdain, literally threw the leash at my husband. The doctor found this hilarious and told me later that she couldn't have said, "We're done here, give me the keys, I'm driving" any plainer than if she'd spoken out loud.


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## dogfaeries

Sage had her leash attached, and was waiting for me to get organized so we could go out and get in the car. Well, she was dragging the leash and got it stuck under a half-opened door. Pulling did nothing to get her loose, so she went behind the door, took her feet and pawed at the leash until she got it pulled loose. Smart cookie, that one!


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## dogfaeries

I've had to resort to adding a bungee cord to Russell's crate door to keep Carly from letting him out. The two latches aren't enough apparently to deter her. Russell is a slow eater, and she knows if she can spring him from his crate, then she can steal his food. 

Carly can also open doors (round door knobs), and gates. She's quite the Houdini!


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## Black Kali

Great stories everyone!  they really use their brains.

Kali was engineer dog, she seemed to understand gravity and shapes (I know she didn't but it looked like she did). First time I noticed that I was working on my computer and she was pushing her ball into my lap. I ignored her and next thing I know she managed to squeeze the ball between my hip and armrest so that the ball would drop when I move and initiate play  Needles to say she did that quite often after that.

I used her precision to teach her solve the shape puzzle 






Another anecdote; I needed nail clipper that was on my bed, I jokingly said to her "Kali, go to my bead and bring me nail clipper" and to my surprise she did 

Brick is still young but he already showed us that he uses his brain quite often. Like Kali, he is a bit of engineer and always tries to stack his toys 
But the thing that surprised me most was when he was about 4-5 months old. I was in a shower and needed fresh towel. I was trying to call my husband but he had headphones so couldn't hear me. Brick came in and I said to him "Brick, call Bojan". He ran to him and started jumping on him until he took of his headphones. Scary thing is that I didn't teach him Bojan's name and I really didn't expect he would actually do (or understand) what I told him  smart little guy :wub:


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## WateryTart

Stonevintage said:


> Now Selzer... WTH? You chastise me for talking about cats of a GSD forum and this is what you posted to the "Did you adopt your GSD puppy or buy"? on 12/04/2015????
> 
> 
> 
> What?!? You BOUGHT a cat?!? Don't you know that they don't even wait to euthanize them, there are so many in shelters!!!
> 
> Just kidding. But, yeah it is he same thinking. I had a rescued Goblin Kitty -- I rescued it. Someone dumped it thinking my small shed was a barn, and it started stealing from my GSDs. I had her for eight years. And my first cat, I fished him out from under my parents' neighbors' porch. Mother had a litter under there. They all died but this one, when the mother got killed or something. Boy I loved that kitten, Monster Kitty. I had him for 7 or 8 years before I had to put him down due to a spinal disease. He was my first pet after moving out.
> 
> But I have no problem with people buying cats. Or dogs. Or birds. Or fish. And I am not God's gift to cats because I fed and vetted a couple for a number of years.
> 
> 
> Shame on you!


To be fair, I see selzer's point regarding why these two instances aren't the same thing. This is a GSD forum, yes, but the conversation on the "did you buy your dog" thread had sort of expanded. In context, selzer's post about the cat made sense.

This was a just-started thread specifically about how your German Shepherd was scary smart, and you jumped right in with a cat post. I know nobody gets to control how a thread goes (except the mods), but I also get why selzer was like, "Uh, topic please." It really isn't the same principle at all.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

Very cool thread.

Daisy was very smart ,much smarter then me. She as ayoung dog would alert my husband or other people when I was having insulin reactions.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

Charlie is our female Houdini . She will test each gate until she finds a way to lift the latch. She also opens doors


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## dogfaeries

Daisy&Lucky's Mom said:


> Charlie is our female Houdini . She will test each gate until she finds a way to lift the latch. She also opens doors


When Carly was about a year or two old, I took Sage with me to buy dog food and left Carly at home. I was gone maybe half an hour or so. When I drove up to my house, Carly was out front with two children in my driveway. I almost had a heart attack! Apparently Carly went out the dog door, opened one stockade fence gate, then opened another stockade fence gate and let herself out onto the front yard. The kids had a frisbee full of dog food that they were trying to coax her with. Their dad came over from across the street and said that the kids had been trying to catch her. They had no luck, but she hadn't left my yard. The little girl said "she's very nice but she won't let me catch her". 

And that's when I bought padlocks for all the gates!


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

dogfaeries said:


> When Carly was about a year or two old, I took Sage with me to buy dog food and left Carly at home. I was gone maybe half an hour or so. When I drove up to my house, Carly was out front with two children in my driveway. I almost had a heart attack! Apparently Carly went out the dog door, opened one stockade fence gate, then opened another stockade fence gate and let herself out onto the front yard. The kids had a frisbee full of dog food that they were trying to coax her with. Their dad came over from across the street and said that the kids had been trying to catch her. They had no luck, but she hadn't left my yard. The little girl said "she's very nice but she won't let me catch her".
> 
> And that's when I bought padlocks for all the gates!


The front gate we have has a padlock on and we need to add one to the vehicle gate.She hasn't done it in awhile but the problem is my husband ends up locked out. It is getting better. Carly reminds me of Daisy she got out one time and just stayed by the gate . I came home and she walked to my car kind of like You know your not a great pet parent be thankful Im a great dog. I was.


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## yuriy

I used to have a Roomba vacuum. After times it was scheduled to run, I kept finding it stopped in the middle of the room instead of back at its base (where it normally ends up). Then one day I caught Liza pawing the middle of the Roomba and turning it off (power button is right in the middle). 

Now I use a normal vaccum.


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## MayzieGSD

I have a collage of small picture frames hanging on the wall in the bedroom. Bruno stood on the bed and pushed the bottom of one of the frames up his nose which caused it to fall off the wall. Then he proceeded to go down the row, nosing and knocking each picture off the wall. :wild:


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## WateryTart

dogfaeries said:


> When Carly was about a year or two old, I took Sage with me to buy dog food and left Carly at home. I was gone maybe half an hour or so. When I drove up to my house, Carly was out front with two children in my driveway. I almost had a heart attack! Apparently Carly went out the dog door, opened one stockade fence gate, then opened another stockade fence gate and let herself out onto the front yard. The kids had a frisbee full of dog food that they were trying to coax her with. Their dad came over from across the street and said that the kids had been trying to catch her. They had no luck, but she hadn't left my yard. The little girl said "she's very nice but she won't let me catch her".
> 
> And that's when I bought padlocks for all the gates!


That's hilarious but only because everyone was safe! But that's really funny. What a character.


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## Nigel

Tuke tattles on Ollie when he gets into the cupboards. She sneaks snacks too, but if she hears him doing it, she'll come find us. If we're sitting, she will jump up next to us and stare followed by a paw or a growl/yip. Once we pay attention, she heads off for the kitchen looking back at us to say "come on". After we walk in on him with his head still in the food bag, she will chew him out.


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## selzer

Great stories!!! Thanks.

When Cujo I was just a young pup he was afraid of my dad. I came in and he so wanted to get to me, but Dad was sitting on the chair by the secretary, and he would have to go between him and the couch to get to me. He tried, and backed up, and tried again and backed up again. 

Then he turned, when through the dining room, kitchen, up the back steps, down the hallway, and down the front steps into the foyer to get to me. I think he was 15 weeks old, and my parents only had him for a few days.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

yuriy said:


> I used to have a Roomba vacuum. After times it was scheduled to run, I kept finding it stopped in the middle of the room instead of back at its base (where it normally ends up). Then one day I caught Liza pawing the middle of the Roomba and turning it off (power button is right in the middle).
> 
> Now I use a normal vaccum.


 I would say prey drive but I think she just didn't want it running. Definitely scary smart.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

selzer said:


> Great stories!!! Thanks.
> 
> When Cujo I was just a young pup he was afraid of my dad. I came in and he so wanted to get to me, but Dad was sitting on the chair by the secretary, and he would have to go between him and the couch to get to me. He tried, and backed up, and tried again and backed up again.
> 
> Then he turned, when through the dining room, kitchen, up the back steps, down the hallway, and down the front steps into the foyer to get to me. I think he was 15 weeks old, and my parents only had him for a few days.


That's a pretty smart pup.


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## annabirdie

Rosie learned how to open the back door to let herself in and out at around 6 months properly using the handle. Now if only she would shut it behind herself.


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## Nova12

One day I was taking my (previous) german shepherd out for a walk. There was a car coming down the road and I knew that I could make it across the street in time. But she tugged back and would refuse to walk forward until the car passed. when it had passed, she acted normal again and we continued our walk.


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## wolfy dog

Thanks for starting this fun thread!
Last year my hubby and I each stood at one end of a culvert where the creek would ran through. I would put a ball under and it flushed through to the other end where DH would point it out to Deja when it popped up out of the water. This time, after the creek filled enough because of our Fall down pours, she remembered the game and waited for the ball to pop up from under water but I had not put it in the culvert yet. I was observing her.So, and I couldn't believe what she did, she dropped it at the end and put her foot on it, pressed it under water and the flow took it to the other end where she waited for it. I thought it was a freak coincidence but she did it twice more. I was flabbergasted. That required a lot of thinking, analyzing and problem solving.


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## dogfaeries

wolfy dog said:


> Thanks for starting this fun thread!
> Last year my hubby and I each stood at one end of a culvert where the creek would ran through. I would put a ball under and it flushed through to the other end where DH would point it out to Deja when it popped up out of the water. This time she remembered the game and waited for the ball to pop up from under water but I had not put it in the culvert yet. I was observing her.So, and I couldn't believe what she did, she dropped it at the end and put her foot on it, pressed it under water and the flow took it to the other end where she waited for it. I thought it was a freak coincidence but she did it twice more. I was flabbergasted. That required a lot of thinking, analyzing and problem solving.


Nice!

When Carly was a puppy, my boyfriend would throw a tennis ball into her wading pool, and she would fish it out and bring it back. If he missed the pool with the ball, Carly would go pick up the tennis ball, dip it into the pool, and THEN bring it to him, LOL. Too funny.


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## selzer

Fun stories. I love the ball in the culvert. These dogs are smart. I think that is what one of the things that makes me enjoy them so much.


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## zyppi

Sofie loves her ball! So when she dropped it in the pool my husband would use the long handled net to scoop it up for her.... I told him he had let her train him.

next time she dropped ball in pool, he didn't go for net... wait 1, 2, 3 seconds.. then she goes around by the side of the house and drags the handle of the long handled net to pool.

Wish I could tell you she managed the 'scoop,' but that would be too much!


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## selzer

Back when Babs and Jenna were about 11 weeks old -- Brit had already gone home, and Cujo was there too. I had a doggy door, and there must have been a storm during the day, because when I had gotten home, the three of them had managed to drag a limb, about 12' long through the doggy door into the sun room. They were proud as punch about it -- Look what we found!!!


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## wolfy dog

Some of these stories make us look very dumb.


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## Kahrg4

Cafall once rolled down the manual car window in my backseat and followed me into a grocery store. We bought him a seat belt on the ride home.


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## llombardo

Midnite has done a few things that let me know he is smarter then I thought and able to think out of the box. When I first got him I didn't know him well but within the first week I learned he could open patio doors and get out of his crate without issue. I ended up never using the patio door again and putting a couch in front of it. Locks went on the crate. Then when we moved to the house and got Brennan(golden) Midnite took him under his wing. I found that Midnite did not like anyone in the crate and busted Brennan out. He would also move the crate to where he wanted. Midnite then saved Brennan from a bird of prey that swooped down and almost grabbed in--Midnite came flying out of nowhere at the same time. Then Brennan managed to knock the baby pool on himself and he was stuck under there, Midnite circled the pool and lifted it so Brennan could get out--I got that one on video. He has on numerous occasions found baby animals that I have no clue how he knew they were there--great nose. Most recently he alerted me that my cat died. My guess would be that when he started alerting me the cat was still alive, but I didn't get what Midnite was doing. He was crying and dancing in the area, I was in the kitchen and told him to stop. He didn't stop and finally came to me and nudged my hand, pretty much pointing me in the direction of the cat. When I got to the cat I was in shock, because the cat was dead, but I also realized what Midnite was doing. I just stood there staring at this cat and Midnite kept nosing my hand, crying and then nosing the cat. It was really amazing. Needless to say I watch him now and I won't ever ignore him again.


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## llombardo

When Robyn was younger and in training, she learned when the trainer said something the next thing would be me giving the command, so she started to do the command as soon as the trainer said something. It took me a while to figure out why she jumping the gun. Finally the trainer started using different hand signals(never the same one because Robyn would have caught it) All of the sudden Robyn was right on point. I was starting to think I would never get her trained, but she already was-we just had to figure it out.


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## llombardo

Apollo likes to dismantle my carpet tiles. I don't know how he gets the ones under the furniture but he does. Finally I told him he had one more shot and he would be back in the crate if he did it again. I come home and find a tile on the floor by the door but none were missing from the floor Apollo grabbed one that was torn off the chair--he didn't touch the ones on the floor he got me on a technicality...


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## Shade

I was at my parents and Delgado was in the kitchen with two of their dogs behind a baby gate. We were talking about him and I was saying how he loved to jump things but he had never ever tested a baby gate. He looks at me, he's sitting right up against the gate and just hops over in one jump without hesitation and comes to sit beside me

I couldn't even scold him I was laughing so hard, he's only done it once more when I called him from elsewhere in the home not knowing he was locked up and he jumped over it to come to where I was. Never again though


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## Rangers_mom

Let me start this story by saying that Ranger rarely goes in the car but he takes a walk (or 2) everyday. A couple months ago I told my husband I was taking the dog to the vet. Then I put the leash on Ranger like I do everyday and I took him out through the door to the garage. Every other day Ranger turns left to go through the garage door for his walk. That day he turned right and stood by the car door. I still don't know how he figured out he was going in the car.


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## newlie

These are all great stories, I have really enjoyed them!


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## Jenny720

This happened yesterday so it is the most freshest story in my mind before i have had some coffeeWe put up our christmas tree and it has all decorations through the years and many the kids made from school etc. (Sometimes max does like to take decorations off the tree- i do notice they are my favorite ones and started to think he is doing this to grab my attention.) My daughter comes home from school first. When she gets home she likes to unwind have a snack tell me about her day do her homework. Max tries and would love to get her complete and full out attention but some days it just does not happen. Max started to take off only all the decorations my daughter made in school(nursery school, kindergarten etc) she was getting annoyed as he kept doing this. I had to block the tree off. She was mad at max and he knew it. Max went into his toy box and took out the fleece braided tug toy that my daughter made for him and layed down right near her feet with the the toy she made for him. Of course that did the trick and she melted into a puddle. He has done this before if for some reason my daughter has no patience he will go and get the braided tug toy she made for him. It is the only time we see that toy out of the toy box


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## Jenny720

In the summer I went for a walk with max. Its is a very wide road and not really that busy. There were landscapers working it was pretty loud. A car was passing with loud music we were on the side of the street. As soon as it passed i started to walk just a little outwards toward the road as we were squished on the side of the street. Max stopped and turned his head. i looked to see what he was looking at and it was another car going to pass us that was driving real close hugging the side of the road. I didn't hear the car at all and almost stepped in front of the car if i did not look to see why max stopped and turned his head.


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## Jenny720

My daughters birthday we got her a cat walk as she likes to practice agility. To get max used to it i put a ball at one end a few feet away from the of the cat walk and would start at the other side. He loved it. When we were done he grabbed the ball put it exactly a few feet from one side of the cat walk and ran all the way to the other side and sat their waiting for meuppy:

I enjoyed all of the stories


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## Rolisaac

Yesterday, my youngest child wanted to watch videos on a tablet. I told her I was going to bed and to go out into the living room, Daddy would be in there in a minute. 
A few minutes later, DH walks into the bedroom to say goodnight and Nala started whining. At the same time that I asked why she was whining, DH heard a kid cry and went into each room to find the crying kid. It took a minute to realize that our daughter had walked out the back door to find daddy and was crying at the front door.
Nala doesn't normally whine whenever a kid cries, I guess she somehow realized this was a serious matter.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

Oh man Ive been chuckling through this whole thread. Jenny love Max and the lamb fleece toy. I thinnk he could be a salesmen. Llombardo love the Midnite stories he definitely is great big brother. Robyn could probably teach a training class and apollo will no doubt be just as tallented as Midnite at rearanging your house.Delgado and Nala seem to know to use his GSD powers for good.


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## Tala95

About a month ago I was on a hike with my father and GSD. We were walking on our regular route when all of a sudden my dog turned and darted in the opposite direction. After calling her a couple times without her responding I got worried because that's not like her. I ran to find her and a little further down I saw her sitting at the bottom of a little hill. To my surprise at the top of the hill there was an elder man who had fallen and wasn't able to make his way down. He wasn't making any noise or calling for help, so I was astounded as to how my dog had found him. My father went up and took him 30 minutes to slowly guide the elder man back down from the top of the hill. Needless to say I was very proud of my girl (who haven't had any prior training in search and rescue) and glad that the elder man was able to make it down safely.


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## Way Too Quiet

Somewhere in my copious supply of home movies I have footage of our adopted GSD playing tether ball with our Border Collie. She would do that by herself until the BC decided it looked like fun. It was truly the cutest thing I've ever seen. One on each side of the pole bopping the ball back in forth to eachother just like kids.


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## Way Too Quiet

One of the sweetest things that Gunnar did and I did not train him to do this, was help find a ball for our aging Border Collie, Sam. Playing ball with 3 dogs was almost an exact science. I had to throw the Border Collie's ball first, because he did not care who's ball it was, he was running after it. This would cause problems because Gunnar has a specific ball. Even though the 3 balls are identical, there is ONE ball that Gunnar prefers. I have no idea why. So, the game of ball with the 3 dogs would go like this, ball #1, would be for the BC. Ball #2 would be Gunnar's as Sam would be busy running after his own ball or at the very least running back with his thrown ball. #3 was the Standard Poodle's and if you really want to know the truth, she plays catch much like a cat. Well, as Sam the Bc started aging, he would sometimes just stop and act like he had no idea what he was running after. Other times, I would throw his ball and it would land somewhere in a pile of snow, thus halting the ball #2(Gunnar's) from being thrown. Gunnar finally picked up on, if Sam didn't bring his ball back, Gunnar's ball was not going to get thrown. So, Gunnar would trot off in a direction with his own ball in his mouth, chomp, chomp, chomping away and he would trot around until he found Sam's missing ball, stand over it, still chomping on his ball and THEN the game could continue. Smart, smart boy.


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## viking

Last winter my boy, Hans, and I were making our way off leash down the beach and we eventually met up with a lady coming up the beach towards us. She was a bit distraught. Her two female dogs had run off and she couldn't find them; one a black lab the other a **** hound. She was on her way back to her car to start driving around the park area. I asked the names, and she told me Molly and Emma. I repeated them and said I'd keep a look out for them. 

There's a bird sanctuary area at the end of the beach. Its steep, lots of dunes and at the time, full of deep snow. I walked up to the top of a hill to look down for those errant girls and sure enough, two black heads were bopping about having a ball in the snow. 

"There's Molly and Emma" I said out loud. There was no way I was going to get down there and get them, with the dunes filled with hip/chest deep snow. I noticed that Hansi was at 100% alert and had his eye trained on those two girls. He was really his focused but at the same time staying stock still next to me. It took me a few beats to put it together, but I decided 'let's try'. 

"Hans! Go get Emma! Go get Molly! as I gestured forcefully towards them, pointing. Hansi was off like a bullet straight for them. He went behind them and herded them up and out to me. The girls were beyond cute, like two teenagers who'd been at the mall having make up done and spending with mom's credit card and suddenly were caught out. They absolutely knew they were guilty.

By that time, about half an hour had passed since I saw their owner and she had driven her car up to the beach and here we came, the 4 of us. Hansi was keeping tabs on one of the girls who was clearly the instigator of wandering off and leading the other. He kept his role of watching/herding those girls right into their owner's car. 

Beyond proud of my boy for life and thoroughly stunned at how he understood all of it.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

This is my morning check in.Love it.


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## Jenny720

A great way to start a morning:snowglobe:


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## Sunflowers

Since he was a puppy, Hans has been using people's backsides as a ramp to launch his ball.
Comes up behind family members and presses the ball at the top of the hip, it rolls off and bounces, he goes off and chases it. Lol...


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

Sunflowers said:


> Since he was a puppy, Hans has been using people's backsides as a ramp to launch his ball.
> Comes up behind family members and presses the ball at the top of the hip, it rolls off and bounces, he goes off and chases it. Lol...


Smart even if no one wants to play with me they still play.


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## wolfy dog

OMG, what an intelligence on display here! I enjoy it every day. Now, my 3 month old Collie pup, Cam, (do Collies count in this thread?) is trying to outsmart Deja already so they both could form a future brilliant pair in this department. When she is running around a tree with a toy to try making him chase her, he already knows that he won't be able to keep up with her. So, he stands, observes keenly and is able to estimate when she zooms by, so he can ambush her. This worked well unit he got her in her flank, which was a good lesson not to mess with her (yet).


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## wolfy dog

Jenny720 said:


> A great way to start a morning:snowglobe:


Yes, lets have one for at least each day!


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## Longfisher

*Latches*

My Zeus figured out latches after about 30 days. We now have to use key locks in through bolts.

LF


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## selzer

I am not sure if this qualifies as scary smart or not:

QT was 9 weeks old a week ago, and I was showing the puppies to someone a few days earlier. She was hanging back, under the table for some reason. So I got this spider that was bigger than she was, and I squeezed its leg where it had a squeaker. I then threw it on the floor. 

She came up to the spider and dragged it under the end table, between the couch and a muck bucket that is back there, through the extra tall baby gate, around the x-pen, and through the doggy door to get it outside. Then she came back in without it.

I suppose she either figured it belonged outside, or she figured she would be able to play with it later if it was on their side of the fencing.

QT's owners have an older female, an adult male, and two 8 month old dogs. She was there for about 3-4 days when I came to drop off something, and that pup is running the big dogs around. Climbing the steps, chasing them down the hills, and going for the bite sleeve. They will have fun with that little spitfire. It is fun to watch her pass out on the floor in the middle of everything and all the boys step carefully around and over her -- like, "Don't wake that baby!"


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## selzer

On our way to the show on Thursday, Moofie discovered the electric windows. He was back there playing with them until I shut him off.


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## Hineni7

We had a Toyota minivan with a pub button in the front to open the side doors. I had 2 full Shepherds and a Shepherd mix. Mother, son and the mix. Not sure which one figured out how to push the button first to free themselves, but each one learned it and would randomly (when we forgot to lock the door) let themselves out. They milled by the car and did the leave but we're exceptionally proud of being out of the car. 

The male Shepherd (Hineni) was amazing at finding anything you wanted brought to him from most any distance if in sight.. He was wicked smart and wanted to please.. Miss him greatly.


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## llombardo

selzer said:


> On our way to the show on Thursday, Moofie discovered the electric windows. He was back there playing with them until I shut him off.


Mine are locked all the time for this reason. The first thing I check is to see if the little light is on that shows they are locked.


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## voodoolamb

Mako has been on tramadol for pain the past few days, unfortunately it makes him pretty nauseous and drowsy. The first day and half he took the meds no problem. 

He must have figured out that they were what was making his tummy feel yucky. As no matter what I tried to hide them in he refused to swallow another pill. He of course scarfed down anything not hiding one of the pills. I found his reasoning to be pretty impressive.

On a side note it is absolutely HILARIOUS to watch a 50lb dog trying to eat the cheese from around a teeny tiny little pill.


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## Mister C

voodoolamb said:


> Mako has been on tramadol for pain the past few days, unfortunately it makes him pretty nauseous and drowsy. The first day and half he took the meds no problem.
> 
> He must have figured out that they were what was making his tummy feel yucky. As no matter what I tried to hide them in he refused to swallow another pill. He of course scarfed down anything not hiding one of the pills. I found his reasoning to be pretty impressive.
> 
> On a side note it is absolutely HILARIOUS to watch a 50lb dog trying to eat the cheese from around a teeny tiny little pill.


My last GSD, Maddie, was an expert at extracting pills hidden in food. She would even carefully lick cream cheese off her pills and leave the pills in her bowl. We finally settled on liverwurst. She liked it so much she would scarf it down even if it had pills in it. She also took tramadol but, in her case, she knew it eased her pain. She would beg me for her tramadol if I happened to forget a dose.

Linus has learned to tell time. I usually set my alarm for 5:30am. But when I forget to set the alarm he will stand by my bed, gently lay his head next to mine and wag his tail. The scary smart part is that he will do this within 2 or 3 minutes of 5:30am. When I wake up I get nice little kisses. 

Linus also has a snooze button on his alarm. After the nice wake up greeting he will give me about 7 minutes. If I don't get up by then he jumps up on the bed, lays on top of me and washes my face with his tongue. He also has a habit of grinding his big old head into my neck. It's rather hard to sleep when an 85lb GSD is doing this to you. It's better than an alarm buzzer for sure!


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## selzer

LOL, I'm liking Linus, and Jenna is like Mako when it comes to pills. I can't hide them. I have to pull open the mouth and shoot them down into the back of the throat and hold the muzzle closed until she swallows and puts her tongue out.


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## Sherman the German

This isn't really scary smart but does show some degree of higher level thinking. I have a senior dachshund, Cujo, who sometimes has difficulty getting back up the stairs from going outside. Sherman will come up to the top on the deck and sit and wait until Cujo makes it up before he comes to the door. It's as if he watches and waits to make sure that Cujo is safe and makes it up. It's very sweet. :wub:


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## Heartandsoul

When my boy was about 14 mo I had taught him to bring things to me on command. One day I was watching tv while eating lunch. Sonny was polightly laying beside as he was taught to do. Unexpectedly he quietly got up, went over to the coffee table, sniffed and nosedseveral items, came back and put his mouth on my tv tray and spit a quarter out right by my dish with an expectant look. Yup he bought me out and scored a couple of bites.

The really cool part was watching him as he processed what was on the table and which item he was going to bring me. 

I loved reading all these stories and just had to share.


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## Thecowboysgirl

My old female is quick to tattle on any of the other dogs if they are breaking the "rules". If the puppy was chewing on my shoe, she would run find me with this comic look of distress on her face, like it really upsets her when the other dogs are bad. She, of course NEVER breaks rules

I worked with another GSD years ago, she was a barn dog, I was the weekend manager. She would attwch herself to whoever was in charge and help. I told a teenaged working student to turn a normally easy to handle horse out, then I went I to another part of the barn (huge barn, 60 horses). A few minutes later that GSD came tearing around the corner for all the world like Lassie, trying to get me to follow her back where we had come from. So I did. That horse was full of it that day and was bouncing off the walls. Poor kid was struggling to hang on but imminently going to either lose the horse or get hurt. I was able to jump in and get the horse under control, cause that good dog came and let me know I was needed.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom

Heartandsoul said:


> When my boy was about 14 mo I had taught him to bring things to me on command. One day I was watching tv while eating lunch. Sonny was polightly laying beside as he was taught to do. Unexpectedly he quietly got up, went over to the coffee table, sniffed and nosedseveral items, came back and put his mouth on my tv tray and spit a quarter out right by my dish with an expectant look. Yup he bought me out and scored a couple of bites.
> 
> The really cool part was watching him as he processed what was on the table and which item he was going to bring me.
> 
> I loved reading all these stories and just had to share.


 
Gotta love these guys always thinking.


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## Jenny720

Thecowboysgirl said:


> My old female is quick to tattle on any of the other dogs if they are breaking the "rules". If the puppy was chewing on my shoe, she would run find me with this comic look of distress on her face, like it really upsets her when the other dogs are bad. She, of course NEVER breaks rules
> 
> I worked with another GSD years ago, she was a barn dog, I was the weekend manager. She would attwch herself to whoever was in charge and help. I told a teenaged working student to turn a normally easy to handle horse out, then I went I to another part of the barn (huge barn, 60 horses). A few minutes later that GSD came tearing around the corner for all the world like Lassie, trying to get me to follow her back where we had come from. So I did. That horse was full of it that day and was bouncing off the walls. Poor kid was struggling to hang on but imminently going to either lose the horse or get hurt. I was able to jump in and get the horse under control, cause that good dog came and let me know I was needed.[/
> 
> The oldest seem to be the gate keeper of rules-i love when my chihuahua looks at me with that real deep serious look as if to you are going to let him (our young gsd)get away with that are you. Always enjoy all the tales of wisdom!!!!


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## Basia

This is my mom's story from before I was born:

It was the middle of the night and my mother had a terrible cold. She had taken a bunch of Nyquil before going to bed, so she was really passed out and drowsy. She woke up to him whining, moaning, groaning, barking, etc. She thought he was just being a brat and ignored him. Yet he continued relentlessly. Eventually realizing she wasn't going to get up, he went to the bottom of the bed, grabbed her feet, and started dragging her out of bed. Finally she got up and when she stood in the kitchen she realized something was wrong. There was smoke coming from downstairs. The lower apartment was on fire and the mother and little girl who lived their were asleep. If it wasn't for César, the fire department never would have been called in time.

Even though our time together was brief, this is the dog that imprinted on me as a baby and created my love of the breed.


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## lexiz

Just a few days ago I decided that I was going to use the vacuum hose on Vesper's coat. She's been blowing her coat and so she's been shedding a lot more than usual. She doesn't mind the vacuum, but wasn't too excited when I tried to vacuum her with the hose. I turned off the vacuum, and said to her, "Ves, I'm just going to run this over your fur. It won't hurt and it won't be scary." I said it calmly, just hoping that my voice would help her relax. I turned on the vacuum and tried again. She didn't seem upset at all! I was absolutely astounded. Before she had dodged the hose and run away, now she was sitting there like a little angel. I swear, that girl knows what we are saying.


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## Jelpy

Allie loves one specific spot on the couch and does NOT like to share. When she has to jump off the couch she picks up a toy and places it there so no one can sit in 'her' spot. I think she's saving her space. 

Jelpy


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## andywhite

Great thread from 2016. Bumping it up. >


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## GandalfTheShepherd

My sable shepherd found a really long stick once and he picked it up, in front of him were two poles in the ground without enough space for the stick to fit through if he carried it the way he was. He stopped before the two poles, analyzed and then rotated the stick so it would fit. Blew my mind that his spatial reasoning was so good! Not like any other dog I've seen.... not to be outdone by Gandalfs sensitivity to human emotion. He just "knows" when you're feeling down... and he will get close to you and lean into you like nothing I've ever seen, it's such a touching and sweet gesture. He's done this with me on a bad day and even strangers that have seen him in public and just miss their dog... if you are sick, choking, or anything in pain he will be right there by your side to make sure you're okay.


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## GSDchoice

This is a nice interesting thread.

I went out of town for a few days, leaving my husband to hold the fort...He reported that whenever he took Rumo out for a walk, Rumo would run to the car and paw at the door. Apparently he thought that if he could just get into that car and drive around for long enough, he could "find Mom"! I thought it was cute doggy reasoning.


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## Nurse Bishop

One time I was in a parking lot with Inga in the back of the truck. A policeman parked next to us in a car that said K9 officer. We immediately admired each other's dogs. He proudly said his GSD was young and at 18 moths old was certified as a narcotics dog and now a patrol K9. I said well Inga is a little over 1 year old and she knows 30 commands. Off Load I said to her. She off loaded and immediately jumped on the police officer.


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## Beau's Mom

Beau does a lot of scary smart things. Here’s one:
One day a few months ago we were relaxing after a long morning walk; I was reading on the couch, Beau was thoughtfully chewing his ball on his bed ~6 feet away. Suddenly he stopped chewing, and apparently taken by a wild surmise, he looked back and forth between me and the ball several times, as if he’d never seen either of us before. Then he gently, carefully and deliberately dropped the ball over the edge of his bed so that it rolled over to me, and I could pick it up without getting up. He looked at me expectantly, and I asked him if he wanted to Catch (his favorite indoor game). He indicated that in fact he did, so I tossed him the ball. He caught it, and immediately rolled it to me again. We played this game a few more times, I named it Roll It, and he will do it on cue now as well as initiate it from time to time. 

He hasn’t quite worked out the physics of the roll, his aim isn’t great from very far away. But 6 feet or so is perfect. Indoors he seems to prefer rolling the ball to me, over bringing it to me and releasing it into my hand. Before, indoor Catch sometimes required coaxing to get him to actually give me the ball, though he clearly wanted the catching part. Now we can both hang in our comfy spots and catch what the other sends. Pretty cool!


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## car2ner

this isn't a story about how smart my dogs are but about how not-so-smart a couple of deer were. Last night two deer were grazing in the yard in the yard next door. I brought my dogs out for the "last pee of the night" and they saw the deer and gleefully went to the fence to bark. The deer popped their heads up and took off...in opposite directions! Then they realized that they were running further away from each other, turned around and ran right past each other. Once again realizing that they were actually running away from each other, they turned, met in the middle, paused and then ran together into the nearby woods. My dogs just hung out by the fence watching the show. 

I can imagine it now...*the deer:* Girl! you're running the wrong way! No, you're running the wrong way! Turn around! OK. What the! I thought you said go this way! No, the other way! Sheesh
*the dogs:* Wow, that's some kinda crazy you don't see every day. Oh yeah, hey, I gotta go pee.


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## Jenny720

Love this thread! I don’t think I can ever get another breed. We have had a few stories but the most recent was when Max most had discovered my cancer even though I had found it prior and made and made an appointment, I knew the lump was more then a lump when he detected it. After the lump grew double in size within a week after diagnosis he also had discovered that. Luna stayed right by my side on a really bad nights that I had a allergic reaction to one of the chemo treatments and I was really in pain making noise moving around a lot lol!!! And she did not budge. Our chihuahua who always sleeps with my daughter is now sneaking out of her room to come and sleep in my bed - he wakes me up with little barks so I can lift him up onto the bed. So now i have two gsds and chihuahua in by bed lol! All have been right there for me and crazy flexible with their downtime. They are always putting smiles on my face and making me laugh.

Max’s nose was over super sensitive I can tell when family is over he will put his big nose in the air to smell wag his tail and charge over to the gate in happy greeting mode! We can’t see who pulled in the driveway but I can always tell how he reacts. Especially when I burn something in the oven it’s the only time he gets worried he hates the smell of smoke. I will often play hide n seek games and 
Have the dogs find the kids in woods or places we go. It’s pretty exciting to see how charged up they are. 
I picked up my daughter from school and Brought Luna. I wanted to see if Luna can pick up Cameron’s scent and she tracked cameron all the way to the front of the school to the same exact door used to enter the school I thought was so cool with all those other hundreds of kids smells mingled in. 

Last photo shepherds are loving the nice weather and always love hanging out in yard. They always watch over the little guy! 

All the recent stories that this breed -wowed me!!! 

in. .























https://flic.kr/p/ZJ1hMV


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## Josh Keller

Awesome thread, it makes me so excited to watch my boy grow up. I have a story from yesterday.

Murph is 7 weeks and 5 days old now, we've had him a week or so. Yesterday my wife took him and my 12 year old boxer mix on a walk to the park we always walk at. The park has a playground with steps, etc, that makes for a good proprioception training ground. Murph loves climbing on the equipment and going down the slide with us, but yesterday he wouldn't go up the stairs. He was tugging on the leash and barking and jumping on my wife's leg. He would run under the steps and come out and bark and whine some more. 

Right about the time my wife gave up and decided to move on with the walk my boxer mix collapsed and had a seizure, a bad one apparently. She had to carry him to the car (he's 100lbs), and dropped Murph's leash to do so. Murphy stayed right at her heal all the way to the car. 

Really amazing, I think. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but then it seems as though nothing with these GSDs are.


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