You can't teach an old dog new tricks....

[Grant Lamontagne]

... because the old dogs know them all!

My younger dog (120 pound shepherd/rotti mix named Daisy) a rawhide bone earlier because she was kind of being annoying and I thought better to give her a bone than have her keep bugging me.  I also gave one to my old dog, a 13 year old Siberian Husky named Chinook, but as usual, he really didn't pay much attention to it.  You see, at his age, he prefers them "worn in" a bit- ie softened up a little.  After a while he decided he wanted a turn on Daisy's bone, but since she's younger and weighs about twice what he does, he figured he'd be hard pressed to take it without a fight.  So, he starts howling at me to take him out.  I get up, put on my sandals and head for the door.  Daisy comes running because she wants to go out too, and as soon as she heads for the door, Chinook takes her bed and starts gnawing on her bone!

Daisy comes back in, looks at Nook and starts to move closer, thinking she can take the bone back.  Well, Nook may not be an instigator any more, but he isn't a pushover either, shows Daisy the teeth and she very wisely backs off!  It's true what they say about old age and treachery, even in dogs!

Def

[jzmtl]

LOL good one! Sometimes they are a lot smarter than you'd think!

[edcgear]

LOL

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

He's a great dog.  Even at his age he doesn't take crap from other dogs.  He's very friendly and somewhat laid back, but he knows what he wants and how to get it with the minimum fuss!

Daisy on the other hand is very strong, very large and quite intelligent, so I imagine she's a bit surprised to have been outsmarted by the dog she generally considers to be feeble and boring.  When she came in and saw him on her bed, eating her bone, her face just dropped!

Dogs are such great people....

Def

[nuphoria]

You're so right... good people

My Ruby does stuff like that whenever another dog is here. We babysit a couple of different puppies now and again so she knows how to play those young fools good and proper!

[MultiMat]

As cunning as a weasel , a VERY big weasel  .

I wonder if Daisy would fall for that trick again 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Daisy may fall for it again, but that would be it- she catches on REAL quick, which made it difficult to train her.  She does things her own way, and if you let her figure things out, she gets them in no time.  If you try to teach her something in a traditional way, she fights you tooth and nail.

She has the intelligence of the shepherd, and the pig headed stubbornness of the rottweiller, and she doesn't think anyone can beat her, which is why I love it when Chinook, the poor old, laid back, quiet, unassuming dog gets one over on her!  She's twice his size and is ten years younger than him, but she knows how lucky she is that he's as laid back as he is, and she won't push him on things like the bone.  She'll cautiously sneak up on him to take a bone that's near him, that he's not chewing on, but she backs away when he brings the teeth out.

Of course, he spent most of his life wrestling with a dogo argentino that was pound for pound much more powerful than Daisy, and that kind of conditioning doesn't go away.  If the two of them ever got into it for real, Daisy would win, but she wouldn't be in any shape to celebrate.

Def