4 Pawed faith

As most of you know I am a devote animal lover and my own little pack of critters are my babies, for all their faults and failings. The one thing that constantly surprises me with animals in general though is the way we underestimate their intelligence. It was an article in the news that made mum highlight a little point about our lovable rogue Oreo, the corgi cross.

Now little Oreo has always been a one person dog, mine, we have always known that. But what I never knew about was his behaviour whilst I was out. Over the last few weeks I have had to go out to various functions and appointments, and whilst I am out. I have now found out the Oreo knows not only the direction I leave towards, but say I do a round trip, he will know if I come home from a different direction and sit pointing that way until such time as I arrive in the road. Then no matter by what means I enter the road he starts running up and down the stairs so some one comes to open the door for me. He is so clever apparently, that when I came home from London the other night he even knew it was the cab I was in that entered the road.

He is also displaying understanding about different outings. Shopping trips are allowed because they may me dog food or treat. My monthly outings are begrudgingly allowed as long as I leave mum in charge. But medical trips like today he will do everything in his capability to stop me going to from stealing my clothes, trying to pack himself in my bad to curling up on my lap and going to sleep. How he knows the difference I don't really know as they all involve work for me to go out, like pack medicines etc. But he does, like he seems to know I am writing about him at this moment. Normally when I type my blog he tries to interfere, now he is the picture of innocence, laying across my feet.

I know they are teaching dogs to drive now in New Zealand, and if they can roll that out internationally that could be a major break through. Image what freedom it could offer the blind, a guide dog that can drive? But I would never trust Oreo or Rosie behind the wheel any more than I would trust Garfield with the Christmas turkey. That said I don't doubt I have been as guilty as the next person in underestimating the IQ and practical intelligence of my pets. Foolish I know as one of my past cats has saved the house from burning down, and Garfield has seen off an attempted robber, But from now on I am looking at a way of extending Oreo's training so we can get him to excel to the best of his abilities, so he can be happily amused and may be I have got an assist dog.

That said who wants to lay bets on whether I can train any of them to fetch my cup of tea?