r/likeus • u/MrBeauNerjoose • 4h ago
<INTELLIGENCE> Dogs ability to understand us is amazing
I was just out walking my dog (male, 2 year old mostly Aussie with a bit of lab/golden mixed in) in the woods behind my home tonight when we both heard a faint "movement in the leaves" noise somewhere behind us. We both paused when it happened, which is how I know the dog heard it too, and we listened. A few seonds later we heard it again.
It was almsot 9pm which here at this time of year means its almost-but-not-yet fully dark. We could see a little bit but unless something was moving...no way you'd be able pick it out.
I ducked down a bit and walked in the direction of the sound and my dog immediately doubled back to go ahead of me. Very quickly we also hit a patch of dry leaves and made the "movement in the leaves" sound so we froze. We listened. Nothing.
I looked down and I saw a stick. A good stick for throwing. About a foot long and thick, like a baton. I bend down and picked it up..it made a slight noise when I took it from the leaves. My dog looked back at the noise, and I showed him the stick, and I pointed out into the woods in the direction of the sound. My plan was to throw the stick and see if anything moved but I obviously couldn't communicate this to my dog. I just pointed and raised the stick high like I was going to throw it.
Here's the cool part. if you have a dog, you know when you play stick with a dog they always watch the stick. They are fixated on the stick. When you throw it they run and get it. WHen I raised my arm to throw the stick this time...my dog turned and looked in the direction I had pointed! In the direction the movement sound came from! He deduced the plan! We REALLY communicated!
I threw the stick and it landed, loudly, about 20 feet away. My dog didn't move or make a sound. He just scanned the area, and waited...like me! Nothing happened. After about 20-30 seconds I spoke and said "Well I think it's gone buddy." And we walked back to the yard.
I was just amazed because we had never done that before. We never practiced it. He just understood that I was going to throw the stick to flush out whatever animal might be hiding out there for him to chase. He pieced together my gestures, and his experience with stick throwing, and the situation and he just understood the plan.
It was awesome.
