Orvie’s Memory
No matter how much I know about dogs, they never cease to amaze me. Since I am not breeding in the foreseeable future, I am selling most of my breeding and puppy supplies (send reputable breeders my way:)
As a puppy, Orvie had favorite toys. Now I am talking when he was a small fry-4-8 weeks…while still in his whelping box area.. He seemed especially taken with two dragons, a small purple one and Dalton, the Storytelling Dragon.
I remember Anya’s litter just wanted to attack poor Dalton. He did not tell a lot of stories to that group of very active pups. But Kimmie’s litter actually listened to the stories. They licked Dalton, and accepted him as perhaps an odd looking cousin.
When Orvie came to live with us in the house, Dalton came too. Orvie used to carry him proudly around, his tail waving like a high flag, as he pranced with his cool dragon buddy. As Orvie grew, I put Dalton away for what I hoped would be Rosie’s litters.
As I brought Dalton out to sell, I decided to see if his batteries still worked. They did, and Orvie was over the moon, greeting his old friend. Needless to say Dalton, the little dragon, and the blue bird will remain in our house. As you can see by the pictures, Orvie has a fondness for these objects.
This made me think about canine intelligence. I do plan to administer an IQ test to them which will be in a future blog. The belief now is the average dog has the intelligence of a two year old human. Like us they have multiple intelligences. Dogs can be smart in different ways. The three main intelligences are instinctive, adaptative, and working/obedience.
The five most intelligent breeds are border collie, poodle, german shepherd, golden retriever, and doberman pinscher. Orvie may not have the memory of Chaser, the border collie who knows the names of over 1,000 different toys and objects, but his memory synapses are firing for sure! And come on. Chaser is AMAZING, but his human is a psychiatrist who has worked with Chaser for five hours every day of his life. I wonder where our pups would be with that concentrated effort, right?
I would love to hear about your dogs. Orvie touched my heart. It made me realize we really do not know the depth of dog intelligence. I have a feeling about their emotional intelligence. Personally I think humans could learn a lot about emotional intelligence from dogs who love with every cell in their beautiful furry bodies.
I know my dogs will continue to amaze and teach me. Please join me on this journey.