Crafty!
 

Spirit is 9 months now, but I'm going to post this in the General forum because I don't think this is puppy related -- I think this is his personality. He's crafty!

Yesterday I gave both my dogs a chew treat. Daisy's a chew hound, she always finishes hers first. Spirit is more la-de-dah. So after Daisy finished hers, Spirit still had his and he set about teasing Daisy with it. He'd stand just a few feet from her with his treat in his mouth and wait for her to pounce, then he'd run off ... Spirit running, Daisy chasing. They did this together for quite awhile and then Spirit accidentally dropped it and Daisy got it. She won this round fair and square. Spirit laid just a mere foot in front of her as she finished off his chew treat. He was very polite about it.

This morning I gave them both another chew treat. Daisy, of course, ate hers. Spirit? HAH! He immediately set about finding a place to hide it! He tried the cushions of the recliner first, but that wasn't quite right. Then he thought the fiscus tree would be a good place, he moved the pot with his paw and dropped the treat behind it, completely out of sight. This worked for awhile but apparently he had an even better idea. He went upstairs with it ... I have no idea where it is now, can't find it.

How clever is this guy ?!? Spirit is the first dog I've had that I see very clear, thought-out thinking. LOL ... "thought-out thinking" I can't think of another way to describe it except one word...Crafty :)

I can't tell you how many times my trainers told me to let mine think....obviously they can make decisions:)

Decisions, yes! And not just impromptu, meaningless decisions....but decisions they formulate in their mind over time with a deliberate, remembered purpose.

I love it! How can I nurture this?

you could be giving them a little to much credit.

This is possible. But on the heels of yesterday when he lost his treat to Daisy ... he never tried to hide anything before this.

Are you 100% certain?

your dog heels with you and off yesterday. :laugh:. i'm not certain
i said "could be".

Their intelligence amazes me. Mac likes to earn his treats so to change things up sometimes I hide them so he has to find them or I put them under a bowl and he has to figure out how to get the treat out of there.

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum...rain-toys.html

this might be an interesting post for you to follow