Before we moved into our new home, Brooks learned a new trick. I did not teach him this trick either.
He taught himself! You give a poodle enough time to watch and learn and they will figure things out all by themselves.
I have a half door in my house in one of the rooms. We had left Brooks at home a couple of days
ago when we ran a short errand because it was too hot for him in the car. We put the poodles in the separated part of the
room so that they can not get into anything IF on rare occasion we can not take them with us. Anyway upon returning home we
found that Brooks was on the other side of that half door. We were shocked. This half door is way too high for him to have
jumped and there is no way for him to have climbed it either. When he stands up on his hind legs and looks over this door
all you can see is from his chin up. We sat and pondered how he could have gotten over on the other side.
Well I got my answer a couple days latter. While sitting on the bed watching TV and checking emails
I see our Brooks stand up on his hind legs and look over the door. He does this a lot so I just ignored him. He then proceeded
to hook his front paws over the top of the door. He was watching me so I pretended to ignore him still. He barked at me once.
I still ignored him. He started moving around a lot. I saw him reach his big ole paw down the door almost as far as he could
reach. This door is held shut by a simple latch that my Hubby fixed. Brooks reached down and unhooked the latch then with
his paws hooked on the top of that door he proceeded to walk backwards on his hing legs and pull the door with him opening
the door for him to come through to the other side. This mind you was NOT an accident but was purposeful and well thought
out. I was totally flabbergasted.
Well tonight my Hubby and I went to his parents house to check on them as they had been sick and
I put Brooks out in the back yard to play. About 5 minutes after we had been there I heard the heavy, thick, tall, wooden
backyard gate being opened as it makes a racket when it scrapes along the cement. I was startled that someone would be out
there messing around as we were all inside and this is a nice neighborhood. I rushed to the front window just in time to see
a fluffy brown standard poodle tail happily wagging his way to the driveway.
Yup you guessed it! Our super smart boy once again used his brain and let HIMSELF out of the backyard
because he was all alone. Man this dog should be nominated for MENSA!
Talk about too smart for my own good!
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
Truly recently had a litter of puppies.
We placed her inside an exercise pen with a swimming pool
for her puppies. She was free to come and go during the day but when we were away or at night we needed to keep her in for
her safety and her puppies. It seemed no matter what we did our girl would figure out a way out. She would undue zip ties,
bungee straps, and clamps with ease. She would bulldoze her way through the enclosure, or climb her way free. No matter how
tall or secure we thought we had made it she would always find a way. We affectionately refer to her as our spider poodle.
LOL
STILL ANOTHER EXAMPLE
Truly and Brooks puppies also demonstrated
this amazing intelligence. Its amazing how young this
poodles learn to use their brains to figure things out. By the time they were 4.5 weeks old they had figured out where the
opening to the exercise pen was and if they pushed on it
just right it would open up and they would be free. So we switched exercise
pens to one that had latches on them to keep it shut. It was a mere matter of days before the puppies learned to used their
noses to open the latches and again they would be out. Again we switched pens to one that was taller and had a different locking
system. It stumped them for a bit but now at 7 weeks Kix
(the silver beige male that is the spitting image of his father that we are keeping from the litter) has figured how to climb
out of the exercise pen using a leather recliner as leverage.
I guess that spider gene runs in the family.
TOY POODLES
Many people think that standard poodles are smarter than the smaller varieties of poodles because of their larger brain size. Where their brains are smaller I am not all
that sure that toy poodles aren't as smart. I believe toy poodles
just learn to use their smarts in a different way due to their size.
Here is what I mean.
Our toy girl Mystique is very prissy. We know darn well that she can get up on our bed even though
it high up by just looking and jumping. However she decides to sit and stare at you until you pick her up to put her on the
bed so she doesn't have to extend the energy herself. She goes
with us when hiking and loves it. She goes anywhere the big ones go, however when we come to a lake or a stream, she will
sit down and look at you like "you must be kidding. You expect me to get my little paws wet" and waits for you to pick her
up and carry her across. Now we know she can swim and is capable of going across herself but she is smart enough to know that
she doesn't have to and can guilt anyone into getting her way.
Some of you may have noticed that your toy poodles if they get a little hurt will act like its something
huge and go on and on even while you are babying them and making sure they are ok. Heck I would go on and on too if that got me extra attention and loves.
Lets just face it toy poodles are SMART and manipulative. It not even many people that can sit and
think just how and what to do to make someone else do exactly what it is we want.
Article written by Keisha C. at Arpeggio Poodles.
