I am getting more and more fascinated by dog behaviour and would love to do a course but have left it a bit late in life, although my mum lived to be 95 and still had all her marbles so maybe not. Would appreciate your comments on this.
The scenario is:- Three dogs together. Each dog given a treat. This particular treat lasts for some time. (15 mins or so). First dog finishes hers. She sits staring at the other two, obviously now wanting their treat. (No food aggression with my girls, thank goodness) First dog suddently runs to the door, barking as though she has heard something or someone. The other two leave their treats and follow her. She immediately nips back and pinches one of their treats!! Job done. She has got what she wanted. Now the first time this happened, I put it down to coincidence. Maybe she had heard something and then saw that the treats were lying unguarded. The thing is she did it again. It was a month or so later but exactly the same thing happened. Surely cant be a coincidence again. Would love to hear what you think. Your stories to the same end. Is she remarkable or is this just normal behaviour?

i would say you are right, the first dog heard something, barked, then noticed unnattended treats.

on both occasions

it would be unremakable that the dogs heard something in the same situation a month apart,
and a month is a long gap in between for this to be a worked out strategy

id be looking at the environmental cues around the time and location i am feeding them

Common occurence in my house when I had old 'Mindy'.
She loved the log fire and would do anything to get pole position in front of it. If she was on the outside of the dog pile she would shuffle- grumble -nudge-huff and puff. If that failed she would go to the door and bark, the silly youngsters would dash to see what was happening thus leaving her a lovely toastie spot.

She would do it at will.
But then if Mindy had had a thumb she could have run the country and the United Nations :-)

Tia has this level of deviousness down to a fine art lol.. the others never seem to learn, and fall for it everytime.. :-)

You see, differing views which is fascinating in itself. Perhaps will count the fors and againsts and come up with an overwhelming opinion either way!!!!

PS Must add that I live in a very quiet area and there was no reason I could find for her barking both times.!!!

Pretty normal clever dog behaviour - I had a foster Dobe that used to do this with my Dobe, every time Ciara had something Cass wanted she would give an alert bark and Ciara would then run to see what the fuss was about leaving her goods unattended for Cass to immediately claim, it was a very obvious tactic that happened every time they had bones or other high value treats which was at least two or three times a week, she didn't do much in the way of barking other wise.  My normally smart Ciara fell for it every time, bless her :-D

My boy does similar to get the best spot on the sofa...he stands by the door so that I have to get up to go and open for him.  Then, quick as a flash, he bounces up and steals my seat.  If other dog is in 'his' seat, he runs to the front or back door barking so that she'll get up to see what the fuss is about and then pinches the seat while she's still trying to figure out what's going on :-D  

Oh wow!! I always thought my girl was a clever little so and so and this proves it. Will watch to see if her puppy develops the same tactic in the future!!!

To be honest..it is simply natural learned behaviour.. dogs learn that certain behaviour gets them the rewared.. perfectly normal..

Yes, one of my cavaliers used to do this, in order to remove his brother from the most comfortable chair. :-)

A friend of mine's dog does this every evening!

> My boy does similar to get the best spot on the sofa...he stands by the door so that I have to get up to go and open for him.  Then, quick as a flash, he bounces up and steals my seat. 

My last dog used to do that, cheeky monkey  :)

my youngest collie also does this, and has done since she was about 6 months. Toys, pigs ears, bones, anything the others have that she wants she runs to the window barking :-)

My big girl does this all the time to get chews, bones etc of my other 2 girls.

She alsoo does it to my OH when she wants to sit on his seat , or should I say get him of HER seat.

She will bark and run to the door as if she wants to go out then when everyone has moved OH included she will steal the chews or plonk herself where Hubby was sitting.

I find it so clever and funny as she knows what she is doing . She tends to be the one who gets her treats taken from her by the smaller girls and she will not take back from them as she is a big softie and this is how she knows she can get what she wants :)

She also smiles to get her own way or if she has been told off , I love her for it .

To be honest..it is simply natural learned behaviour.. dogs learn that certain behaviour gets them the rewared.. perfectly normal..

Yes a lot of the time it is just learned behaviour, but what is fascinating is watching dog work out problems, clicker trained dogs are especially good at this and this isn't learned behaviour in the same way, ie it's not just repeating what has worked before to get what they want.  With  some dogs you can see them working out a way to get what they want and then refining these manoevres over time - it is fun to watch.

annie you are never to old , I am told that the oldest student at our local further ed college was 85 ! So get on with your course.
You can teach old dogs new tricks LOL

> I find it so clever and funny as she knows what she is doing

This is it. It does seem to be quite a common thing but I do really think it is a very clever and calculated thing to do. i suppose like everything else, if studied deeply it would be found to be behaviour needed for survival in the pack, even at the expense of other members!!!

My older dog does it with a toy...when pup is getting too much attention he gets pups favourite toy and throws it around a bit, pup jumps up to get  toy adult dog jumps in space pup was occuping and gets cuddle.. Happens a lot!

Yep...mine's does the 'Someone's outside...quick...come to the door' trick when he wants prime position on the sofa. He also does the 'look at me' routine with his toys when us humans have the affront to give each other a cuddle and he's not in the middle!

> annie you are never to old , I am told that the oldest student at our local further ed college was 85 ! So get on with your course.
> You can teach old dogs new tricks LOL

I would love to. I'm 63 now but still have a longing to learn more, especially about dogs. Have looked at some correspondence courses but they are quite expensive. If anyone knows of any info on dog behaviour courses i would be very interested to hear about them.

some of the agricultral colleges have animal behaviour courses. Perhaps someone in your area may know more good luck.
Just thought how about going on the apdt website I know they do courses not sure all they cover though or  APBC

> Just thought how about going on the apdt website

Sorry to appear stupid but what do the initials stand for? Thank-you for that by the way!!!

mine do it too,run to the door and double back so they can eat the others treat! i thought i was the only one until dawn who owns my dogs brother said he does it too! clever!

my 15 month old pup does this if someone is in her spot on the sofa, she will grab a toy and stand there with it in her mouth until the other dog gets off the sofa to get it off of her when she will then drop it and jump into their spot. 

I wonder if it is more girls that work this out than the boys?

My EBT will woof when he wants to get onto the chair my other dog is lying on- he knows they (got 2 young ones) will rush to the kitchen door and investigate what hes barking about- as soon as there off the he jumps into the chair! Saying that Starsks my new addition has sussed snoop out somewhat now and will wait for my little girl Tinker to bark so he really knows somethings going on. lol

Dont you think all this is amazing? It seems so common. The devious little things. Magic really. Makes me want to study their behaviour more and more. Will definitely have to have a look for courses. Of course, they might take the magic out of it all but hopefully not!!!!