I have 3 Staffs, the bitch Lily and her 2 sons, Marmaduke and Beetle.

Lily and Beetle are very intelligent and astonishingly fast learners, but I really do wonder where Marmaduke was when the brains were handed out - knowing him, he forgot and didn't turn up! :-)  For months and months I have tried to persuade myself that he's just a slow learner, or he was just fooling me into thinking that he was lacking in brains and really was deeply intelligent, however, I have now come to the conclusion, that terribly sadly, he really is just very very stupid! :-)

Example: he still doesn't get it, that when he sticks his face into the cat's face, he WILL get battered - 18 months on, he does this several times a day and seems to love it and can't wait to greet the cat, battering or no battering! :-)  The other 2 have learnt inordinate respect for this cat - but not Marmaduke..

Going out into the garden for a wee is often met by confusion...he just sits down and stares at the sky, even when he is busting to go...his relatives however have worked out that going on command illicits treats and perform instantly...Marmaduke has never made this connection however...

Learning to catch treats...Beetle and Lily are star performers and react like lightening and can catch the smallest of treats from the air....Marmaduke however, just stands there and allows the treats to bounce off his head, and although immensely amusing, means his relatives then catch them instead and gain from his confusion! :-)

And the list goes on...so have any of you ever had a dog that really does make you question it's intellectual abilities? :-)

Don't know about other dogs, Juliet, but we do have a black persian kitten who is called Batty shortened from BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED :D :D :D

He is definitely two sandwiches short of a picnic - he will sit in the dogs' feed bowls - as they are trying to eat - yowls at visiting Akita within a tongue's length of her mouth    tries to jump onto the car bonnet, just as I am about to reverse out of the drive, has tried swimming in the loo, and when it is absolutely pouring with rain and howling a gale, just SITS in the middle of the garden yelling his head off!

We kept him, as he will be the last of Buster's kittens, but I really don't think he will have a long life ahead of him, unless his attitude changes :(

Margot

I think dogs can be like peope and some are definitely smarter!
However, having said that, my friend has a dog who, after a few training problems, realised she was brain damaged (she discovered this after speaking to her vet and also the original rescue kennels she came from as she was born there). Can't remember any more details, but some dogs do have problems in this department as people do.

The dog is fine and can even cope with basic training, but is just much slower and forgets things.

Lindsay
X

must be a Persian thing :D :D sometimes when our girl looks at you its as if the lights are on but theres nobody home :D combine that with the inherent clumsiness of the Persian and you get the Forrest Gump of cats :rolleyes: ::D

I have two Staffs Rosie is very intelligent and can open all sorts of doors (which isnt always a good thing) eg...Fridge!

Ron on the otherhand is as daft as a brush....if the door isnt fully opened he will just stand there with his head down looking very upset that he can't get through it even though you could probably get 2 of him through. He obivously thinks he's the size of a elephant and that it would be a tight squeeze!

x

Thanks for that Juliet, you've really made me chuckle - poor marmaduke - and I bet you love him dearly.

my male staff makes me wonder sometimes, he is scared of nothing and so laid back and he still walks into the patio door thinking its open, several times a day, maybe its just the males ( that would make sense !!)x
marmaduke sounds lovely, i work in a school and he is what we would call " special"" we are very pc these days you know !!

Learning to catch treats...Beetle and Lily are star performers and react like lightening and can catch the smallest of treats from the air....Marmaduke however, just stands there and allows the treats to bounce off his head, and although immensely amusing, means his relatives then catch them instead and gain from his confusion!

LOL - this is our exactly how our male is :p He is so laid back that the world just passes him by - I did question his intelligence at first until I realised he had learnt how to open the kitchen and living room doors :rolleyes: Now I have to keep dog gates up in front of the doors if I don't want them in there.

I think dogs are generally more laid back than bitches. Our dog never sits still for one minute and will oftne have a mad half hour where he just runs about bashing into everything then he will flake out for ten minutes and start all over again!!!!! His litter brother is exactly the same and watching the two of them together is eye-watering as they leap over each other like a couple of sheep then do shuttle runs up and down the garden!!!!! Our bitch has also learn that if she runs out to the garden whilst he is having a chew that he will follow and whilst he is out there wondering what she was looking at she can sneak back in and steal his treat!

Yes, indeed, he is "special"! :-) And very much loved too...

One of my dogs hasn't got a clue regarding catching treats etc.  Always thought that she had bad eyesight but her eyes are absolutely perfect :d  It's a shame bless her.  She's my biggest girl and she's a real big softy in every way.

I bred a pup that was so laid back I actually gave it the registered name of Forest (after Forest Gump), and he has lived up to it, very affable, but does everything at his own pace.  He is now 4 years old, and his owners were delighted this year when he finally growled at dog that was being a pain, which he had never done before :D  Despite his laid back attitude he got his champion title this year.

max confuses us as he appears clever as if i show him a new command etc he picks it up within days and then never forgets but he then does the most stupid things. he cant catch and he runs into patio door continuousley and he also will not learn that the cat doesnt like being washed across the face!!!!

God I sympathise, Murfee refuse to learn that Ella (bitch) hates being jumped on when she's asleep and bitten to death, then wonders why she is sobad tempered :D Cannot work out the difference between "come on" and "wait", watches me peel veg into the bin but still looks at the floor for peel, runs into closed doors, and finally..........cannot for the life of him, work out why, when he has a bone outside and the magpies harass him by pecking all the meat off it, does he have nothing but a meat free bone at the end of it :D :D

Oh, and when he is running home from a romp across the fields, why does he run into my very large Mondeo estate that is parked right in his line of vision. It has dents all over it!!!