How much do they understand?

[Faron]

Dogs, that is.  Monday we wormed and vaccinated a cow herd.  One escaped, so we had to catch the whole bunch yesterday to get her.  Naturally the escapee, and the whole herd were most uncooperative about going in the corral. We made a couple of attempts to get them in, and failed.
I went and got my old partner Kate, a blue heeler.  She is  getting old, and isn't able to work as long as she used to.  She will nip heels a while, and just quit when she gets too tired. 
As we started to try corraling the beasts again, I held a conversation with Kate.  "Now, Kate, we need to get these cows in.  You don't need to bite any of them.  Just bark, and I think they'll move along."  I kind of told her that on a whim.  Kate acted like she was very pleased, and her attitude seemed to be "Can do, boss!"  It is funny, because I have never heard her bark so much while working cattle.  When one lagged behind, she would walk over behind her and bark, moving the herd ahead.  We got them in that try.  I am firmly convinced that old dog understood my instructions, and liked helping without so much exertion on her part.  I have been told dogs can't understand normal conversation, only learned commands, but I don't believe it. 

[IMERC]

dogs know what yur thinking before you do...

they understand...

[thecfarm]

I like a blue heeler. Looks like a good farm dog. I only have a mut,but I really feel he would die protecting my wife.Now me,he could really care less about my life.      My dog is very clever too.  He'll lay on the front steps for hours and than when I come up the road,he'll jump up and start barking,than wait for me to come up the driveway,than run out in the woods and ask like he's been protecting the place all day.But that is a learned command and plays out just about everyday that I come home from work.

[Roxie]

Blue Heeler's understand.  You'll never convince me that they don't.  Smartest dog's in the world. 

[zopi]

Nahh...Border Collie is the smartest dog in the world...but heelers are a close second!

[redpowerd]

i concur on the border collie. i have one and my FIL is sold on heelers.

[IMERC]

Blue Heeler's understand.  You'll never convince me that they don't.  Smartest dog's in the world. 

I have healer, aussie and borders...

not the smartest but they are free thinkers and cunning...

[Magicman]

Reminds me of my Dad and his Border Collie, "Tip" .  He would just point to the one that he wanted, and Tip would cut it out of the herd.  They were a good team......I miss them both.  Thanks for the reminder......

[iffy]

Have a buddy who had a border collie. Brad would speak in complete sentences to Bandit (Bandit being the dog) and Bandit seemed to understand. One day I was in Brad's shop when a couple of young ladies walked in. Brad called to Bandit and Bandit came over and set looking up at Brad waiting for instructions. Brad said "Bandit, why don't you go over and shake hands with those nice young ladies" which Bandit, of course, did.
Although I doubt that Bandit could understand anything more than familiar words, such as "shake hands", I would guess that he used a thought process to assimilate the familiar words with the fact that there were 2 strangers that just walked in, and/or maybe Brad's body language to assume what Brad wanted him to do. At any rate, I think there was definitely a thought process involved.

[redpowerd]

my border collie will understand what i want just by looking at her...she loves to go for rides on the flatbed or any other truck for that matter. when the diesel fires up she will materialize next to the driver side window, and with a stern look, she will recede and know to stay, or with a quick nod she will bounce right into the back. a toot to the horn will have her on the roof of the truck, and another honk will have her on the hood, at any speed, waiting for me to slow down enough to become a guided projectile shooting tword anything that moves.

her favorite pastime is in the back of the flatbed, driving along cornfileds snapping and pulling as many plants into the back as possible. she would fill that bed if i drove long enough. she will also climb anything just by tapping your hand on an item.

gotta watch her around equipment though, i always say she would jump in front of a train to catch a mouse. very determined.

[sawguy21]

We are always amazed at our toy poodle, words like walk, ball, park, and beach get her undivided attention. She also knows when activity in the house includes her and when it doesn't. She pays attention when we put coat and shoes on but only gets excited when she knows she is coming with us, just watches if we are going to work. Now if we could just get her to calm down and pay attention when she is told.

[SPIKER]

we have a husky lab mix at the moment, so far 2 years old, he is very good, (digs every now and again though) punishment dont seem to work to get him to stop it is a breed thing digging that is.   Try & spank him it is like hitting wet 70 lb sponge with the husky fur & all...

I had back surgery last year, he was pretty young still then and i spent 4 months flat on my back for most part on air mattress on floor. Normally he is not aloud on furniture but he got to sleep next to me there, (on floor most of the time but would occasionally sneak up to snuggle and check on me then back down.)   This is when we found out how smart he is, he will pick up and bring me anything tell him, drop a pill bottle and he will usually pick it up and hand it to ya without even asking. tell him to grab the remote up it comes, and no I have not said "This is a REMOTE" or trained him, for this.  I hand him something tell him to take it to mommy, and off he goes with it.. (as you can imagine this has been fun) same with phone, he  hears one of us on the phone, (I call home and mommy picks up the phone he can hear me and will grumble (not a barker but pretty vocal with happy growling/grumbling not mean sound but very expressionist.)    Then I can say GET MOMMY over the phone and he is all over her HEHEEH (ya I think that way.)    He is a big love bug but is also very protective...    He is one to watch just about every move ya make and acts like he is figuring out and comprehending what is going on usually...   

His worst trait is he cant make a short trip in the car (should have named him RALPH) :x
put him in the back of the pickup and you could go cross country I think. 

sure got pretty lucky with this one, but I have always picked out great dogs.   Rarely have I had to resort to any kind of HEAVY training, never had one who would go indoors either, (unless there was no stopping it, as I'm sure we have pretty much all had that.)

Shaming him is best way to train him and many of my other dogs....   

Mark

[zopi]

Have a buddy who had a border collie. Brad would speak in complete sentences to Bandit (Bandit being the dog) and Bandit seemed to understand. One day I was in Brad's shop when a couple of young ladies walked in. Brad called to Bandit and Bandit came over and set looking up at Brad waiting for instructions. Brad said "Bandit, why don't you go over and shake hands with those nice young ladies" which Bandit, of course, did.
Although I doubt that Bandit could understand anything more than familiar words, such as "shake hands", I would guess that he used a thought process to assimilate the familiar words with the fact that there were 2 strangers that just walked in, and/or maybe Brad's body language to assume what Brad wanted him to do. At any rate, I think there was definitely a thought process involved.

Hmm...never thought herding the girls in with one...that would have been great when I was younger..

[Chris Burchfield]

I had a red female and blue male, both Heelers. They were sole mates. I could throw a ball, tell Tuff to fetch. He wouldn't go after it till told. Freckles thought it was her job to keep him from bringing the ball back to me. I swear she moved about him as through she were herding him. I know both had never seen a cow or bull. Both were very smart and affectionate. Freckles died during a winter several years ago in my heated shop where they slept. Tuff died about three months later.

[pineywoods]

I concur on the border collies. MY son decided he wanted an aussie, found a kenel that had some pups and sent the daughter-in-law to get one. She came home with a border collie pup. Smartest dog I have ever seen, with a personality to match. Loves to ride on the golf cart. He even knows which pedal to put his paw on to make the cart go. Herding instinct is very strong. Son has 2 cats in the house. The dog has finally given up trying to herd the cats 

[Bro. Noble]

My dogs have all been stoopider than my cows   Excelpt for that old black dog I used to have

Never could get one to work cattle.  The closest I've ever come to being attacked by a cow was when one dumb mutt was aggrivating a cow and she finally had enough and started chasing the dog.  The dog ran behind me for protection and the cow about ran me over to get to the dog.

Sounds like your dog might be a bit smarter.  There's no doubt that some dogs sure like to please their human friends.  My old black dog was that way.

[jim king]

If only we were smart enough to understand what they understand the world would probably be a better place.

[IMERC]

given up trying to herd the cats 

that's smart dog...
mine still tries to herd the geese...

[ErikC]

  I think border collies and aussies are more tuned in to please than heelers. They may be smarter also, but the attitude thay have about wanting to do what you want is what makes them seem like mind readers. We have sold dozens of aussies and get emails and phone calls every couple days from people telling similar stories to the ones above. Makes you feel good to hear them.

[pigman]

I had a dog several years ago that was given to me. He was mostly shepard and very friendly. I just know that dog was smarter than me. After trying for over a year to get the dog to obey a simple command I renamed the him Stoopid. He didn't seem to mind since he never understood a word I said.