2004

A brainy dog

Very good with words, thanks to Cath’s expert training. In his prime he had a vocabulary of about 50 words, and could understand concepts. For example “upstairs”, “kitchen” or “what’s out the window?” would work in any house, familiar or strange. He would learn new tricks very easily. His list of understood words included:

Cath, John, Alec, Mont, Joan, Car, Dave, park, kitchen, biscuit, water, upstairs, cat, bird, window, lie down, stand, dead, roll over, jowler ( a move from the game “pass the pigs”), take it, leave it, sit, come, shake-a-paw, shake (shake off water after swimming, or bath), stay, squirrel, sheep, fox, mice, right, shut the door, and many many more.

Here he is obeying the command "dead":