Can your pets do anything extraordinary?

1. 44

   Mikeydoesposted 13 years ago

   I am a big time dog lover, I spend quite a bit of time with them. It is amazing what you can teach them to do, and some really are extraordinary. This is about a dog, but I'll mention two other things that my other pets have done.
   
   I had an 18 year old cat who used to sit at a high bar-like table and eat with us. He would use his claw and pick out a little piece. Pretty much eating just like us, minus the silverware. He did it for a year or so, then he died, so upset that I didn't get a video.
   
   I have a dog that will catch something in the air no matter how high you throw it. Which I'm sure is more common, but still amazing.
   
   NOW the main event for me is a dog. He is my grandparents dog. He is a little mutt, no more than 8-10lbs. He is pretty much a 1 of a kind, unique dog, there will never be anything like him again. HE IS.. RUDYMAN
   
   What he does besides have the funniest smile you have ever seen..
   
   He has an arsenal of around 20 toys at any given time. And he knows the names of every single one of them. With very few mistakes. He sometimes gets toys we haven't played with in 2 years, it is truly astounding. It has gotten to the point that he has so many toys we don't have names for them!
   
   We play fetch with all of them, and he will ask you to ask him to get a different toy when he gets sick of it!
   
   When we get him a new toy he will almost instantly remember it's name! I do have a video I can show as a teaser. All the good stuff is in the archives

   replyreport
   1. 0

      Home Girlposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The most amazing thing about my cat was when she was about 1 year old she's got stolen or lost we did not know, we mourned for 3 months, it was winter, cold, snowy, anything could happen, I called animal shelters, nothing. After 3 months she appeared, thinner, yellow spots on fur, shaking but was normal again in no time as if nothing happened. I still do not know, she keeps her secrets. But after that she never roamed around as cats do, always stick to the backyard. Now she lives in apartment with me,old but still lovable.

      replyreport
2. 95

   leahleflerposted 13 years ago

   When I was a kid, we had a miniature schnauzer who was quite clever. Food was stolen from the top of the counter tops every day, and we blamed the cat because there was no way the dog could reach the counter. The cat didn't seem to have an interest in the cupcakes, etc. so we really started to wonder if the dog COULD be getting into the food. There was no evidence, so we pretended to go to bed one night, and watched from upstairs.
   
   Sure enough, we heard the scraping of a chair. We peeked around the corner, and Telly (the dog) had pushed a chair against the counter. She hopped onto the chair, onto the counter, and stole a cupcake. Then she hopped down, and pushed the chair back under the table! She covered her tracks, lol!
   
   She then proceeded to take the cupcake out to the backyard and consume her feast. We didn't have the heart to take it away from her. We did remove the chairs from the dining room before we went to bed at night, though!

   replyreport
   1. 58

      TheAmazingRudymanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thats very clever!

      replyreport
3. 60

   logic,commonsenseposted 13 years ago

   My dog poops an extraodinary amount, does that count?

   replyreport
4. 60

   Pandoras Boxposted 13 years ago

   This isn't really extraordinary, it's actually pretty common for the breed I expect. We had a wonderful welsh corgi, my son's dog, Lucky, very good and loyal dog, except for that he was extremely protective of his food and once bit me hand clean off. Slight exaggeration. Well these dogs are sheepherders, though you wouldn't think it since they're rather small dogs, no more than 20-24" I'd guess.
   
   Anyways. When my oldest daughter was five her and her daddy went out and got her a huge labrador mix. This puppy was a terror of energy. Dug up my backyard, chewed up everything back there, chairs, table, pool toys, etc. And of course whenever anyone went in the backyard, he'd run at them full speed and jump on them and lick them and claw them and such.
   
   My daughters were 5 and 2 at first. At first this was a huge problem, and I was cursing my husband's stupidity. But quickly Lucky began taking care of it. As soon as the back door opened, Lucky would commence chasing the lab -(Blackie, we're not real original in our pet names)- all around the yard in circles away from the girls. This would give the girls time to reach the fort, or the trampoline or the pool, whichever was their destination.
   
   Not too exceptional, I'm sure lots of sheepherding dogs learn to use their skills in such a way, but I love my animals and couldn't think of anything else! Lucky is gone now, and since then Blackie refuses to stay in the backyard alone. But he's much calmer now, and lives in the house where he is constantly trying to make friends with the cats.
   
   I also have an extraordinary fish. I had two survivors from when my heater failed in December. As it happened, we all had the flu at the time, and none of us noticed that something was going wrong until it was too late. The tank heater failed to switch off, ever. My fish all boiled, save two - a mean fruit tetra which I always regretted buying (found out they were tattooed those colors and I'm against that) and a single zebra danio from my danio craze. Nope, not one of the galazy rasboras which had fueled my danio craze, not one of the pretty blue or bright yellow ones either, but just one of the zebra danios, stunning in close-up pics that capture the range of its colors, completely unimpressive in the tank.
   
   Anyways, I slowly restocked, after installing a new heater of course. I didn't want to spend alot of time on the tank going into the new year, so I was keeping it simple. And I still had to accommodate the mean fruit tetra, so I was looking again at large schools of small fish which wouldn't interest him.
   
   The last one I added was cherry barbs. The first six were 5 boys and 1 girl. I thought I'd better get more girls. Brought home another batch from the store here in town I normally don't go to since they don't normally have anything interesting. Immediately my last surviving zebra danio took exception to them. He cornered them all into a jumble of floating plants and did not let anyone else go near them. I didn't understand, he didn't react that way to the first bunch. I thought maybe he was attracted to them because they were girls, and his friends had all died in the December heater incident, but nothing i knew would support such an idea. If the barbs had been another kind of danio, maybe, but of course they aren't, they're barbs so it made no sense.
   
   But my danio kept it up, swimming constantly just below the floaters where he had the girl barbs trapped at, and furiously chasing away any of the other fish who came near. After about two days of this, I began to see why. It was difficult with the barbs hiding in the plants, but they were breaking out in ich. I did a bit of fish juggling, switched them to another tank, and treated both with raised heat. Truth is, I probably would have seen the ich sooner had old Z-man not kept them trapped in the plants, but still it was sweet what he did, trying to keep all his new tankmates away from the infected fish.
   
   For those who don't know, ich kills. Sustained raised temperature is the best way to defeat it, though it can be hard on your fish.
   
   That's is, all I got. My cats do nothing extraordinary. Thanks for making me see that more clearly, the worthless bags of fur.

   replyreport
   1. 58

      TheAmazingRudymanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Lol. Very amazing.
      
      Here is the profile of the Dog I was talking about! This will be one of the few times I'll not really be in character, lol.
      
      I have one low quality teaser video that showcases what he can do from my phone. I have better videos on my camera, but I can't do anything with them yet. This is going to be a fun project.

      replyreport
      1. 60

         Pandoras Boxposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Hah! Very good! That is amazing! Very clever dog, love it!

         replyreport
         1. 58

            TheAmazingRudymanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Too bad I don't like to listen and only do thing on my terms! I'm a real pain in there rear.

            replyreport
5. 64

   theherbivorehippiposted 13 years ago

   I'm pretty sure Malachi (my male) rolls his eyes at me when I tell them to put their toys back in their toy box.  He's the big bossy one in the picture.
   
   
   

   replyreport
   1. 60

      Pandoras Boxposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Nice looking dogs there.

      replyreport
      1. 64

         theherbivorehippiposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         thanks...hey...they tattoo colors on fruit tetra?  I'm very intrigued and disturbed by this....very disturbed.    I can't believe those two fish survived!  It's amazing what animals can live through when they have the will to survive!

         replyreport
         1. 60

            Pandoras Boxposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Yes! Very pretty, also called blueberry and strawberry tetras. Probably the last fish I bought without researching first, my youngest daughter (as always) talked me into it.
            
            They're really just white skirt tetras, or albino black skirts, tattooed pink and blue. They say it's very stressful and weakens the fish, opening them up to disease. Of the five orginally purchased, three died off pretty quickly.
            
            But the leader was very mean, she could have bullied them to death. I now keep her away from all other fish but minnow-types which she is too slow for. They just ignore her, and she can't catch them. The other one lives with some von rio tetras in my daughter's tank and gets along just fine. In fact, wherever I put him, with whatever fish, he has always been peaceful, even with my dwarf gourami, but his sister is a bigger bitch than I, and I have been extremely tempted to throw her pink ass in the goldfish pond on many an occasion. 
            
            Life is amazing, isn't it? I just can't believe animals don't have some reasoning.

            replyreport
6. 44

   Mikeydoesposted 13 years ago

   This is me playing with Rudy.
   
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvenpmO-MfM

   replyreport
   1. 64

      theherbivorehippiposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Soooo cute!!!

      replyreport
7. 77

   starme77posted 13 years ago

   My dog talks to me - really she does she comes up barking and barking and I tell her to show me what it is and she does - she's cool - she actually showed me my exe's drug box packed up in the garage - she's awesome tell her to bark once to go potty and twice if she is thirsty and she does it -
   

   replyreport
   1. 60

      Pandoras Boxposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Ahh, what a little darling!

      replyreport
   2. 44

      Mikeydoesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That's too complicated for any of the dogs I've seen. I have never had my own dog to train. All the dogs love my dad.. So it's impossible for me to attempt. They do listen to me when I have them alone, but as soon as my dad's there, which is always! He untrains them!

      replyreport
8. 44

   Mikeydoesposted 12 years ago

   I just got a video of my dog catching an easier ball. Still most dogs would never even try to catch this one. She has caught balls way higher and way further. I hope to get more of them on tape very soon!
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJjPqLNdK6E

   replyreport
9. 61

   Disturbiaposted 12 years ago

   I have two yorkies, one gets up on his hind legs and dances around. We never taught him this, he's just always done it. My girls even bought him a pink tutu so he can really showoff his skills. The other one makes a howling sound that sounds just like he's yodeling. So, my dogs can dance and sing. They both also love to jump off the diving board into the pool.

   replyreport
10. 63

    Greek Oneposted 12 years ago

    mine can lick its own genitals
    
    ..which wouldn't be extraordinary, save for the fact that I have a pet rock

    replyreport
    1. 61

       Disturbiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       

       replyreport
11. 0

    klarawieckposted 12 years ago

    My eskie sings when I play the piano. I asked the vet because I thought it was painful to her, but she sits under the piano and sings away. When I go up on the register, she goes up. When I go to the lower register, she does too. We call her "Maria Calas". She is a tremendous soprano.
    
    Her second and most extraordinary gift is to control the mind of her owner. She looks at me with those eyes and a pout (She knows how to pout, don't know how) and we give her whatever she wants.

    replyreport
12. 72

    Skefflingposted 12 years ago

    Cool stories! We have a border terrier who will go pee and poo on demand.  No big deal there.  But the little bugger will pretend to do his business if the weather is inclement and he wants to go back in.  You can tell he is doing it as he always looks at you when he's pretending to make sure you see him and of course doesn't do anything else! 
    
    He knows about 13 tricks with just hand or just voice signals and chases his tail when you tell him to! And he has a memory for lost toys too.  My sis lives 7 hours away.  We went to visit, it had been a year, Tetley was in the door about 30 seconds and then right under the couch to his tennis ball.
    
    Keep the stories coming!

    replyreport