#21 Adopted Dog Who Understood Every Word
Last year, we decided to adopt a second dog. Our older dog is getting up there in years, and we thought it would make the transition a little easier (when he eventually passes) to have a second dog in the home. Our local shelter offers what they call a ‘slumber paw-ty’, where you can take home a prospective pet for a few days to see how they fit into your household before doing the official adoption.
So we met some of the dogs available and found one we thought was a likely candidate. We brought her home for a 10-day trial, and everything went well for a few days. About a week in, she got aggressive toward our older dog and we had to separate them. A couple hours later, it happened again. After separating them a second time, I said something like, ‘We really thought you were a good fit, but now we may have to rethink the whole adoption.’ I swear she understood every word. She wasn’t just acting apologetic, she actually seemed depressed. Our older dog is very intelligent, but I’ve never seen him reason through complex conditional sentences.
We got some advice from a trainer, and figured out the reason behind the aggression, and it’s never been repeated. The younger dog has been part of our family for almost a year now. She has a lot of energy, and our older dog prefers his peace and quiet, but they get along well. Yesterday, he was out in the yard when the younger one wanted to go out. My wife told her, ‘He likes to have the backyard to himself. After he comes in, you can go out.’ I swear, the moment he knocked on the door to come in, she was right there tapping to go out. I’m starting to think that she understands absolutely everything that we say, and can reason out ‘if…then’ statements better than some humans. It can be a little unsettling to look her in the eyes and see how much understanding is there.
