A Beautiful Mind?

[Sally M]

Our backyard and driveway are on a slight slant. The front of the yard and driveway are uphill and the back is downhill. When I play fetch with Penny everyday, I stand down at the bottom of the driveway and throw the ball up the driveway where Penny fetches the ball, and happily brings it back to me...or she used to, until she got smart. Now this takes some serious thought; I'm not even sure I would have thought of it. LOL! When I throw the ball, she retrieves it and instead of bringing the ball back to me, she simply drops the ball and it slowly rolls downhill to me. My dog has discovered gravity (the center of everything!)! And an apple didn't have to fall from a tree! I think she's leaps and bounds ahead of Sir Isaac Newton. This is amazing, don't you think? I believe I have the only dog that understands physics! How did my 8-month-old puppy figure out that gravity would cause the ball to roll down to me, saving her the effort of bringing it back? Add, that by staying at the top of the driveway also means she doesn't have to run as far to chase the ball because she's already there. That's just plain laziness, however it still requires some thought also. All of this from a puppy who took forever to housebreak. I guess Penny's mind is so brilliant that mundane things like learning to go outside just aren't important. :-)

[Sally M]

Marni, I can't believe your dog does almost the same thing, indoors! Too bad they can't put their minds together for the greater good...instead of just laughing at us. Ha!

[Sally M]

I tried changing positions. When I reverse spots with Penny on the driveway, she still drops the ball and looks at me as if to say, "Aren't you coming to get it? I'm used to not bringing it back to you now so I'm not going to start again." Basically she is stubborn and refuses to bring the ball to me like she used to. It's a stare-down. I tell her I'm not coming to get the ball and if she wants to continue to play, she'll have to bring it to me. She doesn't give in and then acts like she never wanted to play in the first place. Also of note, however, when we play on the grass, Penny hasn't grasped the concept that a tennis ball doesn't roll downhill in thick grass. It just stops and then I'm into another stare-down. Maybe she DOES understand the thick grass deal, but just plays dumb. I'll stick with the original driveway setup. Sometimes if I throw the ball too far, it gets jammed under the gate. Penny didn't take any time at all to discover that if she head-butts the gate, the gate moves slightly and 99% of the time, the ball jars loose. Laurie, she hasn't pushed the ball to the other side of the gate yet (on purpose) but I'll be watching for that. Who know what our goofball (and geniuses can be quirky!) will do next. She's educating us, that's for sure.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

She sounds like a little doodle genius!!

[Marni and Hanna]

HA !! omg!  I think Hanna & Penny are related !!  We live in a tri level and got the brilliant idea that if we threw Hanna's indoor felt ball up the stairs she would tire out quicker.... which worked fine the first few times.  Now she lays down at the top of the stairs and pushes the ball down the stairs with her big nose so it rolls right back to us.  And I SWEAR she lays up there and laughs !!  Sometimes I think these doodles are too smart for us !

[DonMarie and Picco]

Penny is clever indeed!  Most geniuses have a quirky side to them!  :-)

[DJ & Chance]

LOL--Penny is a smart one, for sure.  

[Nancy & Echo]

What a clever pup!

I wonder what would happen if you put the pup at the bottom of the driveway and you at the top? Would Penny quickly lose interest ?

[Nancy and Georgia Brown]

That's very clever. I'm sure my Georgia would play that game for years before figuring it out.

But we're still working on the fetch part.

[BG and Gavin]

Oh Penny, what a smarty pants.  I always say Gavin is part poodle and part golden "receiver" because he gladly runs after the ball and catches as well as any NFL wide receiver, but instead of bringing it back he drops it in a different location in the yard so that we have to go fetch it too.  Kind of like spiking it in the end zone.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

LOL...we used to have a long driveway and Fudge would stand at the top and push the ball under the gate and make ME go fetch :) Penny is a genius!