A Dog Too Smart?

For those of you who don’t know, we have two dogs. Two wonderful, lovable, adorable dogs. And we love and adore both of them. Their names are Maggie, a border collie mix, and Shea (we pronounce it “shay-yuh”), a terrier-hound mix.

Shea joined our little clan about two years ago and she impresses and amazes us on a regular basis. We adopted her as a puppy from the Boulder Humane Society and, having seen photos of her mother, we expected her to be a medium to large size dog. But no. Shea maxed out at 26.2 pounds, but that’s 26.2 pounds of magic muscle with brains to match.

We call her Shea the Superdog because the girl can leap tall garden walls in a single bound (they are between four and five feet tall; she stands maybe 16 inches tall at the top of her head), runs at least as fast as a speeding bullet and she feels no pain. On two occasions she’s broken toes during her adventures but we have no idea when or how it happened. There was no crying. There was no yelping. Just a little limping to give us a clue as to her predicament. Not that it slowed her down any. It truly hurt me more than it hurt her.

So she’s a superdog and she also has a super brain. She has been the quickest to learn English of any of the five dogs I’ve had in my adult life. Yes, I speak to our dogs using full conversational speech much of the time and I swear they understand most of it. Though Shea may understand all of it. She was also quick to hone her hunting skills (mice in the backyard), learn how to open closets, and I’m pretty sure she’s working on how to pull open the treat drawer. But her most impressive achievement to date? Unscrewing the lid on the bin filled with dog food. She actually unscrewed it!  Nooooo!!!!

I came home to find a lidless dog food bin and a little white dog with a very, very, very full belly. She didn’t seem to be in distress but I called the vet anyway. Dr. Monica (one of the best vets in the world, I’m sure of it) asked me to describe a few things with her and then advised me as to what to look for and to keep her as calm as possible (easier said than done for a superdog). But considering the fact that Shea wasn’t appearing exceptionally stressed, Dr. Monica was hopeful that Shea’s system would process it out on its own. Fingers crossed, I spent the rest of the evening on “bloat watch.”

I’m happy to report that Shea’s system did indeed manage the xx amount of food that she’d consumed and by morning her belly showed quite a reduction in Buddha-ness. Do I think that will stop her from helping herself again? No, I do not. But that is why the food bin is now kept in the garage. I’m sure her next project will be figuring out how to open the door to the garage so she can get to the food bin once again. She is too smart. Isn’t she??