Oskar: lovely, but not my brightest dog
So it's becoming increasingly clear that as lovely and sweet as Oskar is, he is not by brightest dog. He gets confused easily. I know, even though he'll be a year old in a couple of weeks, he's still a puppy, and he is maturing much slower than, say, the Shibas. But sometimes.....
Like last night. Our bedtime routine is this: Oskar goes outside for a final pee, and after that, he likes to lay in his "place" which is on the landing of the stairs that go up to the deck. The deck attaches to the bedroom--there's a sliding glass door--so when my husband goes to bed, he goes up on the deck, tells Oskar it's time to "go to bed", and Oskar comes in and sleeps on the floor near our bed.
Last night I brought Oskar in earlier because it looked like Toby needed to go out. So Oskar was already in at bedtime. My husband got ready, got the treats ready, and called Oskar to "go to bed". Oskar would not go. When we started trying to lure him to the inside stairs he dropped his head and got his stubborn look on his face. My husband even tried to pull him to the stairs, but when a 110 pound Akita doesn't want to do something, it's pretty hard to force him. He would not go upstairs. Then he ran to the door and stood there. My husband thought he needed to pee, so he let him out, and what did Oskar do? He ran outside, and went up the outside stairs and waited on the deck to be let so he could "go to bed."
We laughed and laughed, but poor boy! He didn't know! He does know how to go up and down the inside stairs, and he does fine during the day. He shows a bit of confusion about the doors, though: if he goes in one, he tends to think he has to go out that one too instead of being like the Shibas who try all the doors.
I've heard it said so many times that dogs don't generalize behavior, and this is a good example, I think. He didn't know he COULD "go to bed" a different way! I've just never really noticed this kind of thing before because the Shibas never do this...they're quite capable of figuring things out on their own!
I suppose I shouldn't judge his intelligence on something that is probably typical of a lot of dogs (not generalizing) but it's just so markedly different than the Shibas. Of course, he's also a lot less troublesome than they are!
Like last night. Our bedtime routine is this: Oskar goes outside for a final pee, and after that, he likes to lay in his "place" which is on the landing of the stairs that go up to the deck. The deck attaches to the bedroom--there's a sliding glass door--so when my husband goes to bed, he goes up on the deck, tells Oskar it's time to "go to bed", and Oskar comes in and sleeps on the floor near our bed.
Last night I brought Oskar in earlier because it looked like Toby needed to go out. So Oskar was already in at bedtime. My husband got ready, got the treats ready, and called Oskar to "go to bed". Oskar would not go. When we started trying to lure him to the inside stairs he dropped his head and got his stubborn look on his face. My husband even tried to pull him to the stairs, but when a 110 pound Akita doesn't want to do something, it's pretty hard to force him. He would not go upstairs. Then he ran to the door and stood there. My husband thought he needed to pee, so he let him out, and what did Oskar do? He ran outside, and went up the outside stairs and waited on the deck to be let so he could "go to bed."
We laughed and laughed, but poor boy! He didn't know! He does know how to go up and down the inside stairs, and he does fine during the day. He shows a bit of confusion about the doors, though: if he goes in one, he tends to think he has to go out that one too instead of being like the Shibas who try all the doors.
I've heard it said so many times that dogs don't generalize behavior, and this is a good example, I think. He didn't know he COULD "go to bed" a different way! I've just never really noticed this kind of thing before because the Shibas never do this...they're quite capable of figuring things out on their own!
I suppose I shouldn't judge his intelligence on something that is probably typical of a lot of dogs (not generalizing) but it's just so markedly different than the Shibas. Of course, he's also a lot less troublesome than they are!
Comments
I've never run into something like this with my dogs but then again I've never really looked for it.
ugh. Ruby loves routine though. I suspect that Oskar is like Ruby. He does things a certain way. He knows "go to bed" as one thing, and is very literal in his interpretation. I think it is kind of sweet.
I think with Oskar, he probably could not fathom that he could 'go to bed' a different way than the way he always did it. Or maybe he thought by asking him to 'go to bed' you wanted him to go outside, then up, then inside to bed like normal?
Either way, I agree with Jessica that it is sweet. I love that Nola has to have her routine (I am a lot like that as well). And I love that most of the time, I do not even have to tell her to do things, as she knows that when I get to a point in my routine, I expect her to do something, so she automatically does it.
Hmm... To test the theory... maybe tonight you could do the same thing, but instead of asking him to 'go to bed' you could ask him to 'go upstairs'? Maybe you would have better luck with that.
Sometimes I REALLY wish I could read my dogs' minds.