Interesting Fact

 The Cassiopea Jellyfish, or Upside-Down Jellyfish, spends most of its time on it's back. Its preferred location is at the bottom of tropical lagoons and tidal pools.  (Jellyfish A Natural History by Lisa-Ann Gershwin)

Smart Pup

When watching my two pups, I made the determination Ria was the smarter one. I love both, although being my first dog Ria will always hold a special place in my heart. And the way she looks at me with those puppy dog eyes, still at 4 1/2 years old, always gets me. I want to give her everything, even though I know I can't.  But, back to the brains. I attempted to be scientific and analytical, and after months of watching, I decided that Ria was a smarter dog.

For instance, when I give the two pups toys with peanut butter Ria knows what to do. She puts her paw on the toy to keep it in place, then she goes for the peanut butter.  No fuss, no muss, right to the food. She's done that from day one. Rubi, um, nope. She licks at the peanut butter treat and the toy rolls around, and around, covering half the floor with smudges of peanut butter. I think she gets half of food on the floor, which she subsequently forgets about after working so hard on the treat. Which in of itself is problem - I thought half the fun of having dogs was that they would clean up any mess on the floor. So Rubi creates, and refuses to clean up, a mess. I even took the time and effort to put her paw on the toy for her. That worked, for about a minute, and she went back to her own habits. After months, she still hasn't figured out the trick.

Ria also demonstrates her brilliance on our walks. She always knows where she is, as long as she has been there before. I whole heartedly believe that if I just dropped the leash, she would be able to walk herself home from where ever she is. Of course, she might take a few side trips to chase a cat or bicyclist and perhaps get picked up as a stray or hit by a car, but given a chance she would make it home. I figured this out when walking one day, and the rain started to fall. Ria hates rain. She hates sprinklers. She will walk in the street to avoid any chance of being exposed to sprinklers. 

When the rain started, Ria wanted to get home as fast as possible and started to run, pulling me to make us go as fast as possible. She led the way, and took every short cut to get home as fast as possible. Every one. Crossing lawns at the corner, going down alleys, etc. She knew where she was  and the fastest way home. 

 I have no indication that Rubi has any sense of direction. Perhaps she is too distracted by the cats, birds, statutes of birds and cats, bird poop, rocks, sprinklers (in direct opposition to Ria, she attacks the sprinklers to play with the water).  etc. No, not the smartest dog in the world.

However, the other day, I was training the two and decided I wanted to train them one at a time. I put Ria in the backroom and worked with Rubi for 20 minutes. No problem. However, I put Rubi in the back room. First, she started crying, and then I heard a couple of loud noises, and subsequently Rubi ran in to the front room, ready for training! Say what? Well, she had figured out how to open the door. In this old house, none of the doors shut completely. Rubi knows to push doors open allowing her access from room to room. The door to the backroom closes the wrong way for that. Pushing the door would only close it.  Thus, I thought she wouldn't get out. But she discovered that if she pushes on the door hard enough, it will bounce open, giving her a crack she can use to open the door and run through.  

Ria never figured that one out, despite living here for two and a half years. 

Hmm. Who's the smart one now?