Is your dog this smart?

We taught Jasmine to ring a bell to go outside when she was a bitty Boxer. But being a Boxer, she is smarter than us in the use of that bell.

She rang the bell when we were in the back of the house.  When we came out, you can guess what those big sad eyes said to us when we found her not at the door but by her empty water bowl.

Gypsy is our other dog. And we used to have a Pug and a Shiba Inu cross, who now live with our daughters. Many times when one of them is outside, and she is not, she will ring the bell.   And walk to the other side of the living room.  Because what she wants is for us to let her sister or cousins inside.

Sometimes she gets tired of Gypsy’s incessant energy.  She’ll ring the bell which alerts Gypsy and us to the door. But when we open it, and Gypsy runs out quickly, Jasmine backs off and refuses to join her. Gypsy is usually more surprised than us!
And sometimes she just rings the bell because we’re not in the living room with her and she thinks we should be. Maybe she wants sofa time with us. Or maybe she decides it’s time to watch television. She has been especially loving the Olympics. Seriously. She watches until her eyes get heavy and her head finally drops off in sleep.

Does your dog ring a bell to go outside? For the life of us, we cannot get any of the other three dogs to ring that bell. They all know what it means. And they are thankful when she rings it for them. In fact, Gypsy runs back and forth between the door and us when Jasmine rings the bell to make sure we heard it. 

We’re thinking she’s not just cute and funny but pretty darned smart, too. What do you think?