Smart Dogs are More Fun! Right?

family 011Luna is a gorgeous, good sized German Shepherd. Frank, who is my partner, is the owner of Luna. My name is Karen. Both my partner and I are retired and living in Fort Myers, Florida. A few years ago you wouldn’t have caught me dead with a dog in my life—especially a big dog that would be allowed to roam freely in my home.
In my wildest imagination, I had no idea that Luna would become an important part of my life. The little darling, Luna, was born on 12-12-09. Her first years were spent with Frank’s granddaughter. When Luna was two, his granddaughter felt that she could no longer keep Luna. She knew that Frank loved dogs, so she asked him to take Luna. Frank agreed to a week’s trial. Two days into the week trial, Frank was smitten. Needless to say, Luna had found herself a new home.
It wasn’t long before I often heard Frank telling his friends, “Luna is the best dog in the world. She is smart, loving, and a constant joy.”
The following are a few examples that will explain why Frank feels this way.
Luna’s favorite toy is the Frisbee, and she is hardly ever without one by her side or in her mouth. At first we tried giving her the inexpensive, plastic Frisbees. Unfortunately, with one chomp of her teeth, Luna would have it demolished so that all that was left were little bits and pieces of frayed rubber. This being the case, we soon learned that Luna needed to have Frisbees that had a hard rubber base—that she could bend and chew without cracking the rubber. Were these harder Frisbees indestructible? No. If lucky, a Frisbee with a hard rubber base would last about a month. After a month all that would be remaining of the hard rubber base would be an outer circle. There would, however, be a certain dog named Luna ready and most willing to receive a new Frisbee.
When Luna was visiting at my house one day during the first year that Frank had her, we had been playing with the Frisbee out by my large pool in the back yard. We finally decided that Luna had enough exercise for a while, and so we took the Frisbee away from her. We hid it in a cabinet by the pool—one of those cabinets with four shelves and that has two doors with one recessed handle going across the front. As we were sitting at the bar relaxing, we noticed Luna sniffing the cabinet. Before we realized what was happening, Luna had pried open the doors with her nose. She started searching the many shelves, starting at the bottom and finally getting to the top shelf where she found her Frisbee. With her Frisbee securely in her mouth, Luna proudly marched around the pool acting like the Queen of the property. After this demonstration, we knew we had a smart dog on our hands.
To add to her intelligent accomplishments, Luna quickly remembered what was important to her. Of course, since she loves her Frisbee, Luna wanted to know where they were kept. Frank bought Luna twelve good Frisbees off the Internet and decided to store them in his garage. For safe keeping, he hid them in a closed box and put the box on the top shelf of one of his racks. Luna watched him as Frank hid the Frisbees. The next time Luna was due to have a new Frisbee, Frank asked her if she was ready. Responding to his question, Luna raced to the entrance of the garage, and waited for Frank to open the door. When the door opened, she hustled inside and sat before the rack where the Frisbees were stored.
Luna looked up at the box. As soon as Frank held the box in his hands, Luna jumped up on him and started poking her nose into the box. She carefully took a single Frisbee out of the box, put it into her mouth and began dancing around. Filled with excitement, Luna took the Frisbee out into the back yard expecting us to throw it so she could catch it like a pro. To this day, Luna will repeat this scenario whenever it is time for her to have a new Frisbee.
Franks Camera 041Sometimes Luna’s intelligence is laced with mischief. One day Frank was having an English Muffin out on his lanai, and all was peaceful. Suddenly Luna was barking like mad and rushing to the front door, making a great commotion. Frank got up to see who was there, or what the problem was. As soon as he got to the front door, Luna snuck back to the lanai and ate Frank’s English Muffin. Much as this was a terrible thing to do, we laughed so hard it was impossible to really punish Luna. We did, however, crown her with a new nickname: “The black faced thief.” Needless to say, after this incident, we were on the look-out and Luna never got away with her trick a second time. It seemed like Luna could read Frank’s mind and realized her trick was a one-time affair.
Communication between Luna and Frank was awesome. An example of this occurred while riding in the convertible, after Frank had been away and was just picking Luna up from the dog sitter. Luna was sitting in the back of the car and talking to Frank in her dog language. She was scolding him for having left her. Another car pulled up alongside Frank’s car, and the driver asked Frank what was wrong with his dog. Frank calmly informed the driver that his dog was angry at him and giving him a piece of her mind. Luna was making high pitched whining sounds that clearly showed how upset she was at having been abandoned—left behind!
Another of Luna’s favorite past-times is swimming in the pool. Both Frank and I have pools at our homes, so she gets plenty of opportunities to swim. Once again, Luna proved to us what an amazing dog she is. The first time Luna went into the pool, she knew immediately where to go to get out. She went right to the stairs and climbed out. Luna is a very good swimmer, and we have fun playing “keep-away” with her as we throw her Frisbee back and forth, just over her head. Luna also plays by herself at the pool. What she does is to nudge the Frisbee, a ball, or another toy into the pool. Next she circles the pool and finally does a lunge into the water successfully retrieving the toy. Luna is always in action.
Lots of times, after getting her face all wet, Luna would convince us by cleverly using her unique dog language and gestures to towel her off until her face was dry. This got to be rather frequent, and had us jumping up off our comfortable pool lounge chairs to do her bidding. Tired of being her faithful servants, we decided to act intelligently ourselves. We attached a towel to one of the lounge chairs, and instructed Luna to go use her towel. With ears perked up, she listened carefully to our instructions. When we were finished, Luna went over to the chair, jumped up onto it, and wiggled her face and body in the towel. With dry face, she looked up at us with a winning smile that of course won our applause and the famous words, “What a smart dog you are! Congratulations!”
Luna is definitely a one person dog, in that she loves her master, Frank. She does love me, too, but she is lost without him. I sometimes sit with Luna when Frank has to go away, and she is forever between the front door and the windows watching for her Master’s return. She doesn’t cry, but one knows that she misses him. When Frank returns, Luna showers him with licks and affection.
Luna’s latest discovery is scarves. Being a female, she likes to dress up in different scarves. In the morning Frank will ask Luna, “Do you want to get dressed?”
If Luna wants to get dressed-up, she will go over to the scarves and nose around carefully selecting just the right one to compliment her day. She carries her chosen scarf over to Frank, places it in his hands, and then stands perfectly still while Frank loops it over her head. Decked out in full attire, Luna prances around, knowing that she looks good (a typical female). At night when Frank tells Luna it is time to get undressed, she comes over to Frank and patiently waits for him to undress her. Once her scarf is off, she is ready for bed. Content, Luna walks over to her cage, gets inside, and rests her head on her pillow for another night’s good sleep.
This is Luna. We believe she is a Super Smart Dog. In actual fact, Luna never ceases to amaze us. She enriches our lives with her intelligence, her playfulness and her insistence that she be treated as a royal member of our family. What a dog! We sure love our Luna. In total sincerity, we recommend smart dogs because as Luna has proven to us…
Smart Dogs are More Fun!

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