Yesterday, Emmett and I were at the vet’s office. We walked into the lobby, checked in, weighed him, and sat to wait our turn. How many treats did I give him through all that? One. To get him to stop wagging his tail on the scale, I stuck one treat against his snout. How many treats would I have given his brothers at that point? Like, a jillion.
The vet got called away for an emergency consult. What did Emmett do? “Well, it’s as good-a time and place as any for a snooze!”
Emmett is a cool customer. Not just at the vet’s office, either: He goes to coffee shops, parades, parks, festivals, and, in his working days, hospitals, libraries, elementary schools, and the county fair. He loves it all and stays collected no matter what he encounters.
Which is why he is terribly trained!
It’s our fault, of course, but we’ve let his personality carry him through, rather than insisting on “obedience.” For almost his entire life with us, we’ve been dealing with Lucas’s behavior issues. Sure, Emmett tagged along to the majority of the training classes we’ve done with Lucas, and he’s picked up a command or two along the way (with a few tricks up his sleeve), but when it comes to responsiveness to our cues… Emmett sort of chooses when he listens and when he doesn’t. And we’ve never insisted otherwise because we’ve learned to trust him to make good decisions all on his own.
Last week, Abby asked the question: How sage is your dog?
I love that question. We’ve always said that Emmett has “street smarts” but Cooper and Lucas have “book smarts.” Emmett is sweet and has an overabundance of confidence, but he is a very slow learner. What takes his brother a couple days to learn will take Emmett weeks. (Barking on cue took years – literally, years – to teach him.) But because his behavior is naturally good, we’ve let his personality lead and not insisted that he learn the repertoire of cues that his brothers have to have.
I consider Emmett sage. He’s wise enough to know that the world isn’t out to get him; in fact, it’s a fun place filled with people who want to pat you and give you treats! He knows which threats require his deep, resonant “WOOF,” but stays calm through others that send his brothers off (the doorbell, the dog barking a mile down the road, squirrels).
He makes smart decisions all on his own, and though he occasionally does something that reminds me that he’s not so strong on his verbal cues (like… snatching the cookie out of the hand of a toddler being pushed in a stroller when I asked him to “leave it” but he did it anyway and made the kid scream his head off), his happy confidence always sees him through.
Do you consider your dog to be more “street smart” or more “book smart”? Do you think there’s a difference between wisdom and intelligence in your pups? For those of you with multiples, do you see these differences in their personalities?
By the way, while we were waiting, he did lift up his head momentarily when the poor little dog in the room across the hall from us started SCREECHING!
But, realizing it didn’t affect him in any way, he went back to sleep. 🙂
Well-trained or not, he’s bombproof. And wonderful. And “street smart.” When it comes to his learnin’, he’s sort of like a box of rocks….
Sweet Emmett! What a good dog! I can only DREAM of a dog who would behave that way at the vet’s office! He is a gem. I like your expansion of the question, the division between “street smarts” and “book smarts.” I don’t know if Pyrrha has either, haha! She is bright, but Eden blows her out of the water with book smarts. But Pyrrha has a gentle, graceful spirit. She’s only three, but she acts like she’s seen a lot in her short lifetime. So she balances out Edie’s mad genius nicely.
Sometimes I feel the same way about Lucas as you do about Pyrrha. He’s smart – but not as smart as Cooper – and he’s well-trained, but he’s a total wacko when it comes to “worldliness” or, to reference your fab post again, sagacity. I love your point about balance! That’s what we’re all striving for, I suppose! 🙂
I don’t think Cady is really all that street-smart or book-smart! She definitely isn’t well-trained, but I think like you are with Emmett, we just let it slide because she is just such a super silly, happy, sweet girl!
Awww! Cady is such a sweetheart! Maybe it is like Emmett where her personality is so wonderful and lovable that it’s easy to overlook behavior… transgressions. 🙂 Although, I do think Cady is quite well behaved!
Silas is wickedly smart. It took me a while to really process just *how* smart he is, in fact. I always thought I was terrible at shaping behaviors (the beloved darling of clicker people). Then I realized it’s because Silas is smart enough to just skip all the intermediate steps. He can understand the finished behavior much better than he can understand the little pieces.
He, of course, thinks the world is out to get him, so much so that all his training is GONE when we’re out in public. If it’s a familiar place, he can kind of keep it together and might remember one or two cues.
I have a deeply-held theory that dumb dogs (in the cue learning sense) are much happier. Ignorance is bliss.
YEP. I couldn’t agree more!! In my family we call it the “happy dumbass.” 🙂
Silas and Cooper seem so much alike. He is way smarter than I am. In fact, the only limitation to what he can learn (outside of his fear) is ME! It’s a stressful proposition as I strive to find ways to keep him challenged!
He’s a very good boy it sounds like. Neeko is similar to him, in that she is confident and mostly very calm. She too has been known to nap on the floor of the vet’s office. She is also incredibly smart, quickly learning whatever we ask of her. The kicker is that she only does it if it suits her…I told Les the other day I think she needs an obedience boot camp, because she has gotten really good at ignoring me on walks and hikes. And I know darn well there is nothing wrong with her hearing.
Anyways, I think it is a blessing for you that Emmet is such a good boy.
That’s so funny! I didn’t even take independence into account in my book smart vs street smart discussion… mainly because neither Cooper nor Emmett have an ounce of independence! Lucas does, but he’s sort of neither strong on the book smarts or the street smarts. Thanks for sharing Neeko’s personality with us. I am loving this discussion. So fascinating!
Oh my gosh, Kobi was so much like Emmett, that we also didn’t do a lot of training with him. He was so easygoing and took everything in stride. The girls are definitely the opposite. I’m not sure where Luke is going to land, I sure hope he’s going to be more like Kobi and not fearful like the girls. Either way, he’s going to obedience school anyway, so he may end up better trained than Kobi was even if he does have his laid back personality. Maybe he could end up street smart and book smart!
Oooh! Well, I’m following along with Luke’s story as you post it – he’s so dang cute, if nothing else! 🙂 Can’t wait to see his personality emerge!
Hershey is like Emmett in some ways: not very reactive, easy going (unless it’s time to play bitey face) and pretty confident. I’ve felt like I should train her better than I have (especially after being taken for a drag around the neighborhood) but like Emmett her personality carries the day. When we do train she picks things up pretty fast. “Shake” took about 5 minutes one morning. She’s even trained herself deciding that the rattle can doesn’t mean ‘No!’ but ‘Come and be told what a good girl you are!’
Graham is more reactive to dogs barking, people walking by, and he definitely thought something was up with the guy doing stretches in the street! His piercing bark announces most people at the door these days, but once I open it he’s really more interested in meeting them. Training seems to be a bit of a problem for him. He’s extremely reluctant to “Down” and does it sooo carefully, like he thinks he’s made of glass.
Funny! Emmett drags me around the neighborhood, too. It’s interesting about Graham and down… Cooper is reluctant, too. I suspect that there’s a physiological element to it because his back legs jut out at a funny angle, but it’s also a very vulnerable position, and if Graham is feeling nervous – and Cooper often is – that might explain his hesitation.
He actually WON’T down with his back legs sticking out! He keeps his back legs under him looking like a little sphinx, and is back on his feet in a heartbeat.
You can’t write anything about Emmett that doesn’t make me think “ohhhh, I love that Emmett.” Dash has a little Emmett in him. Today in the park, Dash, of course, turned around to say hello to the woman behind us. I said “so sorry, he thinks he knows everyone.” She said “what a great way to look at life. He is thinking everyone WANTS to know him.” I loved that! That is Dash. He loves everyone because he always figures, everyone loves him! As he has gotten older (7years on April 3!), I do think Dash has grown a little Emmett-wisdom in him. Lilly is another story.
That is so precious. I love that woman’s point – and she’s so right! Dash has such an incredible outlook on life! I think that’s part of what makes Emmett so calm, too. Like Dash, he just assumes that everybody is going to be his buddy!
I guess I would call Julius “street smart” and Ray would be more “book smart” because Ray has had way more training. As far as their personalities, we refer to them as Simple (Julius) and Complex (Ray).
Wow! I think I’m going to have to “borrow” those terms. Emmett is absolutely simple. And it’s endearing and lovely. 🙂 Cooper, on the other hand, is quite complex. Thank you for making that point!!