When my husband and I adopted our rescue dog, Lenny, about three years ago, we were relatively certain of two things early on: she is an extremely happy, loving pup, but she isn’t necessarily the brightest, as mean as that sounds.
Lenny is quite literally always in a great mood, and she is always game for an adventure of any sort. She may not necessarily understand what the adventure in question is, but she is more than game for any sort of excursion.
There have been a couple of incidents as of late, however, that have me questioning her supposed lack of intelligence, and I would like to share them because I found them to be rather fascinating.
The first was a few months ago. We gave Lenny a large bone to gnaw on and enjoy, as any dog does, and she tends to savour her treats on her dog bed in the entry room of our home. I was using the bathroom and was a little surprised to see Miss Lenny come walking towards me, doing a rather odd movement with her tongue. I was watching her for a minute or two, and I then realized that she had a piece of bone wedged in her gum. She came right up to me while I was using the toilet and nudged her nose into my hand, almost as though she was asking for assistance. I removed the piece of bone, and she resumed her gnawing.
The second incident was just a few days ago. Every now and then, Lenny experiences what I have termed sneezing fits, during which she quite literally sneezes upwards of 20 times. It’s only happened twice, and during this most recent occurrence, I figured I would try rubbing her nose vigorously in hopes of alleviating her discomfort. It worked for a few minutes, but then the sneezes began again. The second time she started having her sneezing fit, she came to me, and again nudged her snout into my palm, as if she was requesting me to rub it again for her.
Perhaps I’m reading into these experiences more than I should be, but I really can’t help but wonder if Lenny is far more intelligent than she lets on.
Photo by Pauline Loroy on Unsplash
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