Such a SMART dog!!!!!! ^^

[LuvMeBre]

I was at my uncle's house today and he has a Black Labrador named Elly Mae. I was bored and had taught Elly a ton of interesting things before. Well, my uncle had just built a play pen for her coming-up puppies in the backyard and there was a gate with a notch on it, you have to lift it to get in. I showed her how to open it myself 2-4 times and then said, "Elly, BREAK". At first she pushed on the door with her paw, but after a few times he stick her nose in the slot and lifted the lock up. The gate opened and she grabbed her stick and ran out. After a few times she totally got to idea and could do it on the word "Break".

Labs are such smart dogs, esspecially Elly Mae. She is one of those dogs with the brain and drive of a Border Collie, the slimness and agility of a Belgian Malinois, and the look and color of a Lab.

[Kendalle]

sweet. My dog is a lab border collie idk what else mix.. he is super smart like that too!

[Vanilla_Rat]

I love labs.I personally love the stockier built labs.We had two black labs before and they were not the brightest dogs,even when we tried teaching them things.They were very slow.I think that was just their personalities tho.

[LuvMeBre]

Elly Mae also knows how to find her toys on the word 'Search It' and knows she's getting close when I say "Yes!", when she starts going away, I say "No". Kind of like that hot & cold game, or Parco Polo. I also taught her how to leave her toy, which I set beside her, and come to me, and then when I say, "Get it!" she runs back, grabs her toy and comes back to me. She also does weight pulling and pulled a large pop cooler. I don't go to extreme lengths with that, though. She also knows how to do agility on the play set and everything else. I taught her all of this and she did great. She was a very hyper, un-steady, un-easy, anxious dog before this, and I thought, maybe she just needs a job. I was right, although she is still extremely hyper it is relieved in a good way by her worked, and it keeps her spinning mind occupied. I swear she has something like Belgian Malinois or something hidden in her because of her incredible drive, brains, protectiveness and agility. She always needs to keep her mind busy and will NEVER STOP RUNNING.

[LuvMeBre]

Here is another picture of her.

[Z Car Barbie]

Elly Mae sounds like a very smart dog! She might even do very well as a pet therapist (visiting children and adults in hospitals and elders in nursing homes). She seems to have the intelligence for it.

Something I'm worried about is her learning how to open the gate. Will she still be contained within a fenced-in yard after opening the gate to the play pen? She appears to have so much to offer to her people family and numerous others - wouldn't want her to become a victim of a car accident on the street though.

[LuvMeBre]

Her yard isn't fenced, but she doesn't leave the yard at all. I just wanted to teach her to open the gate 1) To keep her mind busy 2) Just in case she needed to get to her pups. The gate is set high on the fence, it's a little gate and you can only access it to open it if you are on the deck, so don't worry, the pups wouldn't get out.