Quote Originally Posted by Sharla View Post
Yeah it doesn't supris me at all.

Honestly I think a lot of animals are smarter than we would've thought.

My budgie goes nuts when i whisper because he's so focussed on working out what i'm saying so he can mimic it. He gets really frustrated if he can't hear me but my lips are moving!

He's mimicing things quite quickly and since he has many many toys (can't help myself) and his cage is left open he's learnt to play with just about everything - yet budgies would be considered not that smart!

I've taught 'dumb' sheep to understand hand signals.

At my mum's house the cat is very vocal. She'd seem smarter than the dog but i think part of it has to do with motivation.

Hide food somewhere and the dog will NOT be fooled!
Neat.

One of the best examples I can think of for my dog, is when we go through a Tim Hortons drive thru here. It is a very popular coffee and donut shop, and they have the standard talk box for makin orders. When we first started taking her through, she noticed we spoke into the box, and then went to the window and they remarkably gave us food. And she got a timbit or 2 from that deal (small bite-sized piece of cooked dough, the center of the donut) as a treat.

She soon started to bark at seeing the box, trying to place her order. But she would get scolded for barking loudly in the car. It didn't take long for her to come up with a new plan, which was to do as we do, by mimicing us.

So now she waits until we are right at the talk box, and instead of barking, tries to make words, "roooow, reee, ruuuu" as we do, placing, insuring her order. The people there have come to know her as the talking, ordering dog. lol