Too smart

I know how I'm about to come across, so I want to give you warning ahead of time. This is going to be equal to a parent putting one of those "My child is an honor student at xxxx school" bumper stickers on their car.

My husband and I are are always amazed at how smart Mickey is. He's a Keeshond and they are supposed to be one of the brighter breeds, but sometimes you get a dog of a smart breed that just never read the specs and missed out. However, Mickey did come with the brains to go with the looks.

We believe he can reason things out. My husband Brad plays a game indoors with Mickey where he keeps a tennis ball away from Mickey. He'll throw it against the wall and when it bounces all over, he'll go after it just like Mickey does to see who can get it first. (Mickey's pretty fast.) To make it more interesting, at times he'll sit cross-legged in the middle of the floor and place the ball just out of arms reach. Mickey will stand next to him and stare at it, waiting for Brad to go for it and then try to beat him to it. Brad tries to fake Mickey out so he can grab the ball first.

One day, while Mickey and my husband were both sitting on the floor, tensed, waiting to go for the ball, Mickey went around behind my husband and licked his ear, which, of course, distracted my husband. As soon as my husband was distracted, Mickey went for the ball and got it.

Last night as they were playing that same game, Brad swore Mickey was trying to get him to look out the window to distract him. As they both stared at the ball, Mickey would glance behind Brad out the window, then quickly look at Brad and back at the ball. Brad had the strongest desire to turn around and look out the window, but he knew it was a trick.

That's almost eerie. Maybe next he'll start wearing sponges on his nose (see post below this one).