Billi is opinionated.
I’ve given Bayliss a day off. He seems a little concerned I’m pushing the buttons and modelling them.
Our standard poodle learned “Burger King” which we sometimes took her to (she got 3 hamburgers plain and shared French fries). We had to switch to B K when she learned “Burger King” then finally to “Beta Kappa”.
When I was a kid, my dad would have a cocktail after work; cocktail time included a treat for his dog.
It got to the point where my dad and his girlfriend had to start calling them “C oh C’s”, because the dog got too excited when he heard about cocktails.
I dare say Bayliss knows 50 or 60 words.
I can say a certain toy and he’ll go get it.
I can say go get the kids. Or the little dogs.
They don’t always listen to him, but he’ll go to them.
He understands 10 to 12 hand signals.
He can be obstinate when he wants to, but I know he gets what I’m asking.
He also has meaningful woofs and yips. He’s trying his best to teach me what they mean.
I need buttons more than him. Hmmm?
If you name a specific toy from among several, and he goes and gets the right one, that’s pretty impressive. Not all dogs can do that. It’s considered a sign of high canine intelligence, especially if there are a lot of different toys.
Anyway, regardless of the outcome of this particular experiment in canine education, the nice thing about this thread is that I get to hear more about Bayliss, which is always a treat! 
Yes. He picks particular toys out. Funny thing is he doesn’t really like toys. They are mostly the Chihuahuas toys.
He’ll go get my shoes for me. Sometimes they match. 
Hmm. That makes me wonder if would be good to try and take advantage of the words he already knows and use them as his buttons.
Don’t entirely blame Bayliss if they don’t! 
Dogs have more limited colour perception than we do, although contrary to popular myth, they definitely do NOT see the world in black and white. Their eyes, like ours, have cones for colour perception, but only two types, for yellow and blue, as compared to the three that we have for full-spectrum colour. So they’re partially colour-blind, having what’s called yellow-blue dichromatic vision. They can distinguish some colours but not others.
Will he respond to words from others or is it a bond between you and Bayliss?
I’ve known more than one dog who learned how to spell “b i s c u i t”.
He does.
The kids test his “go get ?? Toy” all the time.
Mid-dau says “Bayliss, time for outside, go get the little dogs” and he would go round them up.
Here’s where it’s gotten strange, now he woofs a certain sound and the little dogs come. The student is now teaching. The littles are learning. We’ve learned what that woof means.
I wonder what sound he’ll make to call the kids? I know it’s coming.
Thanks.
We could learn a lot by observing our animals more closely.
My mom used to say “Animals talk to us, if we know how to listen.”
I’d be afraid to know what my cat is ‘thinking’.
Me too. It’s a near thing, around here.
But now you know he gets hungry during the night. Is he the type of dog that you could leave some kibble out for him?
I think they wonder what flavour we are.
`
Well, we have a new update.
A paradigm shift, if you will.
Bayliss is doing the buttons well. We laid off the late night testing my last nerve by pushing the treat button excessively.
Now, I model treat. Walk in the kitchen a get the treats. He pushes love you, treat. I give the treat. He then walks to the button and puts the treat right by the button and gives me stink eye til I come over and push the treat button with my toe. Then he eats it.
He’s clearly smarter than me.
The Chihuahuas are using the buttons as well. They’re kinda dense so I have no sense they understand any more than hopping, two paws on the treat button over and over, very excitedly gets them the morsel. Rinse and Repeat. Til I hide the button. One of them has recently transferred his button seizure to the love you button. It worked out for him. So at least he’s kinda learning.
The Siamese cats are very interested in the buttons. They’re not likely to touch them. Too many dog cooties. I’m waiting til they start manipulating the Chihuahuas into using the buttons for their nefarious needs.
It’s gonna happen.
I was wondering how things were going. The Siamese are no doubt going for world domination.