Misty Clayton

Misty came to live with us on 27 July 2007. She is now 18 months old and an important part of our small family. With Misty around there's never a dull moment and she's fantastic fun!

Above is a slideshow of pictures of Misty taken during her first year starting with one taken by Julie and Pete Higgins when she was just 2 weeks old! Opposite you will find additional photographs, just click on a thumbnail to view a larger version.

Misty's Doggy IQ test

Approaching her first birthday, Misty took an animal IQ test to find out just how clever our furry friend has become in her first year. These are simple, fun tests that you can do with your pet. There are various versions for different types of animals and there's likely to be a version to suit you. The BBC ran a series of programmes back in 2004 and the pages with the tests on them can still be found here.

Test 1 - Left or Right "handed"
This test required a small tube (big enough for Misty to get her paw in but not her nose). We put a treat near the end of the tube and held it directly in front of her to show her what was in it. We then let her try to get the treat. She tried equally with both her left and right paws which means that she could be ambidextrous. Or totally confused, which is highly likely living in our house...

Test 2 - Object permanence
For this test we showed Misty a treat and then (with her watching) put a tube over the top of it so it was hidden. We had to see if she tried to get to the treat or thought that the treat had just disappeared (some dogs do!). Misty thought for about one tenth of a nano second and then flipped the tube over and ate the treat.

According to the experts, this means that Misty understands what psychologists call "object permanence". She realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. Apparently this is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, Misty must believe in a world beyond her perception.

Test 3 - "Drop the treat..."
For this test we put a cushion on a table at head height to Misty, sat her infront of it and then dropped a treat on to the cushion. (See picture above.) Some dogs look under the table thinking the treat will just drop down on to the floor, Misty, however, watched the treat land on the cushion and then waited patiently for something else to happen. Nothing did, so we gave her the treat.

By passing this test, Misty understands the way that horizontal objects relate to each other. This may not seem like much, but many animals have difficulty with this.

Test 4 - "Beat the obstacle"
For this test we put two chairs down on their sides (to form a V shape) with a small gap between them. We sat Misty on one side of the barrier so she could see a treat we placed on the other side. The gap was too small for her to get through and we had to see if she would try to fight her way through to the treat or simply work out that she could walk around the chairs to get to the treat. As soon as we told her to find the treat she walked instantly around the obstacle to get to the food.

Misty may have sussed this one out because she has come across a similar situation before, or she may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. Apparently this takes a fair amount of brain power!

Test 5 - Commands
For this test we had to go through the commands that Misty has learnt so far in her short life. She knows over 25 (see the list below) and so is obviously skilled at learning and remembering them. Apparently when she learns a new command, she associates the sound or body signals with one of her own actions.

Misty's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with our own training habits as owners. The experts say that if you give your dog plenty of opportunity to learn then they're more likely to pick up more commands. We started clicker training Misty on the first day we got her home at 8 weeks old.

Test 6 - The string trial
For this test we had to tie a piece of string around a treat and then place it out of reach (we put it under the sofa). Misty had to be able to see the treat, but not get it easily. The idea is to see if she will get the treat by pulling the string so we had to demonstrate to her what to do a couple of times. This was the only test that Misty didn't work out as she would try to get at the treat with her nose or paw and then look at us and bark. To be honest, we may not have helped here as if she ever knocks a toy under the sofa she usually barks to attract our attention so we'll get it out for here. Makes sense, I guess, that she did the same thing her. Perhaps we need to re-do this test but not use the sofa as a hiding place!

Misty has not learnt that pulling the string will lead to the reward. This could be because carrying out the action of pulling the string is either a difficult or very strange thing for her to do. The experts also suggest that this could be because she's not that good at associating a physical task with the arrival of a reward, but this probably isn't the case with Misty as she will knock a large rubber dice off a box to get a treat and perform other tricks to get a reward.

Test 7 - Hide and seek
For this test we had to show Misty where we were hiding a treat in the room. One of us then took her out while the other hid 3 more treats in the room. On Misty's return she went straight to where the original treat had been placed which is the "correct answer" to this test.

Apparently she used two types of memory to perform this task. She used spatial memory to remember the layout of the space and episodic memory to remember the action of us placing the treat in the hiding place.

TOTAL SCORE
Misty scored 26 out of 30 in the Pet IQ test. She's a genius!! :-)

Misty's commands

For the Animal IQ Test (see above) we had to go through the commands that Misty knows. If she knew over 25 then she got full marks in the test. I'm sure I'll forget some of the words she knows, but here's an attempt to list just some of them (and what they mean if it's not obvious).

Sit, Down, Stand, Wait (she stops what she's doing and waits for a further command), Stay (different to wait as this may be the only command she'll get for a while), Twist (anti clockwise turn), Twirl (clockwise turn), High Five, Weave (in and out of our legs as we walk), Circle (we stand still and she goes round and round us), Finish (English Finish), Heel (Continental Finish, this also means to walk to heel on the left), Close (walk to heel on our right hand side), Go to Mum/Dad, Go to Bed, Leave (food or an object on the ground), Off, Drop, Dinner (cue mad rush to the kitchen), Be Quick (our codeword for "go to the toilet"!), Come, Stop, Touch, Who's Coming (at which point she jumps in her basket in the lounge), Toys (will fetch a toy from her box), Go Round, Eight (we stand still and she weaves around our legs and then sits between them), Mat (goes to a mat, at which point we normally issue another command such as "sit" or "down") , In your basket, Turn the light on/off (turns a small portable "push on/off" light on or off) , Hold, Left paw, Right paw.

She also knows the names of several of her toys and will pick the right one out in a line up (if she's concentrating!)

On the scales

We weigh Misty regularly, normally when she's due for her worming tablet. Here's a progress report on how she's grown so far:

30 July 2007 3.6KG (nearly 9 weeks old)
3 August 2007 4.05KG (9 and a half weeks old)
6 August 2007 4.15KG (nearly 10 weeks old)
10 August 2007 4.5KG (10 and a half weeks old)
21 August 2007 5.2KG (12 weeks/nearly 3 months old)
22 September 2007 7KG (nearly 17 weeks/4 months old)
20 October 2007 8.5KG (nearly 21 weeks/5 months old)
10 November 2007 9.6KG (nearly 24 weeks old)
17 November 2007 9.8KG (nearly 25 weeks old)
17 December 2007 10.9KG (nearly 29 weeks old)
29 December 2007 11.5KG (7 months old)
16 February 2008 12.4KG (8 and a half months old)
10 May 2008 13.75KG (11 and a half months old)
8 August 2008 14.25KG (14 months - now adult weight)

Other news

We attend dog training classes with Misty once a week where she's learning to ignore a whole range of useful instructions :-) Misty, Mel and Andy earned The Kennel Club Puppy Foundation certificate in Autumn 2007 and Mel and Misty went on to attain The Kennel Club's Good Citizen Bronze Award on 19 March 2008 (Andy was at work that day earning money to pay for dog biscuits).

Misty is progressing very well with her training and we'd heartily recommend doing this with your dog. She seems to really enjoy it and despite the occasional inevitable lapse she's a very well behaved pooch! Andy, Mel and Misty were awarded the in-house Silver Award at the dog training class in December 2008. It is planned to take the Kennel Club's Silver test sometime in early 2009.

Mel and Misty have taken part in demonstrations as part of the Friendly Dog Club in various locations during the summer. This includes "doggy line dancing" and fly-mouse.

 
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