[Dailydrool] A very smart basset

[Valerie via Dailydrool]

Mariah is the fourth basset to live with us in this house (preceded by the late Commander Bo, the late Harley of Hawaii, and current houseguest Mila). I think she is the smartest of all in the area of logistical problem solving (though the boys were experts in manipulation). Let me explain.

 Our house is set on the side of a hill. The front of the house is level with the street, and the doggie door opens onto a front porch on the front side of the house. Our yard slopes downward from the front of the house, with a small front yard, which extends under the house and then beyond it to a large back yard. all of the yard is fenced (front and back) and is continuous. Most of our house, except the very front part, is set high on stilts. 

There is a dog ramp and a stairs from the front porch to the small front yard. From the front porch the hounds can view the front street, and charge down the ramp and to the front gate by the street to bark at passersby on that street (a favorite activity).

Most of the yard is behind the house, however, and is accessible only by going around the house on the side or under the house through the stilts. the back yard is large. On the back of our house proper is a raised lanai/balcony maybe twenty feet higher than the yard. From this lanai there is a sweeping view of our backyard, the next street below us, and then a plain sloping down and extending maybe a mile out to the ocean. There is no ramp from the lanai to the backyard.

the hounds have all loved sunning themselves on the lanai and surveying their kingdom and barking at any dogs or cats walking along the lower road. this is to set the scene.

Mariah is the first of the crew to figure out that if she sees something from the back lanai  on the back lower road and wants to get closer to it in the backyard, she must first, counterintuitively, turn around and run away from it in the exact opposite direction from the object of interest, towards the front, through the house, out the front door and down the ramp, and  then make a second complete 180 degree turn back again and run around the house or under it and back to the fence in the back yard.  and she must be quick about it, dashing at top speed if she is to catch sight of the object still there.  None of the others has been able to grasp that to get to the goal one has to first go in the directly opposite direction from it and the maneuver involves two 180 degree turns. Interesting. (To me. Lol) Val of Hawaii vlbzwick at yahoo.com