# Does anyone else have really sneaky poodles?



## lwm1984 (Apr 15, 2012)

My spoo listens to me very well usually, and I can just tell she knows her boundaries. When I tell her "no!", she picks up what she is not supposed to do very quickly. That said, she does like to test her limits here and there, but is soooo sneaky about it! She loves to counter surf, and I mitigate this behavior by not keeping food on the counter. I do, however, forget sometimes. She's such a little velcro-spoo that she follows me around my home, so I can always tell when she's up to no good.

If I leave food on the counter, she'll watch me, and then follow me into my office, for instance. Then she'll wait until I'm likely to not be paying attention, and then sneak into the kitchen to try and snag some off-limits food. If there is no food on the counter, she's glued to my side. My kitchen is also open to the living room, and if I'm watching television, she'll slowly make her way to the kitchen, all the while looking at me to see if I'm paying attention to her. If she thinks the coast is clear, she'll try and snag something.

The real kicker, though, is that she's not allowed on the couch. She NEVER goes on the couch when I'm there, and she doesn't even seem to think about lounging on it. However, I have large sliding doors that connect my bedroom to the living room, so I have a perfect view of the couch from my bed. My spoo either sleeps in my bed, or on the rug around the couch. Occasionally, I've woken up randomly in the middle of the night, just to see her fast asleep on the couch! Of course, by the time morning rolls around, she's back on the rug; this is odd because at night she can normally stay in one spot for 12 hour stretches, so if she was allowed on the couch, I'd expect her to be there all night, not just for those secretive little naps when she thinks I'm not looking.


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## pgr8dnlvr (Aug 7, 2011)

ABSOLUTELY!!! I have never had problems housebreaking a dog before this toy poodle of mine! She KNOWS what I want, and I think I'm very diligent about watching her, however "like magic" I'll find poops on the same spot in my dining room, even when I'd almost bet money I'd not taken my eyes off of her! I don't know HOW she does it!?!

Twice I caught her heading to the dining room when I knew she needed to go, when she saw me following behind she tucked her bum, ran into her crate in her ex-pen and would "hide" in there for over an hour not wanting to come out even when I called. I find this laughable since I've NEVER disciplined her, only quickly interupted her and picked her up to finish her business outside, afterwhich I praise happily and give a treat. 

I know SHE knows business inside is a BAD thing . 

Sneaky, stubborn poodle... 

Rebecca


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## Indiana (Sep 11, 2011)

Oh yeah, my two are like that too. They're terrible counter surfers and because we don't keep food on the counters any more, Maddy will sneak in there, grab something and run outside really fast; I know by now to go see what she found. Most times it's the dish cloth or kitchen sponge, but she'll steal pot holders, my kids' Nintendo games or power supplies, a sock...it doesn't have to be really special. If it's in the kitchen, it's appeal seems to increase


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## Sawyersmomma (May 28, 2012)

Oh good, I'm not alone! Sawyer waits until I'm at work, and my dad is outside to sneak some food. He tends to just grab whatever he can find, normally it's a bag of bread, once he bites the bag open and realizes what he got, he leaves it since it's not his favourite... He's ruined bags of bread and buns from this. I try to keep the food away, but like you I occasionally forget.


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## LEUllman (Feb 1, 2010)

We all wanted a smart dog, right? Be careful what you ask for . . .


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## Poodlemama99 (Feb 12, 2010)

Who did this mess? - YouTube

I am sure you have all probably seen this video but it never gets old to me. LOL.


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## Poodle Head (Sep 12, 2011)

I have a very sneaky poodle too. Of all things, she LOVES the remote control. She waits until we get up and leave it on the coffee table or couch, quietly tiptoes over, gently takes it, and brings it to her bed. We have to be diligent in keeping it out of her reach. If we are in the room, she walks by the coffee table and eyes it, but will never take it. It's annoying, but pretty funny when you think about how she is always plotting.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Sneaky, yes. Cairo, my toy, has the best schnauze in the house, not not totally the smartest. If there's the tiniest bit of food he's sniffing while the standards could care less. If Vegas's food is left out (he doesn't eat it all) Cairo will find it, grab a piece, come to me, and crunch it. Really dude? Why would you come to me eating the food you're not suppose to eat?


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## sarpoodle (Dec 26, 2011)

LEUllman said:


> We all wanted a smart dog, right? Be careful what you ask for . . .


Amen! Comes with the territory, lol.


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## Mikey'sMom (Feb 21, 2012)

Mine used to chew on his toys right next to my shoes (or a table leg, or whatever), and as soon as he though we weren't paying attention, he'd quietly transition to chewing on the forbidden object.

This video isn't a poodle, but talk about sneaky dog tricks...! Wait for it...it is at about 36 seconds. Thankfully my dogs have never done this, lol!


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## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

Yes, you are right - we asked for it having a smart dog. 
So far Lily is not "sneaky" but she will take advantage of an opportunity. I have come back into the dining room twice to find her standing on the dining room table! Well, I guess it was my fault for leaving the chair pulled out when I got up, huh? So we are in the process of training each other.


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## cliffdweller (Jan 31, 2011)

*Sneaky Rain*

Warning : some heavily Photoshopped images (trying out some new filters on badly composed/exposed photos ~~~). Click thumbnails for larger image.

Rain covets an old glove that Lucky found : 

She thinks she might just be able to grab it : 

But this doesn't work; Lucky will not give her the glove : 

So Rain uses stealth to get the desired prize; it's a tactic she has successfully used before.

She harasses and distracts Lucky :

She even gets her ear feathers pulled in the process : 

She'll keep pestering 'til she gets Lucky to chase her : 

Though Lucky tries hard, in the long run, she cannot keep pace with Rain.
When she flags, Rain circles back and retrieves the prized object :


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## TrinaBoo (Apr 3, 2012)

I admit, sometimes after work, kids, and being so tired at the end of the day the kitchen table wouldn't get cleaned. At first I couldn't figure out why my husband was saying Oh, I didn't know you cleaned the kitchen table lastnight....hmmm! We finally caught on and caught Trina in her act of kindness.


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## zyrcona (Jan 9, 2011)

I used to live in a house that had a door with a patterned glass window between the dining and living rooms. One evening, I was sitting watching television, and this door was ajar (dog can push it open to come through) and I happened to glance through this window, and saw her with her front feet on the seat of a chair and her nose on a plate that was on the table. Because she had not noticed me, I decided to watch her and see what she did. After a few seconds of smelling/licking the plate, she chanced to look up and see me watching her through the door, and she immediately got off and ran into her bed and hid. lol

Another time I was visiting my parents, and during dinner the dog slunk off into the kitchen. I was not sitting in a position where I could see her, but the electric light in the kitchen was reflecting on the tiles on a wall I could see and I saw the shadow she cast on it when she jumped up to get something off the kitchen table, and I yelled at her. She looked confused and almost like she was denying she'd done it -- after all, she couldn't see me watching her, so how had I known what she was doing?

In my opinion, it's because poodles _are _so bloody intelligent that they are such amazing dogs. The concepts the dogs are dealing with here involve quite a high level of social intelligence that few other species seem capable of. The dog has to be able to understand what someone else can perceive and some rough concept of both cause and consequence and of people having separate minds and thus not being able to omnisciently know things that happened.

I honestly think poodles fail the mirror test simply because they're not visually oriented enough.


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## melissajean (Mar 12, 2010)

Oh wow, Im glad Kira isnt the only stuborn little bugger and Im not goin through it alone lol 
She used to get on the table when we lived at my moms house all the time. Even if we pushed the chairs in. Once my sister caught her picking out a dougnut. Thats right. She didnt try to sneak it. She looked up at my sis then looked back at the doughnuts then after a minute she grabed one. My sister asked her "What do you think you are doing?!" and thats when she just looks up then goes back to her decsion making lol 
She tries to sneak food. And once I had gotten a cupcake flavored cold coffee from a local place, Set it on the floor next to my bed and got up to throw something away. Im gone not even five minutes, I come back and my coffee is gone. Now when I left she was dead asleep in her crate. So I look. And sure enoough she has the whole thing in there and never spilt a drop. Im wondering how she got it in there since it was as tall as her withers, and bigger around than her mouth lol
She also will chew on her toys then sneak to something she knows she isnt suposed to have. Mainly my stuffed animals lol


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## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

I am really getting a kick out of reading these stories! So funny!


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## dcyk (Nov 30, 2011)

I turn my back to turn off the kettle and there he is









Jumped up on the sofa when he's not supposed to.









Not willing to come down 









Now he wants to come down but is scared. Give a few nervous barks

He will jump down if there's food offered.
Or when i hide away and make some noise, he will come investigate where i am.


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## Lily's-Mom (May 31, 2012)

How can you scold a face like that?! SO cute! 
So I guess as Lily is becoming more comfortable in our house, and she decided to sneak a shoe and a slipper out of the closet. Seems like she knew it was wrong and dropped it before I even said anything. So funny.


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## Myleen (Apr 30, 2016)

I know this thread is really old but I am not only laughing at the stories but am also being reminded of how spart poodles are!!

My mpoodle is only 4.5 months old...but I no longer will leave any food anywhere on the kitchen or cupboard again! lol :behindsofa:


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## Pamela (Sep 9, 2008)

that sounds familiar lol


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

*My Perfect Bitch.*

Reading these posts makes me proud of Grace. She does not counter surf. She will leave my food on a plate on the floor until it is taken to her feeding station. She never takes anything of mine but socks (occasionally to tease me with) Remotes, phones etc are safe. she has her own toys in a basket (when they are not all over the house) She chews only those things for chewing (rawhide etc). She passes the mirror test. We have floor to ceiling mirrors in three rooms. When she was a puppy she would react to the puppy sibling in the mirror. Now she uses then as we do. She appraises her new clip and will use the mirrors to keep an eye on me or other animals. She will sit where she can see out two doors and the reflections of windows in two mirrors. When curawongs (birds that thieve) are seen in a mirror she will rush out to the spot where she has seen them. TV is a window on the world. She is an ardent fan of ball sports and animal shows. She will sit quietly and watch intently as some video and stills here have shown.

The annoying thing that she does despite knowing it is "wrong" She will bark at to/at any other dog who comes within eyesight or hearing. This can happen in the we hours and is very annoying. No amount of training (so far) has helped with this. Suggestions please.
Eric


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## FireStorm (Nov 9, 2013)

Hans doesn't counter surf, but he isn't supposed to get on the couch. So he sleeps on the couch until the alarm clock goes off, then gets on his bed like he slept there all night.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

Chante' was by far my smartest poodle. She pulled the "decoy bark" several times on our Airedale, in order to steal something the Airedale possessed that she wanted. She also learned to trot just fast enough when carting to make it look like she was pulling her weight, when in reality she was just trotting alongside her load-pulling partner. She not only stole a loaf of bread; she carefully placed the incriminating bread wrapper by the Airedale's crate. When confronted about this, she was already crying big tear drops! She raised a poodle, an Airedale, a Rottweiler and a Jack Russell. With a slight lift of her lip she could stop all of the boys in their tracks. At fourteen, the poodle stared down the Airedale for five minutes, and she tricked the much younger and larger Airedale into backing off. Call it sneaky, or smart, I miss it!


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## vegas (Jul 5, 2014)

When I'm eating, DD will ring her bell to go outside and potty, and when I get up to take her out she will either (1) turn around and run immediately to my chair and hop up to steal food, or (2) go outside briefly and then immediately ask to come back in, at which point she will race me to the food.

She's a planner. . .


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## Lori G (Sep 19, 2014)

After reading this as a poodle-mom-in-waiting, I think I'm going to have to reconsider getting a poodle...I don't think I can survive a dog smarter than me! LOL


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## vegas (Jul 5, 2014)

Fear not! DD is only 6 months old, with lots of training still ahead of her. I plan to train her out of the table-hopping behavior. Poodles are so smart that they are very trainable. 

It's really fun to have such a smart puppy. I love figuring out how DD's mind works.


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