It was interesting to me that a dog managed to learn to act paralyzed in order to get sympathy perhaps, and get treats from people! I think dogs are truly one of the most intelligent animal species out there -- very perceptive of how we as humans react to them!
If you have a dog, has your dog ever learned any sort of manipulative or cheeky behaviors in order to get a treat from you? My dog doesn't seem to do anything like that, except perhaps look sad...but he perks right back up when the treat bag comes out! (I think all dogs do the sad face to a degree, though!)
Dogs can be very smart at seeing what will get them a treat, and then they will perform so you give it to them. Often they will do this just to get attention.
My mom used to have a Toy Poodle named Betty that loved to play "peek-a-boo" . Betty would lie on her side and flip her long, fluffy ear over one eye. She then could not see my mom, and maybe assumed that Mom could not see her either.
Mom would play along, saying "where is Betty ? Where can she be? Betty....where are you?" at which point, Betty would happily flip her ear off of her face , scramble up and give mom that "here I am !" look, and hurry to get petted, now that she was "found" again.
I have seen this kind of a predisposition in dogs. I had a pet dog who used to bark loudly to draw attention to himself in order to get a treat. But if would not bark directly at me or anyone else. He would position himself nearby and bark at some imaginary object some distance away. There are others who huddle in a corner and places his chin on the ground and peers at you through his eyes.
It's simply learned to beg for treats. Isn't this why dogs are trained with dog biscuits and such? They eventually learn that doing something will earn them a reward for it. Repeating this over and over becomes a habit and it will eventually keep doing it because it's getting something. Also, while dogs are more favored because of not only the intelligence, the loyalty and it's many uses, pigs are actually more intelligent than cats and dogs (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24628983/ns/te...0bZ6-TQiaw)
At one time, we even had a cat that would sit up to be fed a treat. We always gave him tidbits of our food at the dinner table each night, and he would make the rounds to each of us, catch the person's eye, and then sit up with his little paws folded in, looking just as cute as could be. The kids loved his begging act, so he was never short on treats at mealtimes.
One night, my in-laws came over for dinner. Since they did not particularly like pets, we locked up all of the cats and put the dog out in the back yard before dinner.
Somehow, El Cid , our cat, sneaked back into the house, and no one knew he was there until we were in the middle of dinner.
Out he sauntered, twitcing his tail, and then he walked right over to my father-in-law's chair and sat down and looked at him straight in the eye.
My father-in-law looked back at him , giving him the "what do you think you are getting ? " look.
That cat just sat up and folded his little paws, and waited.
All of us around the table were collectively holding our breath to see what happened next. To our amazement and joy, he took a small piece of chicken off of his plate and gave El Cid his bite of food.
Then , my father-in-law looked around at all of us intently watching him, and he smiled at us. It was a good dinner after all......
