My next door neighbor had lost both lower legs in WWII, this was when I was a kid in the 60’s. His German Shepard would fetch his two prosthesis by placing both limps in a blanket, wrap them and then carrying it to his master. Now if that wasn’t great, he would do the same for just about anything that he was commanded to fetch. I never tired of watching this task!
Pretty smart!
Since when is showing extreme caution when confronted with something unknown and dangerous looking not smart?
The human’s blithe assumption that the tiger has not somehow come to life is the only unsmart behavior exhibited here. Good dog!
Remember inb4? “They are pretty smart indeed” and “this wasn’t so dumb” have been taken care of. So, inb4:
- One dog doesn’t represent the whole race
- Obedience != smarts
- These intelligence rankings are highly suspect
- American Kennel Club = the devil
- Unrelated anecdotes
- HOLY SHIT A TIGER RUN AWAY
I’d adopt that shepherd in a heartbeat.
My old dog once cautiously approached a road-killed cat in a similar fashion. That cat had half a head and wasn’t going anywhere, but Kira seemed sure it would wake up and swat her good. Even after she gave it a good sniff-over and started to walk away she turned around and barked at it just in case.
To be fair, if someone taxidermied a human and put it in my living room, it’d fuck me up too. Uncanny Valley of the Dogs.
The uncanny valley is not just for humans…
How about the smart dog is protecting their stupid owner from the zombie tiger?
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. 
The one time I visited Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks in London, I was momentarily confused by the bustling crowd in the entrance foyer. I spotted an information desk off to one side and approached the friendly-looking bloke to ask about whatever-it-was I was confused about. Another tourist couple had the same idea and got there ahead of me, and managed to ask their whole question, stare dumbly at the unmoving attendant for several seconds, then start as we all realised he was a waxwork.
A German Shepherd would no doubt be asking us, “Couldn’t you tell from the scent?” (if they could talk, that is).
No, this video proves that they are as smart as I (and my cats) think they are…
Missed opportunity: reward the dog for approaching the stuffed tiger. Otherwise you risk increasing the skittishness. And if rewards can make vacuum cleaners seem less threatening it should work on a stuffed tiger.
What’s funny about that is that stuffed tiger bears a fair resemblence to the one in this story that spooked an animal control officer: https://gma.yahoo.com/mich-animal-control-officer-responds-report-tiger-backyard-211429708--abc-news-topstories.html
I’m pretty sure all dogs are smarter than I think they are.
Dog isn’t too dumb. I was half way through before I realized it wasn’t a real tiger.
This video would have been even more entertaining with the addition of a loud buzzer.
Our Labrador Retriever once spent several minutes barking at a bronze statue of a deer…
I saw this reaction once when my shepherd was a pup. we were walking around at night and the helium balloon in front of the real estate office had reached equilibrium to where it was still floating, but only a few inches up and lolling around. it was pretty much the dog version of seeing a ghost.
more recently she met an emu and acted like that, but it was a live emu, though.
Our greyhound who never barked once got spooked by a construction trash chute that went from a window to a dumpster. Something about it flapping in the breeze. She barked that chute good.
