Stupid-Smart

on January 6, 2012
in All Posts

You know how I always joke that Maggie is stupid?  That’s because she’s incredibly stupid.  And I mean that in the nicest, most loving way possible.

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But sometimes, I wonder if she’s actually secretly smart.  Once, she attempted to jump on the couch 68 times (we counted); it seemed pretty stupid – just give up!  But then someone helped her onto the couch.  Who’s stupid now?  Yeah.  Me.

 

Occasionally, I catch her just staring into space or at a wall.  Part of me think she’s just stupidly blanking out, but another part wonders if she can actually see something that I can’t… like another dimension.  Every few months, I’ll wake up to find her sitting on top of the covers, just silently and intently staring into the darkness.  Then I get totally freaked out because obviously my stupid-smart dog can see a ghost.

 

Last night was a ghost night.  I’ve been up for hours. 

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Grilled banana sandwich makes it better.  Especially when you drizzle caramel sauce on top.

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And… Maggie is snoring happily in my lap.  Who’s stupid now?  Yup – me again. 

{ 74 comments }

 

  • Elise January 6, 2012, 8:11 am

    I always love the puppy stories. I have a Shiba Inu, very smart dog… however, he has stare off into space moments that worry me too! He also creeps me out when he stares me in the eyes!

    • CaitlinHTP January 6, 2012, 8:13 am

      Shiba Inus are my favorite! I love to say the name Shiba Inu.

  • Michelle January 6, 2012, 8:12 am

    My dog is hilarious when he tries to jump on the couch and doesn’t quite make it. Sometimes he’ll do a face-plant right into the couch and I feel so bad for laughing.

  • Angela @ Eat Spin Run Repeat January 6, 2012, 8:13 am

    Haha! Our dogs used to do some pretty stupid things too, like one of them would suddenly decide that she needed to chase her tail, so she’d run around in circles on the kitchen floor trying to bite it. Unlike Maggie, I think the ‘smart’ bit of ‘stupid-smart’ was missing! 😉

  • Cait @ Beyond Bananas January 6, 2012, 8:14 am

    I know EXACTLY what you mean by stupid smart. My parent’s golden retriever is a very stupid… but even smarter dog. He acts like he has no idea what is going on.. but in reality. He knows whats up. He and the other dog in the house have a coveted spot on the couch. He will pretend like he has found something really cool.. or needs to go outside to get the other dog off the couch. Then he immediately sprints to his seat and relaxes. There are plenty of other things that demonstrate this as well.

    He also sleeps in a Heisman Trophy pose…

  • Carolina John January 6, 2012, 8:17 am

    Yea we had a dog that would stare and bark at ghosts all the time at this one place we lived in Greensboro. It didn’t make the dog smart.

  • Rachel January 6, 2012, 8:23 am

    Hilarious!!! I still want to see a contest where the winner (me) would get to keep Maggie for a weekend, barking and all!

    • CaitlinHTP January 6, 2012, 8:23 am

      haha ohmigod you would want to return her after 2 hours. ask Nicole from YuppieYogini.com (she dogsits for me occasionally).

  • Penny January 6, 2012, 8:29 am

    Sounds like Maggie needs some pet stairs so she can get on the couch herself. 🙂 I bought some from Amazon so my dog could get on my new, and very high, bed. We both love them. It took my dog awhile to get used the stairs enough that she would use them, but she uses them all the time now. 🙂

    • CaitlinHTP January 6, 2012, 8:30 am

      Further evidence Maggie is stupid: I bought her stairs but she wouldn’t use them and would just try to jump up on the couch right next to them. Fail.

      • Laurie January 6, 2012, 9:17 am

        Ha Ha my doxie did the same thing, I bought those stairs and he looked at them and then at me like I was stupid!!!! 🙂

        • Reenie January 6, 2012, 11:04 am

          OMG….I was going to suggest steps for her too! Cute Maggie….I just wanna hug her =)

  • kathleen @ the daily crumb January 6, 2012, 8:32 am

    ha! i love this — it would not surprise me if my dogs were doing the same thing. sort of jessica simpson-ish… i mean she laughed her way to the bank after the chicken of the sea comment!

  • katie @ KatieDid January 6, 2012, 8:35 am

    haha she stayed up all night but has the luxary of sleeping all day. you on the other hand….

  • Lindsay @ The Reluctant Runner January 6, 2012, 8:42 am

    I had a dog growing up who was pretty dumb. It’s really entertaining! It used to freak me out when he would stare into the darkness at night, or worse, growl into the darkness at night!

  • Annette @ EnjoyYourHealthyLife January 6, 2012, 8:51 am

    I love a YUMMY b-fast in the a.m. to get the day off right–looks tasty!

  • Khushboo January 6, 2012, 9:00 am

    I would get out of bed easily for that breakfast- wow!

  • Michelle January 6, 2012, 9:05 am

    68 times in a row????

    • CaitlinHTP January 6, 2012, 11:03 am

      seriously. we counted. her legs must burned afterwards.

  • Katy Widrick January 6, 2012, 9:15 am

    Junior is so loveably dumb that I think it’s a ploy. When I stare into those blank eyes, I see so much love and loyalty…which means I sneak him extra food, snuggle him, let him jump up on the bed, etc. Spoiled.

  • Gina @ Running to the Kitchen January 6, 2012, 9:17 am

    I would love to witness Maggie in real life, she sounds like a riot!

  • Melissa January 6, 2012, 9:40 am

    I am honestly LOL at the “ghost night” description because one of my pups will do the same thing! Normally curled up at our feet or burrowed under the covers, she will be sitting alert at the edge of the bed staring into the darkness…eek!!!

  • Sarena (The Non Dairy Queen) January 6, 2012, 9:42 am

    I swear our animals see more than we do! They are way smarter than we think! Maggie is so cute!

  • Jennifer January 6, 2012, 9:42 am

    I always love the dog posts, too cute!! Did you ever think she may be pondering the great questions of life, like “why are we here?” as she’s staring off to space. I bet if she was able to talk, she’d be right up there with the likes of Einstein!!! 🙂

  • Taylor January 6, 2012, 9:45 am

    That made me laugh simply because my dog does the same thing but will stare out the window, I then have the same though, there has to be some sort of monster outside! 🙂

  • Stacy January 6, 2012, 9:50 am

    I know someone with the theory that the more obedient and well trained the dog, the dumber it is in reality. The theory is that what we consider stupid are actually dogs who consider doing what you’ve asked and decide they really just don’t feel like it. Stupid dogs always obey and follow commands because they don’t have the ability to think about the options. Not sure it’s true, but it makes me a feel a little better about my two that stare at walls and get lost in the corner.

    • CaitlinHTP January 6, 2012, 11:04 am

      So you’re saying that because Maggie is completely inobedient, she is a genius? YES.

      • Catherine January 6, 2012, 11:23 am

        She is adorable, but I can’t imagine that any kind of thought process is going on behind those blank eyes… haha 🙂 But stupid dogs always have such unique personalities that make them so cute and lovable. I love Maggie’s clueless stare!

  • Paj January 6, 2012, 9:51 am

    Yes, dogs are spooky smart like that!

    You might know about these, but I just read about some new websites- habitforge.com and stickk.com – (similar to Gympact but you can create your own goals) in Shape Magazine yesterday. They sounded interesting.

  • jen January 6, 2012, 9:58 am

    pretty much obsessed with your maggie musings 😉

    too freaking cute. happy friday. hope you’re feeling well.

  • Lily January 6, 2012, 9:59 am

    My cat freaks out from shadows – She thinks they are bugs – she cries and stares for hours – its too funny

  • Emily January 6, 2012, 10:00 am

    Puppies crack me up. My littlest CANNOT jump up on the couch. But everytime I lift his little self up there.

  • Emelie January 6, 2012, 10:01 am

    I would call my dachshund wilful – for example, I have been trying to teach him to shake a paw for 4 years with zero success. Not smart? Maybe….or possibly, he just doesn’t want to! He is very very good at communicating what he wants to us….which makes me think he is quite smart. Probably Maggie was thinking: What is wrong with these two? Can’t they see I want on the couch?

  • Katie January 6, 2012, 10:02 am

    My cat Stella is the exact same way! She just has the adorable look of utter idiocy on her face all the time, but sometimes I do wonder if all her shenanigans are just a clever ruse…

  • Katie @ Peace Love & Oats January 6, 2012, 10:08 am

    hahahaha maybe she knows better than all of us!

  • Corrie Anne January 6, 2012, 10:08 am

    Haha. I wonder about that all the time with Boyd. I always look at him like,”What are you THINKING!?” Plus he has this interesting complex where he has to burrow into the smallest, coziest corner possible. Love him, but such a freak.

    That is one beautiful sandwich!

  • Debbie January 6, 2012, 10:09 am

    Dachshund parents know their children are special! 🙂

    • Megan @ Striving for strides January 6, 2012, 11:39 am

      Hahaaaa.. I so agree. Im a mother of 2. I love the dachshund bread. THey’re the best!

  • lauren January 6, 2012, 10:27 am

    I bet Maggie is pondering the meaning of life. She does look pretty thoughtful. Those eyes aren’t blank, they’re distracted by her deeper purpose 🙂
    My cat stares at the wall for extended periods of time…and jumps on the cabinets to stare harder and scratch the wall. Sometimes that freaks me out, what does he think is up there? eeks.

  • Sara January 6, 2012, 10:30 am

    I am TELLING you dogs can see ghosts. My portuguese water dog does the SAME thing, but he’s actually so smart.

  • Angela January 6, 2012, 10:35 am

    At least Maggie is persistent! 68 times-wow!

  • Rebecca @ Naturally Healthy and Gorgeous January 6, 2012, 10:37 am

    Grilled banana sandwich looks great!

  • JenATX January 6, 2012, 10:38 am

    HA i laughed out loud all the way through this post! I love your posts about Maggie, she’s such a character.

  • Chelsea January 6, 2012, 11:00 am

    No matter how stupid our dogs can be we love them so much haha <3 Even though looks like Maggie is very conniving at getting what she wants 😉

  • Ivy January 6, 2012, 11:01 am

    awwww she is so cute! 68 times – that is persistent and impressive!

  • Kate January 6, 2012, 11:41 am

    Love the Maggie posts, she cracks me up! I think my Sib Husky is pretty dumb but I think Maggie may have her beat. Only thing is, Koko also has these freaky trances that she goes into. She’ll be walking around and all of a sudden, stops, and sloooooooooooooooowly walks. It’s like the slow walk version of a seizure. Freaks us out but is she in the midst of solving some huge mystery, and she’s just spotted another clue? Probably yes.

  • Emily January 6, 2012, 12:07 pm

    I have a rescued pit/boxer mix who is VERY short and stocky. She’s big (like 70lbs big) but very low to the ground. At the vet this morning, a lady looked down, scratched her behind the ear, and said, “Well don’t you just look like a walking footstool?!” Bahahaha.

  • anna January 6, 2012, 12:07 pm

    This post made me crack up. I love animals. Sometimes I wake up and my cat is sitting on the bed staring at me. Creeeepy!

  • Gretchen @ Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen! January 6, 2012, 12:16 pm

    This whole post made me think of nothing but Hyperbole and a Half’s comic about her dog. UHHHMAZING. Please tell me you’ve already read it and if not, well, here you go: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/07/dog.html

  • Allison January 6, 2012, 12:54 pm

    Haha, I thought the same thing about my former pup and with our new pup I think he’s just is crazy smart… I’m not sure what’s better?! BTW, 68 times?! That’s probs like 680 human jumps [like dog years, multiple everything]… Talk about a workout!

  • Carolyn @ cool beans January 6, 2012, 1:18 pm

    Cats/dogs totally freak me out that way! And babies seem to do it sometimes too. I’m convinced they are seeing something we can’t!

    My Mom has this theory that people are either stupid-smart or smart-stupid; no one is just smart-smart or stupid-stupid. I think stupid-smart is you do well in school and are intelligent, but are kind of stupid when it comes to normal human interaction. Smart-stupid is when maybe you don’t really do well in school or you just act like an idiot, but you’re actually incredibly talented or a genius at certain things. She says I’m stupid-smart, apparently, and my sister is smart-stupid. I wonder if the theory applies to dogs.

  • Jessica @ The Process of Healing January 6, 2012, 1:22 pm

    Awwww!!!! Bless her 🙂

  • Kayla January 6, 2012, 1:45 pm

    That breakfast looks amazing! and.. I laughed out loud at the idea of Maggie gazing off into another dimension!

  • beth January 6, 2012, 1:47 pm

    HAHAh, I always say to my dog when he is staring off into space like that “Are you having a thought?” because it’s so obvious and rare when he pauses for a second to stare!
    Maybe he is actually thinking and has a thoughtful brain!

  • Joey January 6, 2012, 1:53 pm

    I don’t think there is any such thing as a dumb dog!! Dogs are very smart… And look at her persistence in getting up on the couch.. I could learn a lesson from her 😉

  • Lexi @ Cura Personalis Foodie January 6, 2012, 2:06 pm

    Hahah I’m convinced that dogs/cats are really smarter too. Can’t really blame them–they’re living the life of sleep + constant food, while we stress our days away 😉

  • Allison January 6, 2012, 2:11 pm

    LOVE THIS POST!! Hilarious. 🙂

  • Amber K January 6, 2012, 2:33 pm

    I wonder that about people and pets. If someone seems incredibly stupid I wonder what they know that I don’t…

  • erica January 6, 2012, 2:48 pm

    i’m totally with you on the dogs-seeing-ghosts thing. sometimes my dog will start barking at the wall and chasing something while looking at the wall…like he’s barking/chasing something…something that i don’t see.

  • Jolene (Homespun Heritage) January 6, 2012, 2:51 pm

    Ah! We had a dumb but sweet dog (who just wanted to please) that we just loved…she was a greyhound/german shepherd mix….crazy mix but she was gorgeous! (Markings of a Shepherd but the body type/personality of a Greyhound) She passed away in November at the age of 10. We got her when she was 5 and she lived a good long 5 more years! Dang it, I miss her!

    We’ll get another dog in a year or so. We’ve got two children coming from China in the next few months so we’re going to get them home and adjusted first!

  • Brooke @ sweats & sweets January 6, 2012, 4:44 pm

    Anytime there are photos of Maggie, I instantly laugh. It just fully reminds me of my stupidly-cute dachshund Bonnie. They share the same stares and I just instantly cheer up 🙂

  • Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca) January 6, 2012, 5:40 pm

    I love reading about Maggie and this post was hilarious 🙂 I had to read it aloud to the hubby who is sitting beside me.

  • Linz @ ItzLinz January 6, 2012, 6:51 pm

    lol!!! i was seriously laughing out loud at this post!!!!

  • Laura January 6, 2012, 7:49 pm

    Maggie is just my favorite. I love stories about her. I LOL’d at her trying to jump on the couch 68 times.

  • Bizzle January 6, 2012, 9:12 pm

    Ahh, lol and crying at this post. Love lil Maggie, but I had to put my 14 1/2 year old dachshund down two days before Christmas so this post is bittersweet.

    • CaitlinHTP January 7, 2012, 10:24 am

      Awwww that is so sad. I hope your pup rests happily in doggie heaven 🙁

  • Wendy G January 6, 2012, 9:17 pm

    It’s funny because we had a German Shepard/Lap mix that would stare up at the ceiling all the time and we would say “Fred’s looking at a ghost!”

  • Rachel January 6, 2012, 9:23 pm

    Ok. The staring into the darkness would totally freak me out too! Luckily, my pup almost always sleeps through the night and is way to hyper to ever sit and stare at anything. Maggie seems pretty awesome though… And I don’t know how stupid she is, the jumping on the couch 68 times just shows that she’s determined. Right? 🙂

  • Dominique January 6, 2012, 9:50 pm

    Sometimes I wake up early in the morning and one of our cats, Mischief (very appropriate name), is perched on the bed headboard looking straight ahead at the wall. I have no idea what he’s looking at but it’s dark and it’s creepy! Other times he’s been known the stare at Sean and I when we’re sleeping but I’ve never awoken to that.

    I’m pretty sure that all our pets at one point have stared at the wall. Maybe all our homes are haunted? Sometimes Sean’s old dog used to stare at a corner in the kitchen and start barking. We’re pretty sure he was barking at a ghost.

    I love all the stories about James and Maggie. They’re such adorable dogs. And your breakfast looks amazing, as usual. It totally beat out my bowl of cereal and coffee.

  • Susan January 6, 2012, 10:14 pm

    can i just say i loooove your posts about maggie…i’m usually laughing out loud!!! 🙂

  • Jess-ThatJessGal January 7, 2012, 1:46 am

    Your “Maggie Posts” make me litteraly laugh out loud. I was so hysterical over this one I almost dropped my laptop!

  • Jen January 7, 2012, 2:40 am

    I think that Maggie is an undercover GENIUS! She totally knows what will get her attention and sympathy! And, she needs that sympathy, as solving all of the mysteries of the world (most likely, a lot of that occurs during her long, blank stares) is truly hard work! 🙂

  • emma January 7, 2012, 7:15 am

    I love your posts about Maggie!

  • Wendy Heath January 8, 2012, 3:54 am

    I got one for you. My golden retriever, Tork, is super stupid/smart.

    So he tends to drop toys behind the sofa and under furniture out of reach and such. He’ll just wander off, nonchalant, and several DAYS later will fixate on the toy he remembers is in the inaccessible location and lay there, morose, staring at it. For hours. Until you get it for him!

    He’s super blond, and we’re pretty sure he bats for the other team if you know what I mean… but boy is he a love!

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