Laurie Campbell wrote:

> then you should agree that dogs are not and cannot be intelligent since they
> function almost completely on instinct

Not necessarily.

My aunt had a chow dog named Pooky.  About 3 years after they got
him, Aunt Jody had surgery to remove a brain tumor, and was left
deaf.  Pooky, with no training whatsoever, turned himself into a
hearing-ear dog; he'd come and get her when the dryer buzzed,
when someone knocked at the door, when the timer for the oven
went off, etc.

One day, Aunt Jody was coming into the den with a plate of cheese
and crackers, and Pooky started jumping and barking and running
back and forth to the door. Now, by this point, they had rigged
the doorbell to flash a lamp in the den, and nothing had flashed,
but Aunt Jody just figured someone had knocked rather than
ringing. She put down her plate and went to the door. No one
there.  She looked around a bit, then shrugged and went back to
the den. There she found Pooky, grinning hugely next to the
now-empty plate.

Lissa YouCan'tTellMeHeDidn'tPlanThat Wingling

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