My dog's pretty smart

[Melontine]

I have three dogs. A terrier mix named Pepper, a chihuahua named Tiny, and a Pomeranian named Eevee. Tiny's a small ball of energy and nerves, and Eevee just doesn't care about anything other than food and pets. Pepper I think has the most interesting personality, she's decided to give herself a job.
Pepper started 'chasing' our cats. Usually, this would be a horrible thing, and I'm not sure I can completely trust it will never go wrong. But she's only done it under specific conditions. If cats are fighting, she'll run up to them and break it up. If she thinks her humans are mad, she'll go and clear the cats out of the way.
If my cat goes into hunting mode around the chickens, Pepper will intercept her and chase her to a safe distance away.
She hasn't hurt them so far, and when the commotion is over everyone is back to being buddies. The cats groom the dogs sometimes, though they're not too fond of being licked in return.
So my theory why she started this, is that she copied our behaviour. She recognized that we don't like the cats fighting or the chickens being stalked, so Pepper took the next logical step in her mind and makes sure everyone is following our rules (Except her, when we're out our trash/left out food is apparently fair game).

 

[sourland]

Sounds like Pepper has her priorities set properly.

 

[cassie]

Your dog is smart. No doubt about it. I have seen livestock guard dogs do the same thing. My Komondors would.

This isn't exactly the same thing, but I had a friend who had a Cocker Spaniel named Murphy. Murphy took exception to his family leaving for the day without him, and he made his displeasure known by getting into the garbage and spreading it all over the house. One day before she left, my friend made Murphy sit in front of her and she said, "Murphy. No trash!!" It worked. For that day. However, whenever she was in a hurry and forgot to tell Murphy to stay out of the trash, she came home to find it spread all over the house again.