Trooper is a German Shepard. He was very smart. I swear he actually understood English. Because he would get into the garbage (and other things) when we were away, we would put him in the bathroom if we would all be away (as he grew older wasn't needed). At first, I needed to bribe in to go into the bathroom with cheese. He then thought that was 'the place he ate cheese'. If I offered some for any reason, I'd turn around and he would be in the bathroom. Later, all he had to do is see me get my work uniform and he was in the bathroom. This happened even if I was going in to work on my day off. (didn't work on days I wasn't working. I tried too). The company changed uniforms. The first day I wore the uniform, he just sat there. I picked up the shirt and said 'does this give you a clue'? and he was in the bathroom. It took about a week for him to realize that that was my new uniform.



He was good with math. I'd hold a different number of food pieces in each hand and ask him a simple math problem. He got it right each time. Some say it's the last word that gives him the clue. I asked him '1 times 1', '1 plus 1', '1 divided by 1' and he got the right answer. He sure didn't like it when I asked what '1 minus 1' was. He often pushed my hands away and whimpered. Once he turned his back to me. I then asked him what '1 plus 2' was and he took all three pieces. He also could tell the differences from 'short and tall', 'fat and thin', 'meat and cheese'. and when I said 'if you love me, talk the one in my right (or left) hand, if you don't take the one in my left (or right) hand', he always took the one in the 'if you love me' hand.



When I petted him, he would 'talk'. He sure had a LOT to say. Too bad I didn't understand it, but I'm sure it wasn't 'stop petting me'.  When he saw that I needed some comfort, he would just come to me and let me pet him



So long as we were around it, he wouldn't leave the threshold of our house. One time I was talking to some people on our front lawn (no fence). When I felt he was getting a little too close to the edge of the lawn, I called his name and pointed to our front door. He just went inside (totally blew away the one person I was talking to). If he did get out, all we had to say was 'Trooper go home' and he did, often beating us to the door. Then he would go into the bathroom because that's where we sent him if he had been bad.  He did love to just lay in the bathtub though. No water though. He didn't like baths (they were 'just a rub down 'ruined' by soap and water' to him').



He was a good dog, very funny at times, very smart at all times (he would have been a GREAT 'drug dog', but he didn't want to 'play ball', which is required for that program (he funked out of 'drug dog school' for that reason). I think he just 'smart enough' to find a way to get the 'easy life'), He was a very sweet lovable dog and he will be greatly missed. I'm glad we had him for twelve years!