Megan's Gift - Brains vs Braun

Brains vs. Brawn

Now I know animals don’t think. They are pure instinct, little machines with an input and a predictable, hardwired output. At least that is what I am always told even when I was getting my Biology degree. Animals are not intelligent. Only humans are. Well anyone who lived or still lives with animals knows better than that. Anyone who has spent any real time around animals knows that belief is nothing more than nonsense.

I have to tell the story when Megan taught me a lesson that really impressed me. She showed me how a brain and ingenuity can really beat out brawn.

When my husband and I moved in together we, of course, brought all of our stuff with us thus doubling our treasures. Living together is quite an adjustment, but when you have kids it is a big adjustment for everyone. I had Megan and two cats. He had two dogs, Watson and Sheba. Watson was a one year old German shepherd and perpetual energy when Megan and I moved in. Sheba, a beautiful loving white shepherd, was four.

Like any step siblings there was the struggle for boundaries and position in the family and hierarchy. It was especially difficult for Megan since she and I moved into their home. Being the senior matriarch Megan took her position as such with grace and the others honored it. Sheba and Megan would have their occasional jealousy fights but it was understood that Megan had more experience and therefore was the elder of the pack. Even Watson recognized this, most of the time. Both ladies kept him in line.

When Megan first met Watson she made it clear to him that she would not take anything from him. It did not matter to her that he could take her on easily, especially when he got older and stronger and reached 89 pounds. Watson always submitted. One low growl from Megan and Watson backed away and stopped doing whatever it was he was doing. Even if it was just a matter of standing too close for Megan’s comfort.

As the years went by and Megan got older Watson was no longer a young pup of 1 or 2. He decided he was going to be top dog over Megan. He started ignoring her growls, pushing her around, shoving her out of the way, and bullying her. Megan did not fight it. She eventually became leery of him. She did not want to fight back because he was so forceful. She knew she couldn’t take him, at least not without my help. She would generally stay out of his way. Seeing this he started throwing his weight around. He would take advantage of his strength and position and bully her at times. One of his things was not letting her pass by him. If she had to get fairly close to him to pass by he would jump up and snap at her. I would have to stand between her and him so she would feel comfortable enough to pass by him. If I wasn’t around she would have quite a dilemma. She would be stuck.

Megan would try everything to move Watson. She would try to sneak past him. He’d snap at her. She would then try her low growl. He ignored her. Finally, she would give him a continuous, not forceful, bark. It was more like an annoyed bark like saying “knock it off and let me get by!”, “I’m telling mom!”. He ignored this too. That tactic was usually effective though in another way because I would come to see what she wanted and helped her get by. It was such a persistent “rrrr arf, rrrr arf” that I would have thought it would have worked more than it did. It was annoying. It was like a constant nag. Sometimes Watson would get tired of it and would move. Mission accomplished. That is not the best part of this little genius.

Megan was very smart. Smarter than people easily, but smarter than most animals I’ve known. She was also persistent, or stubborn. I think it’s a fine line between the two. It probably depends on your perspective. If she wanted something she would move heaven and earth to do it. Even when she was old and arthritic she would do whatever she had to to get what she wanted, especially if what she wanted was to get to her mom, me. No one and nothing would keep her apart from me. Not even an 80 some pound monster German Shepherd. If she did not have the strength she would have to use some ingenuity.

One evening my husband and I were settled in the bedroom for the evening watching TV. Sheba was on my husband’s side of the bed on the floor, her designated place. Watson was just outside the bedroom door in the hallway, his designated place. Megan had gone out to the kitchen earlier to get some water and stretch her legs a bit. She had decided she had had enough and wanted to get to her designated place, my side of the bed on her bed. She started heading down the hall and there he was, lying there facing her, refusing to let her by. She went into her entourage of tactics. She stared him down a while. Nothing. She tried the low growl for a few minutes to no avail. Now the final tactic – the nagging bark “rrr arf” “rrr arf”… Nothing. He refused to move, ignoring her threats! What’s worse is I did not even come to her rescue. I had gotten so used to her threatening Watson that I wasn’t paying attention. I was too involved in a movie. Poor Megan, her tactics were not working at all. Watson stood his ground no matter how long she kept it up. She realized she had to come up with something else. This beast was not going to keep her from where she wanted to go, to lie down in her bed next to her mom. About the time she came up with a new strategy I noticed she had not come in the room and Watson was not moving under her threats. I got up to go into the hall to help her get by.

Just when I got to the bedroom door to see the situation her alternate plan was already in motion.

At one end of the hall was our bedroom. The other end led to the living room. As you exit the hall into the living room there was a fairly large window facing the front yard and, as you looked out, the front door was on the left. The window was too high up for the dogs to see out, except when Watson would put his front paws on the window sill and peer out eye-to-eye with the intruders. (Our UPS guy would just leave our packages at the bottom of my husband’s wheelchair ramp and wave to me as I peered out the window.)

Well, being stuck in the living room and wanting to get to the bedroom she had to get rid of this obstacle, Watson. Just as I got to the bedroom doorway Megan, not seeing that I had finally arrived for her rescue, runs to the front window and starts barking. Not her nagging “rrr arf” but the full blown bark she used when we had an intruder. She really barked like there was someone right there at the front door. She was angry yelling at an intruder. Or so I thought. Well, Watson being the biggest toughest dog and the only male took his position as attack dog and ran to the living room barking by the front door. He let out his loud booming forceful bark to let the intruders know they don’t have a chance. All the time he was listening and looking to try and figure out where these intruders were. I went to the front window to look out. No one was there. I looked carefully and saw no one. I thought, poor Megan she is older now and hearing things. Just as I turned to reassure her there was no one there I caught sight of her running down the hallway to the bedroom, glancing over her shoulder twice giving out a couple more fierce barks. This got Watson even more excited and determined to find these intruders.

I couldn’t believe it. My elderly dog, around 11 years old at the time, wasn’t senile. She knew there weren’t any intruders. She had an obstacle to remove and she did it! She barked knowing it would get Watson to get up and run to the door barking. She kept barking over her shoulder as she ran to the bedroom to keep him going. It was like she was yelling over her shoulder, “Yeah, you get them Watson. Get ‘em!”

Even I fell for it! She got me looking out the window! That was OK though because I could get by Watson in the hallway if I had to.

I returned to the room to find Megan settled and quite content in her bed on mom’s side of the room. What she had to go through just to get some simple need met. I don’t know about her but I was so impressed and proud of her I was busting. That was so incredibly clever. Oh who am I kidding? It was genius! Brain does beat brawn. When all your other resources don’t work or not as well as they used to: when you don’t have the strength and power you used to, use the one resource you still have.

Watson returned to his position in the hallway unaware that he had been duped by a 60 pound geriatric.

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Megan's Gift