I’ll never forget one memory I have of my dog Lucy that absolutely astounded me and I think it will astound you, too. Lucy was a brilliant dog on many levels, and she had one of the keenest intellect I have ever seen in a dog.

We were eating dinner one night about eight or nine years ago, and it must have been something Lucy really loved because out of the blue with total silence around us, she started to bark and went running to the front door. My husband I both looked at each other. It’s dark outside, and there were no noises, so we wondered what she was barking at.

Read moreOddly, she barked three or four times, and then came circling around the living room and back into the kitchen–promptly sitting in the beg position, where our other dog Charlie had previous sat. He was now barking at the front door endlessly convinced someone was out there. We figured we just didn’t hear whatever it was, and we went back to finishing our meal, which included sharing nibbles with each dog, but now Charlie was out in the entry way barking–missing his share, and Lulu was now getting bites from both my husband and me. At first I didn’t pick up on it.

Then as Charlie returned because no one materialized, our little rascal Lucy did it again. She ran off around the living room this time, which was not a direct route to the front door, and started barking again. It was odd behavior.

This time I decided to figure out what this was all about, so I hightailed it in behind her and watched her, unknown to her. What I saw perplexed me. She stopped barking for a second, and stood there looking around. She didn’t look out the door like she normally did. Instead, she looked left and then right, and then barked again off into nowhere. If you weren’t paying attention, you might have thought she flipped her lid mentally. But when she saw Charlie, who was always slower to come running around the corner, she turned around like “Good! I gotta ya, fool!” and took off back to the kitchen with intent and purpose!

I was like,”What the heck is going on here?” She startled when she ran into me in the doorway to the kitchen, watching her. I could sense this feeling of “Oh no” from her and out of the blue, she turned back to look at the door and barked once again as if to say there really is something out there. Then she looked at me. I wasn’t buying it!! It was clear to me there was no one out there, and she and I both knew it. She then promptly followed me into the kitchen and proceeded to beg.

When something is outside, she is usually so roweled up that we can’t pull her away from the door for anything. I knew instantly there was a change in her behavior.

At first I was perplexed, but as soon as Charlie came in again to get his fair share and she ran off barking again, I saw a pattern. She realized if she could fake Charlie out with a false bark, he would get distracted for a reasonable amount of time, and she could then go and get his nibbles because he was out of the kitchen. She’d get twice the bites– because now she could beg from both of us, without any competition. We watched poor Charlie go barreling to the front door, thinking she had sounded a true alarm, and he’d bark for 4 or 5 minutes before finally giving up and realizing he was missing food.

Our little stinker Lucy devised a plan, and must have realized that if she lied and acted like there was someone at the door, her slower companion mutt would fall for it, and she would get all the goods! We watched her repeated it several more times. Her body language was clearly “off” as was the tone of her voice for an alert bark at the door. She was trying to fool all of us and nearly did!

Science has uncovered that animals lie in the wild to gain the upper hand when it comes to food, mating and survival. Here is an article that talks about deception in the animal world. Who knew Dolphins lied, too? Have you ever seen your dog pull a fast one?