Did you know that Dobermans are ranked in the top 5 of the smartest dogs?
Frank was so super smart. He never forgot a thing. He had a photographic memory. When he was a puppy Joe and I took him for his usual neighborhood walk one day. Joe always used one of those retractable leashes. We were walking along talking and Frank was behind us. The leash kept going and going and suddenly jerked us to a stop. We turned around to see where Frank was. He was frozen. Stuck. Not moving. He had stopped in front of a dirt lot with a chain link fence around it. We called his name. He wouldn't look at us. He wouldn't move. He was frozen like a statue, intensely fixated on something that was on the ground on the other side of the fence. We quietly approached and there on the other side of the fence was a baby deer. Curled up sleeping on the ground. We assumed that it must have been separated from it's mother. Frank and the deer were having a staring contest. Neither one of them would move or make a sound. It didn't even look like Frank was breathing. We decided that the deer seemed fine and if it was still there when we came back we would try to help. We pulled Frank away. Barking, circles, silent barking.... Oh, it was torture. He did not want to leave the baby deer. We finished our walk and about an hour later when we came back that way he went running to look, pulling us ahead and when we got there the deer was gone.
Frank NEVER forgot that he saw that deer there. Every time we walked past he would run ahead and stop and look for the deer and then look at us all confused. Even when we drove by in the car he would lunge towards that side of the street and bark as we drove past. Years went by and he never forgot about his friend, the baby deer.
Frank was always so busy protecting everybody. That was his job. I think he felt bad that he didn't help the baby deer and it went away.
