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My pup hates the elevator but hates the stairs more. When we were in an apartment he'd lead me to take the stairs down and the elevator up, until his arthritis got worse and he'd be team elevator each time.
When he comes to work with me, we take a glass-sided elevator up to my office. He can see that we're going up and he hates it. It doesn't matter if he stands on the ground or is in his crate, he shivers. He'd much rather I carry him up the stairs.
I'm pretty sure they do. My parents had a particularly dumb dog and even she managed to figure out that she could catch up with someone that went into an elevator by racing up or down the stairs.
Dogs' intelligence, and perceived intelligence, vary a great deal among individuals. In general, dogs are a lot smarter than we usually give them credit for. I'm sure that all of my dogs have understood the basics of how an elevator works. I've also had three who could probably have repaired an elevator and one who could have invented them.
And then there is my latest girl, who would regularly sit on her tail and be very confused about why her tail suddenly hurts
One of mine farted then looked around in alarm wondering where the noise came from.
My MIL's dog sometimes farts, then growls at her own ass.
My dog is quite nonchalant about farting. IIRC we are accustomed to our smells, I guess it applies to dogs as well, maybe they react differently to the nervous stimuli in the anus or to the sudden noise.
Shh did you hear something just now?
They understand dog carriers and cars, so my guess is that they think of an elevator as something like the other boxes used to move them around, but without windows. With that said, a big part of raising puppies is teaching them to just ignore strange things that they don't understand, so I doubt that most dogs think about elevators much. Mine had zero reaction to the elevator on the first time he rode in one, but he was the kind of dog who didn't even mind fireworks as long as he could see that I was relaxed.
Pretty sure my dog doesn't really understand cars. She cries like we are about to die the whole time, and has for her whole 9 years of life.
How unusual! I don't think I have ever personally met a dog that didn't like cars. Mine loved them enough to try to jump into strangers' cars.
I have attempted to reply to this a few times, but last night was so busy I kept getting interrupted and would lose what I wrote.
I blame the beagle, which is easy to do because she was always the troublemaker and she's no longer with us.
She was a misbreed, all black, but you could see the beagle spots in the light. I saw her running around the neighborhood for a few weeks, but she would never let me approach her. They used to make duck fat rolls as high value treats, and she came right up to me looking for more. While waiting to see if anyone claimed her, we saw reports of other little black dogs found in the general area where we live. Nobody ever claimed her, so we figured they were a litter of unwanted dogs nobody wanted and was dumped off on the side of the road.
She became the surrogate mother for the beager, an intentional cross between a boxer and beagle. A relative bought the dog as their first act of turning 18, decided he didn't want it, and my in-laws tried to take her in. She was too much for the person recovering from cancer surgery, so we traded her for the Chihuahua who was getting picked on by another much larger dog. The beager slept in the beagle's crate with her and was taught all her bad habits.
The beagle would always have a panic attack any time we went anywhere in the car, which was too bad for her because we love to travel and camp. Since the momma would cry, so would the baby, and we often had two beagles howling in the back of the car. They had to be medicated for long trips because they would never settle down.
The beagle, the Chihuahua, and our boy who used to pick on the Chihuahua have all passed, but we loved them all. We still have beager, and she still whines when riding in the car, but it's nothing like the full-blown panic we used to see.
This was a lovely read, thanks for taking the time to share. Bonus if you have any pics to share <3
Here is cash the Chihuahua helping Eli investigate a box.
Never got a pic of my dog on a box, she hates dogs. She's basically claustrophobic.
and i kinda get the reason, we rescued her from neglective owners who let her alone the whole day on a dark room so
That was Eli, and he's only worried about whether men are around or something is being delivered.
Emeril was fine with boxes, but terrified of laundry baskets. He also loved fireworks and thunder.
My dog is afraid of A LOT of stuff. Her name... I don't know how to put on a translation of her name. Let's call her Becky.
Becky is afraid of brooms. Becky is afraid of fireworks and thunders. Becky is afraid of boxes, no matter how small they are. Becky is afraid of chairs. Becky is afaid of pigeons. Becky is afraid of ants.
I could list LOT of more items.
My family would say Becky is just a baby.
Well, Becky's already growing white furs so
Checked with the family.
Still just a baby.
The little one is Rory. He's 4 months old and just a baby.
The bigger one is Eli. He's 10. Also, just a baby.
Sorry about the ninja edit. I am tired and messed up.
Left to right:
Silky the beagle Della the beager Eli the labrashepherd Emeril the black mouth cur
hated cars and used to get car sick. I had him from puppy, and I don't own a car or drive a whole lot, so it was cool. He went full blind when he was six, but lived to almost fourteen. 
is a rescue, and he's obviously been in cars a lot, so he loves it and tries to jump in any car that opens its doors in the street.
is very varied on cars. sometimes she will hop on every open car she can, and sometimes she will be afraid of cars.
I'm sure they can feel it moving the same way we can.
At the same time, many dogs have dogshit object permanence and might think it's a world changer even if it didn't move. 🤷♂️
I always wonder what the pigeons think when they ride the tram a stop and now the doors go somewhere rise.
Don't birds have a generally great sense of direction and even built in compasses? Freakin dinosaurs. So I'd assume they know they moved. But maybe pigeons are dumb idk
You want me to get into the transmogrifyingelectrogator? As long as I get to hang out with you I'm cool with whatever.
I've seen a cat use a train.
They probably realize they are moving because they can track the direction and strength of the smells of the previous room.
If you think about it, you can use smells to locate in 3d the same way you can use vision or sound.
If you think about it, smells don't act like waves, unlike sound and light.
You can locate things with smell, but not in the same way as sound and light. Yes, some species do have prominent stereo smell, so they can know a direction from which a smell is emanating, but the emanation doesn't propagate like waves.
/superpedant
Being aware of how pedantic you're being, doesn't make it any better btw. Specially when you don't know what you're taking about.
Air is a gas and things flow form higher to lower concentration, so smells propagate form the source outwards. Like drop of ink in clear water.
You have stereoscopic smell. Go outside and follow the smell of grass.
doesn't make it any better btw
D'you think I was trying to..?
flow form higher to lower concentration
Turbulent flow is quite different to laminar flow, even when you don't account for one being propagated as waves and the other not.
Humans do not have smell accurate enough for it to be described as sterescopic. Sorry. Facts don't agree with you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
D'you think I was trying to..?
Yeah. I thought you wanted to talk, not just to parrot nonsense. I would have blocked you way earlier otherwise lmao
Nonsense?
Ah, so when you're talking about how smells work, it's "if you really think about it", but when anyone else actually thinks about it and says their thoughts, it's "parroting nonsense".
I just don't think you like me having disagreed with a thing you said, as smells don't propagate in the same way sound and light does and I can't just say they do for your sake.
My dog doesn’t use the stairs, he knows that if he wants to come up someone has to bring him. He’ll either sit by the stairs or just bug you and then show you he wants up.
World changer, definitely
they don't ask questions