Thinking Animals

Chris Pargeter’s column on how deeply animals think in the June 2020 edition reminded me of a German Shorthaired Pointer I owned. I got the pup at 6 weeks old and we spent almost every day together for the next eight years – an inseparable bond developed. At that stage I was hunting professionally full-time.

He was soon able to predict some of my actions even before I did them, especially if I was planning a trip that involved shotguns. On such days he’d refuse to leave the room with the gun safe until I took out the 12ga.

Interestingly, he was able to sense when I was developing a fever. If I found him nudging me with his nose while whining,

I knew that a fever (in some cases a bout of malaria) was a couple of hours away.

The only time he ever acted aggressively was when a stranger approached me on the farm. It was not the first time that a stranger had arrived on the farm, but in this specific case, the dog’s hair stood on end and he was growling constantly. It turned out that the stranger was later arrested for several incidents including assault and armed robbery.

I agree with the column: Animal instinct is amazing. – Savuti, Northern Cape