I've gone from the smartest dog I've ever met to one who in retrospect, I should've named Bubba. You could speak to my Cane Corso conversationally and he would get what you meant. He could differentiate between about 20 different toy names. At the dog park you could tell him to go find any one of his dozen or so regular buddies, and he would pick them out of a crowd. "Go find Honey" meant he'd pick her out of the group and play with her specifically. He also knew the names of my friends who visited regularly. Sit, stay, down, off, get him, hurry (pee), deuce (number 2), let go, take it (threw a game of tug o war into high gear.) If you made a pinching motion he would do a whisper bark, if you used your whole hand like you would to make a sock puppet talk, that would be the bark that set people running for the hills.
My Stafford on the other hand, is the sweetest most upbeat dog I've ever met; but he's, uh, special. He knows Sit and Down (plus my hand motions for each) Off, Let Go, Hurry, and Deuce. Cookie and peanut butter are no brainers for him; but he struggles with the names of just two of his toys. I have to say it has been frustrating going from a phenom to a "well at least he doesn't drool".
