I see no reason to assume that dogs are any less of a learning curve than people. Each one of us humans is, after all, a unique product of our upbringing and life experiences. It would seem totally logical that dogs are also unique, each also being the result of a myriad of influences.
In the very short time that Nigel has lived with us, we are inevitably making comparisons with Ray. This is probably a very natural thing to do but, apart from satisfying a curiosity factor, it serves little purpose as the two dogs had nothing in common except having an opportunity to share our home with us.
Nigel is physically a larger dog than Ray, but an overall “lighter” body structure. We knew he weighed around 20lbs less than Ray, but only just realized how he can use his longer back legs when necessary. This evening he was sleeping on his side on our living room carpet when he decided to stretch out. Just looking at him, I guessed that from the tip of his nose to his back claws he would have measured about 5ft. Earlier I caught him standing on his back legs and looking out of our back door window. It was impressive! We also caught him reaching up to “kiss” Carol on her face. His front paws were placed on her shoulders with minimal effort. Of course we had to discourage that, but it was no less impressive and gives us some thoughts to ponder, such as “What else can he do which we should perhaps be prepared for?”
Nigel is very happy charging around the garden catching a toy and tossing it up in the air. Ray was not much of a game player, but would prefer to chill somewhere where he could supervise whatever we were doing in the garden. We have a quite busy garden but Nigel takes it all in his stride (literally). I was in awe as I witnessed him charging across our patio, and then taking a flying leap over some plants in order to land on the grass area. He had his front and back legs stretched out to maximum, and I have to guess that he cleared around 8 to 10ft of patio, plant pots and shrubbery.
Life is certainly going to get more interesting around here.