THE PLAN

When my daughter moved to California she stayed with us for a week until she could get into her new place. She brought her small "mop" dog, named Sandy. with her who found Buster fascinating. I casually watched Buster and Sandy interact from the kitchen table.

One morning my daughter and I sat at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee. I saw Buster's cage door was open and Buster stood at the bottom of the cage in the open doorway eating. A newspaper collected the food he dropped. Sandy ran over and gobbled up the dropped food. Then she went under the kitchen table and stared at Buster hoping he'd drop more food.

Well, Buster didn't like being stared at and soon he started rocking back and forth and whirling around nervously. I watched Buster, after pausing for a moment, he went over to his food dish, grabbed some food in his beak, ran over to the opening and dropped the food on the newspaper.

Sandy immediately ran over and bent her head down to grab the food. Instantly, Buster reached down and pulled a wad of fur off the top of Sandy's head! Sandy let out with a big yelp and that was the last time she tried to eat food off Buster's newspaper...and...she stopped staring at Buster!

Buster, only three years old at the time, determined what the problem was, who caused it, figured out what else dog's did, planned out how to get the dog to come to him and then what the punishment would be. He carried out his plan perfectly solving his problem!

Determining and executing a plan shows the African Grays' incredible intelligence. Their owners must be on their toes because their African Gray has all the time in the world to out-think them! We have had many a battle of wits with Buster. Usually he wins or gets bored with the whole thing. When we do win, we celebrate!