What's He Thinkin' Bout?

When I was checking the oil in my car, I looked to the back yard and saw Rowdy sitting by the fence and watching me with his ears perked up.  That got me wondering what he was thinking about.  Was he waiting for me to come back to him, to give him attention?  Was he thinking that he hoped I would take him with me for a ride to wherever I was going?  Did he wonder or even comprehend what I was doing, or that I would be leaving him there for the balance of the day?  Was there even a thought process going on in his mind and was he just waiting for something to happen so he could react.

I do believe that there is some sort of thought process going on, although somewhat primitive.  He can't be running on instinct alone.  He does what pleases him and gets really excited at anything that is really pleasing, like getting a treat, or seeing his buddy Wrigley when he hasn't seen him in a couple of weeks.  He pushes limits, but minds when he is pushed back to his place.  He gets scared when a thunderstorm passes thru the area and wants to cuddle up to me for protection.  And, he would also have to have a thought process to have the dreams like he does, when his legs twitch and he lets out a muffled bark in his sleep.  With such limited activity in his life, he had to be dreaming about chasing a squirrel, cat or another dog in the neighborhood.  That is a thought process of an activity that he was involved in. 

I don't buy into the theory of people elevating the intelligence of a dog close to theirs.  I more believe that those people have their own intelligence lowered to a dogs level.  They could also be blinded by the love for their pet, just to give them the benefit of the doubt.  I do however believe that certain breeds dogs are more intelligent than others.  Certain dogs are easier to train and their intelligence level could be based on how much they can learn.  Their willingness to learn for receiving attention also plays a part.  Dogs that are attention needy, will tend to be more destructive if they don't receive the attention and I believe that they can be the more smarter dogs and will be able to learn more.  I have also read somewhere that a dogs human vocabulary is around 200 words and that is about the limit of what they can comprehend.

Most of this is based on my observations of dogs over the years.  I don't necessarily count Rowdy as high on the intelligence list, but what he lacks there, he more than makes up for being a very sweet dog and a great companion.  So I say again, what was he thinking, when he was watching me?