Shadow: the smartest dog in history

My brother and I were hauling plywood up to our attic to lay a floor for a second story bedroom. We installed a window at the bottom of the attic stairs that looked out over the deck. We took out the window so we could pass sheets of plywood straight through the window and into the stairway.

My brother's dog, Shadow, followed us up and down the stairs every time we hauled up a sheet of plywood. Now, Shadow is a very athletic dog: able to leap over 4-foot chain link fences without touching the fence, able to climb out of 8-foot chain link dog kennels, able to get over 5-foot picket fences. She is also incredibly nimble. She has incredible agility and sense of footing. She rarely ever misses a step, even at high speeds.

So, it was no surprise to me that as she followed us up and down the stairs she would jump through the window as we went out to the deck, and jump in the window as we came in.

Here's where it gets crazy. The first couple of times she went down the stairs, she followed at my brother's footsteps going down the steep attic stairs. Then she would stop and wait for my brother to step through the window. Then she would hop out the window after him. After 3 or 4 times doing this, I noticed she stopped at the top of the stairs. When my brother was about 3/4 of the way down the stairs, she bounded down the stairs after him. By the time she reached the window my brother was already outside and she was able to leap through the window without breaking stride.

She figured out that if she waited at the top of the stairs, she could trot down the stairs faster and leap out the window without stopping and without losing any momentum; thusly, she was able to minimize the total effort exerted.

This dog is freaking amazing.