#7 The last paragraph in the article you refer to is completely asinine and certainly does NOT address the dog that goes to the back door at 10 p.m. and barks to be let out! That is most certainly an intentional message from dog to human, and if it's a "learned cue" then it's the same kind of learned cue that your kid knows when asking "Can I have a drink?" Suggesting that there's no intelligence behind it is just foolish...
I happen to have a dog that performs this behavior, but not just at a fixed time. Whenever she needs to hit the restroom in the backyard she walks to the back door and issues a single 'woof', then waits for somebody to come let her out. If nobody shows up within a minute or two she woofs again.
I think the lady who wrote the article must not know too many actual real-life dogs. Or maybe only the dumb ones!
I happen to have a dog that performs this behavior, but not just at a fixed time. Whenever she needs to hit the restroom in the backyard she walks to the back door and issues a single 'woof', then waits for somebody to come let her out. If nobody shows up within a minute or two she woofs again.
I think the lady who wrote the article must not know too many actual real-life dogs. Or maybe only the dumb ones!