Bonnie - a dog you can count on

Hazel Hill knew her pet was clever, but even she never expected her to be up to counting.

Bonnie, the seven-year-old Dalmatian, first showed her amazing talent for numbers as she begged for titbits.

As a joke, Mrs Hill began asking Bonnie to add two and two, but she was dumbfounded when her pet replied by barking four times.

Intrigued, Mrs Hill began asking more and more complex additions for Bonnie who happily obliged. She received a treat after every correct answer.

Now Bonnie can knock the spots off her competition by barking the answers to multiplication and division questions.

Mrs Hill, 56, from Page Bank, near Brancepeth, County Durham, lives with her husband, Frank, 48, and daughter, 14-year-old Simone.

The family also has eight daschunds and a horse, but none have shown the mathematical skill of Bonnie.

Mrs Hill said: "We started off with just simple things like two plus two and we couldn't believe it when she barked four times.

"We started doing variations of it, like three plus two, and one plus two, but she got them right every time.

"We were over the moon. We couldn't believe it. We always knew she was intelligent but we never dreamed she would be able to count.

"We tried to get her to answer without giving her treats at the end, but she just wouldn't have it - she was too greedy.

"So we made the questions even harder and started to use bigger numbers, but she still managed to get the answers right.

"The first time we asked her a multiplication question we kept it simple, but we thought she would just add the numbers up, but it seems like she really understood me and she gave the right answer.

"After that we just couldn't stop her, she really loves to count and she can do almost anything you put in front of her.

"She gets the correct answer nearly every time and it's only when she's very tired that she makes the occasional mistake."

Friends of the Hill family are amazed by Bonnie's talents and the black and white pooch's fan base is still growing.