Enlightened Dog

It was occasionally asked of a young Buddhist initiate to contemplate the answer to the question "Does a dog have Buddha sense?"  The student will then proceed to meditate on the question in order to completely and cohesively get a grasp of essence and ramification of the question in order to find an answer.  The answer is, in English, "Duh."  All things that live have an elemental Buddha sense, or connection to the order of things. This question is a Koan, or a device that stimulates a process whose workings are by far more valuable than the outcome of those workings.  The initiate was never really supposed to have 'found the 'answer' but instead 'discovered the process of finding answers'... but I have always wondered, if the dog has Buddha sense, then doesn't it follow the dog can gain enlightenment as well.  What would such a dog be like, would one even be able to tell the difference between a dog caught in samsara and one who has let go of the bindings?  It is this sort of thinking that makes masters of zen want to slap me.