Smart Dog Upstages Humans

Even the best speakers at the recent American Psychological Association’s annual meeting were upstaged by a four-legged research subject. When Chaser, a 7-year-old Border collie walked into the room, people jockeyed for position so they could photograph the celebrity.

Border collies are at the top of canine intelligence charts. What sets Chaser apart is that she has learned to identify more than 1,000 objects and distinguish between nouns and verbs.

Her trainer, John Pilley, has posted videos of Chaser’s remarkable abilities on a YouTube Channel. In these clips from New Scientist, she responds to voice commands, correctly identifying both objects and actions.

Chaser’s vocabulary is the largest recorded for a canine. Over a period of three years she was taught one object at a time, with regular reviews, until she could correctly identify them. According to New Scientist, she never got less than 18 out of 20 right.

This smart dog’s accomplishments are, of course, only part of the story. They give us a glimpse into her ability to figure out what humans are trying to communicate. The other side of the equation remains a puzzle, with many pieces still missing. The more we learn about the capacities of non-humans, the more we realize how much we still do not know.

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Photo from Corrado Dearca via Flickr Creative Commons

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jessica w.

7:29AM PST on Dec 14, 2011

thanks

send a green star

pElAgUS v.

11:47PM PDT on Sep 18, 2011

Really great, does anyone knows how many languages she understands?

Janet I.

9:28PM PDT on Sep 5, 2011

Hounds are also very good at lanuage recognition, terriers not so but BCs are definitely out in front. Have used these methods for past two decades with great success [+ the odd failure].

Margaret F.

1:09PM PDT on Sep 5, 2011

Thank-you for the interesting article & video. Another reason why a dog is man's best friend.

Michael B.

3:05PM PDT on Sep 4, 2011

neat

Sheri D.

10:00AM PDT on Sep 4, 2011

What an amazing dog!

dve d.

1:20AM PDT on Sep 4, 2011

who a clever dogs. better than humans