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Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#41

Post by sophacles »

bongodongobob wrote: post #24

I adopted an Australian Shepherd from a friend a year ago and I'm absolutely blown away by how smart he is. He even knows the neighbor dogs' names. I can say "go get spot!" and he'll run after the right dog. He knows all my family members names. He knows that "you've arrived" on Google maps means we are there. He knows that "power on" coming from my Bluetooth headphones means we are going for a walk. He gets the conc…

A good friend of mine had an Aussie who was really smart. My friend was a dog trainer, and she once told me "the secret is Grace (the dog) does most of it - the puppies learn better by watching her demonstrate, and she keeps them in line".

One day a mutual friend of ours died in a car wreck. I went to see my friend and we were sitting there telling stories and grieving... Grace read the room and brought my friend her favorite movie on dvd - something she watched when she was feeling blue. Grace wasn't quite sure what to do for me, but she brought me the cup I usually drank from when I was visiting.

I don't know how much of that to attribute to smarts, training, and/or natural empathy, but that was an impressive dog, and its an impressive breed for sure!

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#42

Post by _whiteCaps_ »

at_a_remove wrote: post #14

I've seen a few videos on YouTube of cats trained on these push-down language buttons, mounted in a hexagonal pattern, on a mat laying on the floor. The cats press a button and the button plays back a word which the owner has recorded. I'd like to see more testing out of it but the cats seem to be rather expressive. They pick the same button, so at least they are consistent in their wants. They have a few verbs in th…

You should check out Bunny the dog on Youtube / Tiktok.

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#43

Post by ghshephard »

sandworm101 wrote: post #13

Memorizing 100 names for things might seem like a big deal, but I guarantee that all dogs have memory for 100+ smells associated with things. They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. My point: don't judge intelligence based on how well an animal can replicate human behavior. Each of them can do things that make us look like the idiots.

This was an interesting article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/you-actually-s...

"According to McGann, our olfactory inferiority is nothing but a 150-year-old myth born of erroneous assumptions and faulty science."

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#44

Post by bongodongobob »

sophacles wrote: post #41
bongodongobob wrote: post #24

I adopted an Australian Shepherd from a friend a year ago and I'm absolutely blown away by how smart he is. He even knows the neighbor dogs' names. I can say "go get spot!" and he'll run after the right dog. He knows all my family members names. He knows that "you've arrived" on Google maps means we are there. He knows that "power on" coming from my Bluetooth headphones means we are going for a walk. He gets the conc…

A good friend of mine had an Aussie who was really smart. My friend was a dog trainer, and she once told me "the secret is Grace (the dog) does most of it - the puppies learn better by watching her demonstrate, and she keeps them in line". One day a mutual friend of ours died in a car wreck. I went to see my friend and we were sitting there telling stories and grieving... Grace read the room and brought my friend her…

I believe it. Apparently that's how herding dogs train on farms. You just buy a puppy and it literally shadows the adult. They train themselves.

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#45

Post by tlavoie »

_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #20

I surprised that poodles were called out as a less obvious smart dog. My dog learned on her own that me holding keys + wearing glasses = car ride, while keys + no glasses = walk. It took me a while to learn how she knew what we were going to do.

Our dogs are also also very good at picking up other cues. Not only can we not say "walk," but the "well..." as in, "well, time to take the dogs" gets the same reaction now.

Our SPCA-special (shepherd / husky / other?) learned after _one_ event that the tub running with the bathroom door open means that it's bath-time, and time to head out through the pet flap to the safety of the outdoors.

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#46

Post by detourdog »

swatcoder wrote: post #16
leot wrote: post #11

It's unclear why the researchers believe that when a dog doesn't learn the names of a bunch of toys it means that they can't. There are lots of things people are able to learn today that they "couldn't" a few years ago (programming, math, reading). How are the researchers able to tell that the limitation lies with the dog and not with the trainer/household?

Indeed! The article talks about some kind of rare "genius" trait, but the findings just seem to demonstrate that there exists some dogs that were able to demonstrate a big vocabulary in their tests. Many people with dogs already knew that, but it's a sound finding to have citable anyway (especially since some people still hold weirdly dismissive beliefs about everyday animal intelligence). But it doesn't say anything…

I agree just like any learning it involves engagement of some type>

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#47

Post by dj_mc_merlin »

airbreather wrote: post #3

I have owned six dogs in my life, most recently getting a 7 week old pup staffy x ridgeback, now 16 weeks old. He goes with our 9 year old girl staffy, who can follow conversations, eg planning to go to the park or beach without directly mentioning it in any way. All my dogs have understood a lot of words, some more than others, but all way more than 20. The aspects that promote this, I believe, are this: 1. They are…

Wow, amazing rundown. I have a friend who is a dog trainer and she's explained a lot of these things to me before but you've made them click.

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#48

Post by cal85 »

whatsakandr wrote: post #9

If you haven't seen "What About Bunny" on YouTube, I highly recommend it. The dog has learned to use buttons to communicate her thoughts quite effectively. My favorite is "Why bunny dog?"

I just watched a few videos and it’s seems obvious it’s all down to cherry picking and confirmation bias on the part of the owner. I’ve no doubt the owner believes the dog is deliberately constructing sentences, but that isn’t what’s happening.

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#49

Post by LandR »

knodi123 wrote: post #25
_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #20

I surprised that poodles were called out as a less obvious smart dog. My dog learned on her own that me holding keys + wearing glasses = car ride, while keys + no glasses = walk. It took me a while to learn how she knew what we were going to do.

My dog recognizes different cars by their noise profile. So he'll wake up from a nap and get excited whenever my wife pulls onto our street, but stay down for any other car. It probably helps that we're the only prius on the block, but still impressive!

My parents dog knows where she is going in the car. On the way to the beach where she goes for her runs there are 3 rumble strips on the road, she always starts getting excited as soon as the car goes over them. Even though she's probably still 6-8 miles from beach!

They also take her to a local pub that is dog friendly and she has friends there. She knows when she is going there as she starts getting excited when the car turns right at a certain roundabout. Go left or straight on, nothing, but turn right and she's right up all excited!

Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys

#50

Post by gs17 »

at_a_remove wrote: post #14

I've seen a few videos on YouTube of cats trained on these push-down language buttons, mounted in a hexagonal pattern, on a mat laying on the floor. The cats press a button and the button plays back a word which the owner has recorded. I'd like to see more testing out of it but the cats seem to be rather expressive. They pick the same button, so at least they are consistent in their wants. They have a few verbs in th…

I've watched a few in the past and I'm not convinced the more complex interactions are "real" language use instead of operant conditioning combined with confirmation bias. Too many of the videos will have button sequences that seem random get assigned a meaning, and even non-request button presses will get attention.

Buttons for "food", "water", "pet me", "play with me", "outside" almost definitely work. Before I lived with a cat again, I was skeptical of those as "well, duh, any of those buttons get a reward, they don't care what it is", but our cats ask for those specific things without buttons.

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