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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

#151

Post by spike021 »

pilaf wrote: post #138
cj wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Shiba has learned the days of the week. I have a family member that visits every Thursday, and he sits by the door waiting for them (only on Thursdays). And god forbid I work a weekend or do something off schedule, he gets stressed out thinking something is wrong. I often joke he would be a more normal dog if he had a lobotomy. Sometimes I wish he were a bit dumber :)

That's amazing. Have you looked up whether this ability has been observed in other dogs? Do you think your Shiba is counting the days, or maybe there is something different about Thursdays (besides your family member visiting) that's giving him a hint?

My Shiba knows his "spots" where he meets friends of his and what times we usually run into them. And when they miss those times he will lead us to their apartment because he knows which door they live behind. It's crazy.

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

#152

Post by qup »

cogman10 wrote: post #124
qup wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She sounds like my dog, who has sneezing fits a lot. The shelter said she was a shepherd/boxer mix when I adopted her, but I believe she's a mountain cur. Either way, she's wonderful, and learned every trick I taught her in the first couple of months. She still knows them all 9 years later. She's learned a lot about me without my instruction, we just fit like a glove. I don't have an exact count, but she knows at lea…

> who has sneezing fits a lot Sneezing is a way dogs say they want to play. That's adorable that she loves sneezing for you. [1] [1] https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/health-and-dog-care/health/...

That makes sense, because it is indeed when she's excited. We play a little game where I pretend I don't know what she wants, and she gets very excited when I figure out she wants to go outside, and has a few sneezes to celebrate.

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

#153

Post by VHRanger »

pilaf wrote: post #138
cj wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Shiba has learned the days of the week. I have a family member that visits every Thursday, and he sits by the door waiting for them (only on Thursdays). And god forbid I work a weekend or do something off schedule, he gets stressed out thinking something is wrong. I often joke he would be a more normal dog if he had a lobotomy. Sometimes I wish he were a bit dumber :)

That's amazing. Have you looked up whether this ability has been observed in other dogs? Do you think your Shiba is counting the days, or maybe there is something different about Thursdays (besides your family member visiting) that's giving him a hint?

It's almost certainly something he does subtly different. The timing of making breakfast is different, or he cleans up more conscienciously, etc.

Not that dogs can't figure out weekly rythms, but they're much better at spotting subtle precursor behaviors

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

#154

Post by VHRanger »

bongodongobob wrote: post #44
sophacles wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Herding is a self rewarding behavior for herding breeds.

You can train herding by simply stopping the herding when he messes up (negative punishment). As long as he does it correctly he keeps doing it (positive reinforcement).

For my border collie it's similar in agility. He doesn't care about treats and barely needs toys - doing the agility is the reward for learning it for him

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

#155

Post by whatindaheck »

11235813213455 wrote: post #67

I spend lot of time watching birds, and they are really having complex conversations, definitely more than 100 "words" too. And we can say the same about ants, (it's more chemical/touch communication). Basically all animals are smart

> Basically all animals are smart

I think it would do us all good to remind ourselves of this more. It’s not humans vs. animals. We’ve all survived billions of years of evolution / natural selection. Even in “dumb” animals there is a bar present that got them this far.

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

#156

Post by VHRanger »

bongodongobob wrote: post #29
whatsakandr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a new breed I could support. Just throw together a bunch of different breeds of smart dogs. They'll be much mror healthy than most breeds of dog.

Afaik working breeds are the smartest and are already the most genetically diverse. Not sure if correlation or causation though.

Correct - border collies are what he described.

When kennel clubs formed in the late 19th century to standardize breeds, the border collie stood apart by only testing for herding ability and not selecting on anything else. Other breeds were selected mainly for looking like what that breed looks like.

Turns out border collies are consistently classed the smartest dogs. They also have less of the typical genetic issues other breeds have

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

#157

Post by VHRanger »

whatsakandr wrote: post #7
soperj wrote: post #4

They should breed them... I'm sure we could select for language geniuses.

That's a new breed I could support. Just throw together a bunch of different breeds of smart dogs. They'll be much mror healthy than most breeds of dog.

That's basically border collies

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

#158

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#159

Post by h2odragon »

seunosewa wrote: post #81
treflop wrote: post #5

I know I've seen videos of animals where I thought "damn, this one must be above the bell curve." And you know, there are individual humans vastly smarter than us so I figure there gotta be the same in the animal kingdom too.

And you can legally breed them.

Intelligence doesn't pass reliably. You may be slightly more likely to get one smart pup in a litter from smart parents. Any given litter is likely to show the standard range of variation for the breeds.

It's my observation that lots of people have dogs who are smarter than the person appreciates. People don't listen to their dogs, they just talk at them.

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

#160

Post by q7xvh97o2pDhNrh »

cush wrote: post #104
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…

I did this with my Aussie as well. I'd hide all of her toys throughout the house then instruct her "go get your hamburger!" and in a few minutes, she'd come back with her hamburger. It was wild that she'd remember what toy she was looking for during that time. More impressive still, was she would be able to learn new toy names through inference. I'd come home with a new toy turtle, hide all her toys, say "go get your…

> More impressive still, was she would be able to learn new toy names through inference. I'd come home with a new toy turtle, hide all her toys, say "go get your Turtle!", and she'd come back with the new toy.

Is it possible that she already knew about turtles before, though?

In that case, she might just be running a rehearsed routine. You know, a shell script.

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