People have bred dogs for all kinds of attributes. Why not breed dogs for language skill?
Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
191–200 of 218 posts
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#192I 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…
I trained a cat to ignore all my commands.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#193I 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…
Sheepdogs are insanely bright. I have a border collie and she learns names by observation and deduction. My partner asked her where I was and she came running to me, despite never having put effort into teaching her my name. A couple of months later, a friend was at my door. I asked her “where’s Lucas?” to which she responded by looking at me and my partner before running to him.
This behaviour has been observed, where a collie identified a new toy name by reasoning it was the only “new” thing so must be the thing being asked for!
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#194Anyone with a working breed dog - especially a herding dog like a border collie, kelpie, etc - will not be surprised. They can be scary smart.
I've seen my wife teach our kelpie a new "trick" in just a minute or two. A few repetitions to attach a command to the action, and done. We can't even keep track of it all, but the dog will remember, even months later.
N.B. Please realize that these dogs are not just pets. They need a job, or to be kept busy. Otherwise, they will invent a job, like dismantling your house.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#195We have poodles, always have, they know amazing things, words, behaviors, when somethings "up", how to manipulate us. Love reading everyone else's anecdotes.
have two standards. both smart but in a different ways. one totally understands your intentions. the other one is "street smart" and tries to manipulate us
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#196I 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.
Yeah, that’s not that impressive.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I can tell my dog to get your “new toy” and she’ll come back with the new toy. She’s a terrier and chihuahua mix. Before her, I hadn’t ever really considered that dogs are so capable. She’s learned words and phrases that are relevant to her consistently. If I’m on a walk with her and want to bribe her to go home I’ll say “Turkey?” and she’ll start pulling on her leash. The funny part is she normally gets a treat after taking a dump, but if I say “turkey” she will drop her treat and wait for me to give her Turkey. If I say “chicken” she will wait, with an unholy focus, until I give her chicken. She makes me keep my promise and knows what it is.
Her being small has sort of caused me to be more nurturing and closer than I had been with dogs growing up. As a result, I think it’s enabled her to express herself because I’m able to perceive it. It's a positive feedback loop. It’s also led me to believe there’s a lot of division between “us” (humans) and other animals is only because we can’t directly talk to them or lack the patience. We’ve tried to make our existence special, and we just aren’t (even if the amalgamation of our traits makes us unique).
That’s not to say she’s gonna be doing calculus (1) or philosophizing with me, but she’s much more capable than I had ever assumed the other “animals” are. And it’s made me acutely aware that we get what we give when it comes to our understanding of other species (or our lack thereof).
1) she’s able to “count” to three (or understand quantities at some level), and while, it is unlikely to impress a mathematician unless they have a love of dogs dogs. It certainly impresses me.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I trained a cat to ignore all my commands.
Including the one instructing the cat to ignore all of your commands? :) sounds paradoxical, but I guess if anyone a cat will be able to pull it off.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
There are some where I think you’re right, and some where there is pretty clearly some genuine communication going on. You might want to watch a few more.
Dogs and humans can clearly communicate. They recognise words and signal things they want all the time. And I don’t doubt the dog is pressing the buttons to interact with the owner. That is all pretty ordinary dog stuff, just with unusual equipment that makes it seem more exciting. But the dog is not forming sentences by pressing buttons in an intentional sequence. That would be awesome, but there is no evidence of that happening.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#200Just adopted a very sweet Irish Wolfhound mix. She's as dumb as bricks or just has no desire to impress us with any display of intelligence. I would be floored if she was able to produce any toy on command let alone a specific one, lol.
Yes! After scrolling past everyone else who explains how smart their dog is it's great to find someone who has the same kind of dog as we do. Finnish lapphund here.
And yea, I agree that it's hard to know if the dog is just dumb, or independent and lacking any ambition to please us by learning "silly" games.
One thing one trainer I listened to said was that some dogs are actually more like cats.
That stuck with me, and I have kind of accepted that she will probably never be the kind of dog that follows my hints and commands blindly. The important thing is after all that she doesn't have any "dangerous" traits like aggression or being over protective.