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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

#211

Post by AeroNotix »

djtango wrote: post #139
AeroNotix wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need to read up more on this because in my extremely small sample size this kind of dual naming understanding came in really early with my daughter. I feel like it's a linguistic subtlety that us adults are struggling with conveying the exact concept.

My niece and nephew are being raised semi bilingually and they were happy to accept things could have multiple names before age 2 IIRC. The youngest only just turned 2.5 and can happily flick between Chinese and English (though has a bias towards English because that's what she hears more by a big margin) Will be interesting how my future kids will be as they will be pretty much exactly 50:50.

My daughter is bilingual too. I wonder if that has something to do with it.

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

#212

Post by Systemling0815 »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #160
cush wrote: post #104

Earlier 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.

[dead]

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

#213

Post by ksenzee »

cal85 wrote: post #199
ksenzee wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Sentences, in a grammatical sense? No. Intentionally using buttons as signifiers of a specific thing? I think pretty clearly yes. I don’t believe “why Bunny dog” is a deep philosophical question, or necessarily a question at all. It might just be “these are interesting buttons I am pushing for fun.” But “belly ouch” is pretty convincing communication, using words.

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

#214

Post by appplication »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #197
q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 afte…

> 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).

This is truth. My dog isn’t going to do calculus, but - really - what does doing calculus get you in the end. We’re born, we live, we , we get old if we’re lucky, and we die. We are no different than animals in this regard. I would go so far to say that dogs have evolved to mirror almost many of the best traits of humans while leaving the worst.

I used to think it was crazy people would talk to their pets. But then I realize most of my human conversations drop off the memory map after a week or two anyways. And my dog is a better listener than most of my coworkers.

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

#215

Post by greenie_beans »

deathanatos wrote: post #118
gs17 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 liv…

I know a dog that, if you've not paid attention to her water bowl and it's empty, and she wants water, will simply paw the rim of the bowl to cause it to overturn, which makes a loud clatter on the hard floor. Once she then has your attention, she'll give you a look, as if it say "water, let's go." I dare say she trained us — after all, we didn't teach her to do that. And sure, it's simple … but she's still purposefu…

our dog does that too, among other specifically unique ways to communicate things

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

#216

Post by w0de0 »

soperj wrote: post #205
GeoAtreides wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hm, is it ethical to breed for sapience? It's interesting how literally building a new sapient being (i.e. AGI) _might_ be widely accepted and uncontroversial, yet the idea of selectively breeding dogs until they reach sapience feels wrong and yucky

Why?

Because suffering is a facet, perhaps even the salient quality, of sapience. Awareness of one’s ephemeral existence, awareness of absurdity, particularly that of pain’s pointless pangs, are attendant to any sufficient self-awareness. Ignorance is bliss, and who are we to deprive another class of being of its succor?

That said I doubt we’ll be able to breed canine buddhists for at least another millennium. We may (probably) leave aside such qualms until then.

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

#217

Post by w0de0 »

hannasm wrote: post #174

Humanity has a choice about whether to help these intelligent animals reproduce more than the dumb ones. We've already taken over a great deal of the free will of every animal on the planet but especially domesticated animals. Developing the genetics of additional intelligent beings on this planet is entirely within our capability if we want to invest lives. The advent of dogs from wolves in, iirc, about 50 years is…

Is free will something asapient animals ever possessed?

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

#218

Post by pvaldes »

msrenee wrote: post #203
raffraffraff wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had greyhounds and lurchers, and every one of them does it. It's not a full sneeze, I call it a "snit" because that's what it sounds like. They're large dogs, so when they're being playful, jumping around and play fighting, we sometimes tell them "no!" is they're about to knock something over. This always gets us a "snit". The yawn thing that someone else mentioned is also common. If they are displeased with y…

I've only ever seen dogs yawn on purpose as submissive/appeasing behavior. Kind of a nervous "I'm not trying to cause trouble." I'll get it from dogs if I've asked them to do too many behaviors in a row and they think it's because they haven't given me the correct one. Kind of an apology that they don't know what I want. I see it occasionally between dogs when one is being stiff/dominant and the other yawns to kind o…

Dogs facing a strange human can react in the same way to humans deliberately yawning.
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