Border Collie Trained to Recognize 1,022 Nouns Dies • Hacker News Board

Re: Border Collie Trained to Recognize 1,022 Nouns Dies

#101

Post by avisser » Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 2:42 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #63

mothsonasloth wrote: post #33

Had a Scottish Border Collie, was a fantastic dog. I remember the first week after I got my dog we took him near a field and the instinct immediately kicked in when he saw the sheep. Straight to the ground, eyes giving the wolf stare and ears alert. Taught my dog to count to 4 with visual cues (fingers or chews). Would love another Collie but sadly most work places in the UK aren't dog friendly.

I have both a BC and a dog friendly workplace (Google). But I wouldn't dream of bringing her to work. Workplaces are for sedate dogs that are fine with lying around and doing nothing while the owner works. Our BC spends all her waking hours looking for a job, and her wakefulness and energy is so much more intense than any other dog I've had. Makes sense for a breed that had to walk/run for effectively dozens of miles…

I have a 15yo Aussie. I think he's finally at the point where I can bring him into an office. He's mostly blind and going deaf so his eternal vigilance isn't too disruptive anymore.

Re: Border Collie Trained to Recognize 1,022 Nouns Dies

#102

Post by andyidsinga » Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 8:12 PM UTC

I have two Australian shepherds - One of them was a puppy when I read the book about Chaser. So I decide to try to sort-of reproduce some of the author's experiments with my dog - and I'll be damned if it didn't work.

I didn't go to near the extent of the training John Pilley did with Chaser, but I did do the verbal only approach and put the toys in another room - and I was able to teach him to retrieve probably 5 or 10 toys by name. I was really amazed. I didn't do nearly as much training with the second Aussie - but she picked up on the whole game even quicker than the first dog (because she had a role model?).

Another thing I learned about this game/training : it really wears the dog out. After 20 or so minutes of playing "go find the toy" they dogs lay down for a nap.

(ps. doing "nose-work" games with dogs also wears them out)

Re: Border Collie Trained to Recognize 1,022 Nouns Dies

#103

Post by sys_64738 » Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 9:02 PM UTC

duskwuff wrote: post #48

sys_64738 wrote: post #45

15 years is the upper threshold for border collies. RIP.

15 years is on the high side of average, but not an upper limit by any means. 20-year-old Border Collies aren't unheard of, and the world record is nearly 28 years.

The median is 10 to 14 years.

Re: Border Collie Trained to Recognize 1,022 Nouns Dies

#104

Post by dmix » Mon, Jul 29, 2019, 9:42 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #91

nradov wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what would happen if we selectively bred dogs for that type of intelligence rather than for appearance and temperment? What are the upper limits of canine intelligence?

We've been doing that. However, we have been selecting particularly for obedience which limited their intelligence. We don't want actually a dog that is super-intelligent but just one that is funny, protective and smart-enough.

This would be a great neuroscience hobby project. Plus you'd get "free" gov-grant paid dogs too.

Re: Border Collie Trained to Recognize 1,022 Nouns Dies

#105

Post by technothrasher » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 11:00 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #92

technothrasher wrote: post #41

"Chaser was taught to understand sentences containing a prepositional object, verb and direct object." I would have never believed this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. A friend has a golden retriever that I was playing with one day, and I asked him to get me a stick. He did, but it wasn't the stick I was thinking of, so I just off hand said, "no, not that stick, the one by the rock." and damn if that dog didn't…

Did you point with your fingers or just talked. That would be really amazing if you just talked without finger-pointing as that would require more guess-work from the dog. I don't think the dog understands exactly what you are saying but they are doing guess-work and trying to please. I had a puppy that I was trying to potty-train outside the apartment. It didn't go very well. Until one time I'm back home and I found…

Did you point with your fingers or just talked.

I didn't do anything as overt as finger pointing, but I do know from plenty of reading on animal training that they're very perceptive to non-verbal cues that you may not even be aware you are doing (ala https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans).