My buddy swears his one year old kitten understands how to turn on the A/C, but lacks the opposable thumbs to do it effectively.
Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
51–60 of 218 posts
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#52is it actual learning or a Clever Hans effect or other operant conditioning.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#53I 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…
While I fully agree with you that crating is to be avoided and I'd never do it - I can see some evolutionary parallel. My husky loves to settle in corners/L-shapes, and a crate is not so different than a small cave/den which offers certainty that no predator can sneak up behind you.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#54Memorizing 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."
Why do we have K9 search and rescue dogs and drug sniffers instead of just having police officers sniffing everyone’s luggage?
The answer from the article is, essentially, because dogs are much better at odor detection than us. It weirdly seems to say because we have the ability to sense odors we are better than we think we are, which implies we think we can’t smell at all or something. But dogs are much much better than us.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#55Memorizing 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.
> They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. Dogs obviously have incredibly more advanced olfactory systems but I feel like you're downplaying humans here. I'm pretty sure there's hundreds of very specific smells I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells and there's a…
Just yesterday i experienced the smell that was just like the apples from a tree in our yard 25 years ago. There are easily many hundreds of unique smells we can identify.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#56Memorizing 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.
While it is of course true that humans can smell less acutely than dogs, I'm fairly confident that the number of odors I can remember is somewhere in the low thousands.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#57I'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 liv…
I've been on the lookout for that, but I was struck by some particular "conversations" that involved re-direction. "Sorry" "How about something else" "Mommy - Sick" and so on. There was some back and forth there that I could not quite discount.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#58My greyhound/pit mix knows my names of many of her toys. She also has a range of expressions she uses to disagree with me or tell me I'm wrong.
Her favorite toy is this kevlar llama unicorn that my mother has resewn for her twice. If I tell her to bring me her lobster (also kevlar) sometimes she'll shake her head, bow, and then stare intently at me. She understands the prompt for, "What is it?" and will lead me to the thing she wants or fetch it. On multiple occasions she's brought me her llama instead. I thought this was a fluke for a while but if I argue with her enough she'll go get her lobster. She has a really big toy bin and she plays with a lot of toys, so selecting these two by name has always been curious.
She also has toys for different purposes. The remnants of a Lamb Chop long lost are her snuggle toy, she doesn't play tug of war with it anymore. If you try to she'll display the same expression for dissatisfaction.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#59Memorizing 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.
> They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. Dogs obviously have incredibly more advanced olfactory systems but I feel like you're downplaying humans here. I'm pretty sure there's hundreds of very specific smells I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells and there's a…
The ability to remember specific sensory impressions just is not the same thing as sensory acuity. People can remember a bunch of things, but our noses aren't nearly as sensitive as dogs'.
Re: Certain dogs are capable of learning the names for more than 100 different toys
#60I 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…
I've always tied "orders" to a specific gesture, performed simultaneously, and I use a specific intonation, a "command voice." It comes from a different place in the chest, is lower, and is easier to precisely reproduce than my usual wittering on.