My Border Collie is smarter than your 3 year old!

[Analog]

IN THE age-old war between cats and dogs, canines might just have struck the killer blow. A border collie called Chaser has been taught the names of 1022 items - more than any other animal. She can also categorise them according to function and shape, something children learn to do around the age of 3.


Chaser follows in the footsteps of Rico, who trained at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Rico had a "vocabulary" of 200 words and could identify new objects in a group of familiar objects by a process of elimination, according to a study published in 2004.


To find out whether there was a limit to the number of words a border collie could learn, psychologists Alliston Reid and John Pilley of Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, started an intensive training programme with Chaser.


Over three years, they taught the collie the names of 1022 toys by introducing them to her one by one, getting her to fetch the toy and then repeating the name to reinforce the association.


The team regularly tested Chaser on her entire vocabulary. Groups of 20 toys were chosen at random and put in a separate room from where Chaser had to retrieve them by name. The toys were in another room so the trainer would not unintentionally give Chaser cues about which toy to choose. According to Reid, the dog completed 838 of these tests over 3 years and never got less than 18 out of 20 right (Behavioural Processes, DOI:

http://www.newscientist.com/article...llie-takes-record-for-biggest-vocabulary.html

 

[mvbighead]

That's some crazy shit right there.

 

[Wyndru]

Do they still lick their own balls on a regular basis?

 

[slsmnaz]

I hope the dog can do that since in dog years he's probably in his 30's

 

[KDOG]

Why am I not surprised! I have a 2yr old pure bred border collie and I swear when I look into those eyes I see more in there than I do some people. She has 2 frisbee's that we play with a red stiff one and a green floppy one. Sometimes she will bring me the red one (which I don't like) and I'll say "No the other one" and she'll drop it and bring the green one. I can't get my stepson to do what I ask like that....

 

[ivan2]

Do they still lick their own balls on a regular basis?

if it is possible, u would lick your own balls too.

 

[TechBoyJK]

I had a border collie when I was a kid. She was sweet and very smart. She wasn't trained like this dog, but just in being a normal house pet she was pretty amazing. =(

i'm going to go cry now.

 

[Rhoxed]

Watch Science of Dogs by National Geographic
also Dogs Decoded: Nova

Dogs Decoded is where I saw a similar test as this collie that knew over 200 words, could fetch a toy by looking at a miniature model of it, by the name, or by looking at a picture.

 

[zinfamous]

if it is possible, u would lick your own balls too.

damn skippy.