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Dogs Have Same Understanding as Babies, Study Says
FoxNews.com ^ | 1/6/12 | FoxNews via USAtoday

Posted on 01/06/2012 1:04:54 PM PST by ColdOne

A new report in Current Biology highlights that some dogs have the skills of a 6-month-old baby, USA Today reported.

The study’s results “support the notion that dogs are sensitive to the cues of signaling humans’ communicative intent in a way that is analogous to preverbal human infants,” said Jozsef Topel, the study’s author and an associate professor in the Comparative Behavior Research Group at the Institute for Psychological Researches, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

In the study, 16 dogs watched videos of actresses turning toward a plastic pot.

During the first experiment, one actress stared directly into the dog’s eyes and said in a high-pitched voice, “Hi, dog.”

In a second experiment, the actress said, “Hi, dog,” in a low-pitched voice, but did not make direct eye contact.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
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To: lormand

I love Ruby~


41 posted on 01/06/2012 2:19:06 PM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: midnightcat

My dog knows a lot of words, too. But so does my cat. Each knows about 15.


42 posted on 01/06/2012 2:21:21 PM PST by Bigg Red (Pray for our republic.)
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To: lormand

Dogs that have smarter owners tend to learn more from their owners. Hence, my theory is a dumb dog is often a result of a dumb human. However, there are some dogs that just will not learn.


43 posted on 01/06/2012 2:21:59 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: donhunt

I don’t know what it says about me but I spend two thirds of the day trying to outsmart my beagle.

<><><<

And not succeeding, I guess. They are way more stubborn than you are. Plus they know regardless, you will feed them.

They win. Every time.


44 posted on 01/06/2012 2:22:15 PM PST by dmz
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To: Deb; All

“If the 2-yr old eats his own poop.”

Anything that eats its own poop can’t be too smart. ;-)

But, relatively speaking, my Australian Shepherds are very smart, and very much like toddlers. I could tell many stories, but I’ll limit myself to just one story now. As I was relaxing, Buddy walked up and gave me “the stare” that he wanted to go outside. I said, “Go tell Junior”. Darned if Buddy didn’t trot off to my son’s room and go “woof!” to be let out! I had never spoken that sentence before, but Buddy understood anyway. Scary smart for an animal.


45 posted on 01/06/2012 2:34:57 PM PST by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: A_perfect_lady

Yep, that is exactly the type of thing grainger does. he is clearly trying to use his moouth and tongue to make sounds other than the standard bark, and when he does it he concentrates so hard, looks me right in the eyes to the point that his eyes seem to be popping out slightly. It’s just adorable.

He also seems to understand phrases or sentences, at least much more than standard one word commands. I also have to spell the word w-a-l-k or he will go nuts until I walk him.

I tell you, I love dogs so much, I can’t imagine my life without dogs, this one as well as some other ones I’ve had the good fortune of knowing.


46 posted on 01/06/2012 2:35:03 PM PST by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: dog breath

Yeah, I don’t think they factor in individual dogs either. I’m convinced that certian breed are smarter than others, and it seems that mutts are generally very smart.

I think my next dog is going to have to have some shepard in it too.


47 posted on 01/06/2012 2:36:53 PM PST by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: chris37

The ultimate smart breed mixture would be GSD crossed with a border collie.


48 posted on 01/06/2012 2:44:50 PM PST by mamelukesabre
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To: TexasRepublic

You’re correct. Some things dogs do just can’t be explained by anything other than intelligence. Its babies who are stupid. My two mastiffs can fix my computer.


49 posted on 01/06/2012 2:55:09 PM PST by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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We have a McNabb that we found in the desert one day. Was about a year old, still had both sets of teeth in its mouth, was malnourished, had worms, and was a quite a wreck. It had spent its puppy months alone in the cold and snow of winter. She walked right into the camp, jumped in a camp chair, and just was happy to be somewhere safe and freindly. She was brought home, brought back to health. At first, she was deathly afraid of doorways, and would not go anywhere near stairs. Now she is the freindliest, most well behaved, and intelligent dog I have seen in a while. After her health came back she got as playful as a puppy, but also rules the roost and allows nobody to mess with her family or dog friends. She is a joy to take camping as she remembers full well what it is like to be alone, so she will range around, but never out of ear shot, and will return immediately if called. Her and her best buddy black lab, are also very good with running with the truck up in the mountains, where you turn them loose, while driving up in the hills....they never cross near the front of the vehicle, and will instantly respond to commands to take a different two track if they take the wrong fork. They also never get out of eyeshot. Nothing more joyous than watching dogs run for unrestrained mile after mile.

This is as opposed to my other favorite dogs...Huskies, who are also incredibly intelligent, but tend to have a mind of their own, and very selective hearing (though female huskies are infinitely more manageable than males). Take them camping, and they tend to vanish for many many hours if you take your eye off of them even for a second. Although I do miss our old male husky (who quite literally ran across the entire state of Nevada through his lifetime). That little bastard loved to run with coyotes, and harass wild horses. He once slipped away, when our attention dropped for just a second, and returned 14 hours later (and was spotted 25 miles away earlier in the day). He was notorious for slipping away the instant he saw anybody packing gear up to go home. Though one time my friend had just gotten a female rescue husky from a breeder who had obviously been abused, and never been outside. The female was high strung, and freaked out at the smallest thing, and did not like human contact much...we were driving from phoenix to reno, and stopped to camp near Rachel (area 51), packing up the next morning, the male did his MO (we forgot to chain him to the bumper first), and the female followed him. We were unable to locate them, but eventually they returned a few hours later(having made us lose a whole day)...annoying at the time, I will say one thing unequivocably, the female who left was not the same dog that returned. It was the first day of her life, probably the best day of her life, and her personality was 100% changed, and she became a sweet, confident dog. She was a joy to take camping, as being a female, did not have the wanderlust that males seem to have, you still had to keep an eye on her, of course, but she wasn’t just going to vanish the second your eyes were averted, then pretend not to hear you if she crossed some magic 50 yard distance away. I do miss the male though, though a pain in the ass at times, that dog had the best life a dog could have without living on a ranch.


50 posted on 01/06/2012 2:57:18 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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To: Deb

My dogs just told me someone drove in our drive way. they even told me who it was. :D


51 posted on 01/06/2012 3:02:33 PM PST by Ditter
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To: dsrtsage

Did you eat in the Little Alien Inn?


52 posted on 01/06/2012 3:05:07 PM PST by Seeking the truth
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Old photo of the little bastard
53 posted on 01/06/2012 3:08:29 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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To: Seeking the truth

“Did you eat in the Little Alien Inn?”

But of course, as well as copious quantities of
barley, malt, yeast, hops, and sour mash


54 posted on 01/06/2012 3:10:32 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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To: Seeking the truth

Incidentally, the Lil’ Ale’Inn is one of my favorite bars in the state, as well as the Midas bar, the Manhattan bar, the bar at Taylor Canyon, and finally the Jarbidge Bar...though my favorite all time bar in the country is the Middlegate bar, when we can get a large crowd together to go out there.


55 posted on 01/06/2012 3:18:51 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ...In the US the number is 54%)
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To: cripplecreek

No doubt he is also more DECISIVE!!!


56 posted on 01/06/2012 3:22:48 PM PST by Recovering Ex-hippie (Rick Perry 2012)
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To: ColdOne

My dog has gone deaf (can you say ‘deaf’ anymore, or is it auditorially challenged?) but has learned to understand sign language.


57 posted on 01/06/2012 3:26:00 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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FREEDOM

It's Not Just A Buzzword


Click The Pic

Support Activist Free Republic

58 posted on 01/06/2012 3:42:01 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: KalaSamy
I’d be willing to say my dogs have more intelligence than my Congresswomen and Senators!

Shame! Shame on you for comparing dogs to Congresscritters and Senators!

Now if you had compared the Congresscritters to what the dogs leave behind on the lawn...

59 posted on 01/06/2012 4:06:48 PM PST by rmh47 (Go Kats! - Got Seven? [NRA Life Member])
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To: lonestar

LOL!


60 posted on 01/06/2012 4:09:19 PM PST by floralamiss ("The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage." Thucydides)
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