“Using touch-screen computers with dogs opens up a whole world of possibilities on how to test the cognitive abilities of dogs.”....after about an hour of surfing however, the dogs eventually got bored, when link after link, advertising ‘sexy bitches’, all turned out to be merely pictures of humans.
I think that there are probably quite a few animals that are more intelligent than they are normally given credit for. Geez, even the squirrels in the back yard, know enough to come to the porch and scratch at the door so that my wife will go out and feed them nuts, seeds and corn. The cat even figured out how to open a closed door by fiddling with the latch until it opened. Most dogs are loyal and will display independent thinking if they or someone they care for is in perceived danger.
A recent study of bird songs indicated that the average bird can identify a threat such as a cat or dog and will even describe the threat in detail to other birds in the vicinity by describing the color, size and species of the threat, differentiating between two or more similar animals that are the threat. And all done with song.
Some groups of hominids score around 80 collectively or less on occasion in standardized IQ tests
some dogs can’t be far behind....if they could only speak English..lol
Very cool pack!
What kind of a name is Bertl???
Who the heck would name a dog BERTL???
What is that? Russian for mertle?
My dog watches TV when there is a dog on. Even when the dog is not making a sound so long as it catches his attention.
Do the dogs watch American IDLE?
Well, that explains Pelosi, Boxer and Hillary.
Dogs are great. We love them so much. Next April 30 will be our 30th Wedding Anniversary and to date we’ve had the pleasure of 30 dogs in our lives. Sometimes as many as six at once. The dogs were always either runaways we couldn’t find their homes, or abandoned. Currently we have two LabIdiots and an AkitaShepard.
We are down to sixteen cats here at the Rockin’ QS Ranch as well with several visitors from nearby ranches occasionally blessing us with their presence. Yes all are spayed or neutered including the visitors.
Intersting, although I don’t quite know exactly how this was conducted.
I still don’t see how anyone can actually claim that dogs can’t “think” - nor, for that matter, many other animal types. It’s pretty clear to me they do have certain levels of cognitive abilities.
Even Max von Stephanitz recognized this back in the ‘20s with his German Shepherds. And he in many ways was an unsentimental old-fashioned pragmatist.
My best story of true intelligence (not just getting used to a “routine”) was of my old Shepherd Shana (yes, I LOVE that dog and worship her! LOL).
She outwitted Border Collies in their very own home which she hardly knew at the time.
As a teenager we’d still periodically visit up at my uncle/aunt’s farm about 200 mi away. I’d had Shana maybe a year or 2 (and that age). My aunt had several Border Collies (yes, she’s a fancier) of working lines, including those she bred herself (the original 1 was born just ONE DAY after my Shana).
Her house floorplan was such that you could go all the way around the house in a nice rectangle pattern, 1 room to the next without oddball paths. 1 of the contiguous rooms still had the old farmhouse door on it that could close off the room. The door had panes like an outer door so was perfectly see-through. Bear in mind these Border Collies LIVED in this house for a year or more, whereas we only visited a few times and my German Shepherd was only allowed a limited time each time to visit (chaos with multi-dogs, you know).
My cousins and I were tossing toys from the kitchen through that doorway into the living room for each dog, 1 at a time generally (we didn’t want them getting in fights and let them all have turns), for them to retrieve and bring back. They all did this reliably.
Then my cousin decided to “tease” them and shut the door on them when they’d come back. We’d do the same thing otherwise. So each of his BCs would run off to find the toy and then come back to closed door. Each of them sat dejected, looking through, sitting down, dropping the toy.
Shana’s turn had her confront the closed door, stop a second, then she turned tail and ran through the rest of the house to get back to us in the kitchen! Guess she already knew there was another way!
I love dogs. They are veery special animals.
Anyone who’s lived with a Malamute knows they observe, decide, act...and enjoy the humor in the chaos they’ve just caused.
This doesn’t surprise me.
What loves a human more than his beloved dog? God gave them intelligence for a reason.
God bless my wonderful pets. You’re the best pals I could ever have.
Our monster Maltese (14 pounds) recognizes dogs and other critters on TV and then tries to jump through the screen. Every time my Mom (84) see this, she reminds us that some Boston Terrier won 100K on America’s Funniest Videos for the same dumb trick.