Dogs May Be More Intelligent Than People May Think

Yahoo! ^ | Wed Jul 31

[Michael2001]

LONDON (Reuters) - Dogs are probably much cleverer than most people think, according to a new study.

Scientists are convinced that dogs can count and researchers at the University of California Davis say they try to convey different messages through the pitch and pace of their barks.

"Animal behaviorists used to think their bark was simply a way of getting attention. Now a new study suggests that individual dogs have specific barks with a range of meanings," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

Dogs usually use high-pitched single barks when they are separated from their owners and a lower, harsher superbark when strangers approach or the doorbell rings, according to Sophia Yin, an animal behaviorist at the university.

Playful woofs are high-pitched and unevenly spaced.

Dogs also know when they are being short-changed on treats because they have a basic mathematical ability which enables them to tell when one pile of objects is bigger than another.

"But to count, an animal has to recognize that each object in a set corresponds to a single number and that the last number in a sequence represents the total number of objects," New Scientist added.

Robert Young of Brazil's Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, tested the theory on 11 mongrels using dog treats.

The canines were shown treats and then a screen was lowered and the goodies were left as they were or some were added or taken away.

If a treat was added or taken away the dogs looked at the treats much longer than they did when the goodies were not disturbed, presumably because they had done their sums and the numbers did not meet their expectations.

"Dogs are descended from wolves, which not only have a large neocortex -- the brain's center of reasoning -- but live in large social groups," the magazine said.

Young believes the mathematical ability could have been used to work out how many allies and enemies they had in a pack.

[Michael2001]

No news to me. My dog's a genius and I wrote a vanity about her not liking Muslims about a couple weeks ago but that thread has disappeared.

[ninonitti]

her not liking Muslims

Maybe it's the way that you're preparing them that has your dog upset.

[Ken H]

Anyone who watched Lassie knows this is true.

[leadpenny]

Maybe your dog is vain and privately FReep mailed the Admin Moderator to have the thread removed?

My dogs aren't that smart. They are both still in High School.

[goose1]

your dogs are not to smart maybe because their going to a government school.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

My dog is a barkoholic.

[Paleo Conservative]

No news to me. My dog's a genius and I wrote a vanity about her not liking Muslims about a couple weeks ago but that thread has disappeared.

Actually, that thread still exists. There seems to be a bug in the software that displays your own posts. If you click on "My Commnents" you will get only one page of your posts and replies. If you click on another Freeper's page, and then click on "Find in Forum" the bottom of the page will say "Click to show more posts ... ". The only way I have found to get around this bug is to log out of Free Republic so I can see my profile as others see it.

Vanity: My Dog always gets upset when we see Arabs/Muslims; Islamophobic dog or owner?

[dread78645]

I thought this was a Terry McAuliffe thread.
I'll just make my way outside.

Pardon me, exuse me, sorry.

[ThePythonicCow]

This doesn't prove that dogs are smarter than we figured. It proves that there are some researchers at U.C. Davis who are dumber than we figured.

[ThePythonicCow]

If you click on "My Commnents" you will get only one page of your posts and replies.

I don't see this limitation. While logged in normally as myself, the bottom of My Comments page shows a link

Show more posts ...

which works to go to an older page of my comments.

But your workaround of logging out is clever anyway.

[PoorMuttly]

Dogs, like some people, not only ascertain who may be on their sides, but who they may impregnate, and who they may consume, and not get kicked out of the gang. They also identify potential members of their own breakaway gang..some day...if they could only steal enough meat now. Oh. excuse me. Just because I can type does not make me fully domesticated.

[mn12]

Dogs usually use high-pitched single barks when they are separated from their owners and a lower, harsher superbark when strangers approach or the doorbell rings

Uhhh, you don't need to conduct a study to come to that conclusion. All you need to do is own a dog! Someone actually got paid to announce that?!

Dogs also know when they are being short-changed on treats because they have a basic mathematical ability

Ditto. My dog always gets to lick the plates after dinner. If 3 people are eating, she won't calm down until she gets 3 plates.

[theDentist]

I can see this. Clinton's dog decided to end it all instead of spending another day in that "family", so you know he had to have some smarts to him, and overwhelming embarrassment.

[LPStar]

We were all laughing at my house about this study also. The idea that it's a new scientific discovery that dogs have different types of barks - ha ha ha.

[31R1O]

That's horrible. LOL

[Movemout]

Bump

[DeaconRed]

God:
What I would give for enough free time to study this.
That is why I put a buck or two on the lottery.
Dream on Voter537

[WyldKard]

Geeze, no need for a study to tell me this. I've been embarassingly outwitted by my dog enough times to know this first hand (laugh)

We have a very old Sheltie, but she is still going pretty strong at 14. Back in her prime, her favorite thing was to steal peoples socks, walk into the room with her mouth full of them, and then expect you to chase her. Otherwise she'd bury or tear your socks up *heh*. So I'm chasing her, and she runs through the library in my parents house. What I didn't realize is that the door to the guest room was just slightly open. Now, the guest room is real close to a stairway landing, and the stairs go up and down. So I figured "Hmmmm..must have taken the stairs" and started trying to figure out if she went up, or down (she usually runs down the stairs.)

It turns out she was hiding in the dark of the guest room, waiting for me to pass far enough from her, so she could immediately run out, and back the way she came throught the library! Doh! But she was very clever to figure out how to use the dark to her advantage, and that I would immediately check the stairs if I couldn't find her. It was very freaky to have a dog that smart.

An ex-girlfriend of mine had a dog that liked to bark, so they got it one of those electric shock collars, the ones that respond to a certain frequency of bark. In about a month or two, the dog figured out how to bark at a different enough frequency so as not to set the collar off.

[sheik yerbouty]

Mine is large and can be used as a barkolounger.

[dawn53]

Exactly, and how much money did they take to figure this out. They could have asked any dog owner and found out the same thing.

"Animal behaviorists used to think their bark was simply a way of getting attention. Now a new study suggests that individual dogs have specific barks with a range of meanings," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. DUHHH!

In fact, this morning my husband had already let the dog out, but after she had been back inside for a bit, I heard her distinctive, "I've got to go 'number two'" whine and let her out again. Sure enough, I was right.

We raised her from a 2 day old pup on a bottle, and that particular whine has been the same since she was housebroken at 6 weeks.