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Your Dog Remembers More Than You Think
New York Times ^ | 23 Nov, 2016 | James Gorman

Posted on 11/24/2016 9:28:45 AM PST by MtnClimber

Once again, science has confirmed the suspicions of dog-owners that their beloved pets know more than they are letting on. In this case, it has to do with memory, a favorite subject of researchers who study the mental abilities of other animals.

No one doubts that dogs can be trained to remember commands and names of objects. They also remember people and places. But Claudia Fugazza and her colleagues at the Family Dog Project at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest set out to see whether dogs share a more complex kind of memory.

In people it is called episodic memory, and it involves a sense of self. In animals, it’s called episodic-like memory, because it’s difficult to try to plumb something as elusive as self without the aid of language.

All attempts to understand thinking and memory in nonverbal animals are difficult, and Dr. Fugazza, Adam Miklosi and Akos Pogany developed a technique that depends on something called “Do-as-I-do training,” which itself is pretty amazing.

In this training, dogs learn to imitate any action the trainer takes. First the trainer does something like touch an open umbrella with his hand. Then he says, “Do it.” Then the dog taps the umbrella with its paw — assuming the training is going well.

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


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: dogs
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1 posted on 11/24/2016 9:28:45 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

My dogs are smarter than liberals!


2 posted on 11/24/2016 9:29:36 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Does it remember where I put my keys?


3 posted on 11/24/2016 9:30:03 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: MtnClimber

Every click through to the NYT generates revenue for them. Thanks, but I’ll pass.


4 posted on 11/24/2016 9:31:48 AM PST by NYAmerican
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To: MtnClimber

5 posted on 11/24/2016 9:31:59 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: MtnClimber

But are they capable of being *thankful*?


6 posted on 11/24/2016 9:32:51 AM PST by Daffynition (*Donald Trump represents the WILL of the PEOPLE.*~ Don King 09.24.16)
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To: Texas Eagle

No, but a common trainer trick is to throw your car keys about 100 feet into the brush and have the dog find it.


7 posted on 11/24/2016 9:33:07 AM PST by nobamanomore
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To: Texas Eagle

Mine knows where I left my reading glasses. Unfortunately, I don’t realize that until I hear the crunching.


8 posted on 11/24/2016 9:37:51 AM PST by mollynme (cogito, ergo freepum)
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To: MtnClimber

When I was a kid my dog would leave physics equations on a piece of paper that he banged out overnight.


9 posted on 11/24/2016 9:40:10 AM PST by dp0622 (IThe only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: nobamanomore

Pbbbbt. My dogs would just flip the trainer off in their minds. Their ears might perk up for a second or two but then they’d go right back to curling up on the couch.


10 posted on 11/24/2016 9:40:43 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Texas Eagle

...true story....I worked nites for Intel. Was putting on makeup one afternoon when our cocker spaniel, Gus, came into room..I casually said, “hey Gus, where’s my watch?” I hadn’t been able to find it for a few days. He left, and I didn’t think more about it, was just making conversation. ..next thing I know he comes trotting into the room...WITH MY WATCH. Gus was very smart, but a terror.


11 posted on 11/24/2016 9:44:47 AM PST by goodnesswins (Say hello to President Trump)
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To: Texas Eagle

If you hadn’t dug up that cartoon I would have! Perfect.


12 posted on 11/24/2016 9:44:47 AM PST by bigbob (We have better coverage than Verizon - Can You Hear Us Now?)
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To: Texas Eagle
Does it remember where it put your keys?

-PJ

13 posted on 11/24/2016 9:45:19 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: MtnClimber

My Boston/French Bull is very good at learning similar to this, also good at vocabulary. The idiot Pug is a Hitler clone and dumb as a post. The Pug only knows what he wants.

By the way, Happy and reflective Thanksgiving all.


14 posted on 11/24/2016 9:49:44 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: goodnesswins
Great story.

We had a Golden Retriever named Molly. One day as I was going through the mail, I gave her a piece of junk mail and said, "Molly, throw this in the garbage." Sure as shootin', she walked over to the garbage can and dropped it in. We made such a fuss over it, I think we scared her and we could never get her to do it again.

15 posted on 11/24/2016 9:50:45 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Titan Magroyne

*Ping*


16 posted on 11/24/2016 9:51:10 AM PST by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Jubal Harshaw (Robert A. Heinlein))
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To: Texas Eagle

No. But if you attach a soup bone to your keys, he can probably find them for you.


17 posted on 11/24/2016 9:51:49 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: smokingfrog

Well, hell, if I’m going to do that, I might as well just attach a pork chop to them. Then I’d never misplace them in the first place.


18 posted on 11/24/2016 9:54:31 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: smokingfrog

Attach a soup bone an I could find em


19 posted on 11/24/2016 9:58:11 AM PST by advertising guy (I cannot wait for the book KILLING O'REILLY)
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To: MtnClimber
ANY dog EASILY remembers more than Illary!
( FBI Summary: Hillary Said She ‘Could Not Recall’ ‘Did Not Recall,’ ‘Did Not Remember,’ 'Had No Recollection' 41 Times)

20 posted on 11/24/2016 9:59:14 AM PST by A Formerly Proud Canadian (I once was blind but now I see...)
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