Posted on 12/11/2020 6:22:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Most of us who have been blessed with having a dog for a friend know how beautiful they are, how loyal they are, and how smart they are. Get any dog lover started on how intelligent his friend is and he won’t shut up.
But what kind of intelligence is at work in a dog’s brain? Most of us have probably shared the fantasy of sitting down with our dog and having a long chat, but the reality is a lot different. In many ways, a dog’s brain is similar to ours but with some vital differences.
We know, for instance, that dogs can understand subtle differences in human speech sounds. But a study done by researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest seems to indicate that dogs are unable to tell the difference between words that sound alike but have different meanings.
To probe these limitations in dogs’ auditory vocabulary (if you will), the researchers conducted an experiment, in which over 40 dogs were brought into the lab, having their brain activity measured non-invasively via electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes attached to their scalp.
While connected to the equipment, the animals heard three different types of words spoken on a recording: familiar instruction words (eg. ‘sit’), phonetically similar nonsense words (eg. ‘sut’), and dissimilar nonsense words (eg. ‘bep’).
The results are about what you’d expect.
The EEG results, based on a subset of 17 animals whose data were considered reliable, showed a clear difference in the dogs’ brain responses – called event-related potentials (ERPs) – when they heard either familiar words or the dissimilar-sounding nonsense words.
On the whole, though, the ERPs suggested dogs weren’t able to distinguish between the familiar instructions (such as ‘sit’) and similar-sounding nonsensical terms (such as ‘sut’), given the phonetic overlap between them.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Isn’t Rufus required to wear a seatbelt in your state?
Our last dog would come into my (home) office and stare at me. It was the “I need to go outside” stare. I would tell her, “if you want to go outside, go see mom”.
She would then turn around, walk away, and a few seconds later I’d hear my wife, “oh, you want to go outside?”...and would let her out.
...like clockwork :) I still don’t think my wife knows I was doing it :)
I could certainly believe and accept that.
Was waiting for that. Thanks!
Cats, on the other hand, understand everything we say. They just choose to ignore it.
Depends on the dog, I think.
We had an Afghan Hound.
Beautiful as all get out, but not much in the brains department. Although, it may have just been that she was willfully & disdainfully ignoring our commands at most times (sort of like our cats). She was perfectly trained on leash, but off leash, good luck catching her. And woe be to any squirrel that didn’t get enough of a head start.
I watched a woman deal with a dog that was barking incessantly.
She looked at the dog and said “quiet, or you’re getting a bath!”
The dog didn’t make another sound.
herd dogs (cattle dogs) have demonstrated a working vocabulary of up to 1800 words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hFMaRFyVSU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQw21ntR64
The very same dog can be intelligent, stupid, intuitive, headstrong, dangerous and gentle.
If Siberian Huskies had thumbs they would rob banks and use the money to buy drinks for all at the tavern.
I do the same type of thing with my doggy. I just need to ask him if he wants to go in the bathroom. It’s his “time out” spot and he hates it.
My Dobermans (on my 3rd) are scary smart....prolly genius. Seriously.
I tell my boys that they are like 3-year-old kids. They understand certain things, like when to eat, potty, and the need to snuggle, but they forget somethings. Mostly the bad stuff, which is good and forgiving.
They love you no matter what, but you have to be a parent to them and praise them when they do good. Be firm with discipline and make sure they learn their lesson, then forgive them.
I don’t think my dog understands much of what I say, but I’ll give him one thing, he sure reacts when he hears the rustling of a food wrapper.
I have a silver one...such a great girl!
I have a GS. After 4 years, I'm considering renaming her "Glitch".
We ask our toy poodle, "where's the leash?" and he knows exactly what we want and that a walk is involved.
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