Posted on 11/28/2007 7:54:46 PM PST by blam
Dogs display aspects of human intelligence
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 6:01pm GMT 28/11/2007
Dog lovers have long claimed that their pets are smarter than many of us realise.
New evidence to back that view comes from research published today which concludes that, like us, our canine friends are able to form abstract concepts.
Friederike Range and colleagues from the University of Vienna, Austria, show for the first time that dogs are able to learn how to classify complex colour photographs and place them into categories in the same way that humans do.
Training stimuli: Images of dogs and landscapes are used to test dogs' recognition of abstract concepts
"Dogs were for a long time considered to be just pets - so showing that they are able to also form abstract concepts maybe gives their cognitive abilities more credit," she said.
However, the abstract concept they were able to grasp in this pioneering experiment was rather familiar, that of "dog."
The team reports in the journal Animal Cognition a clever way to show that the dogs are not picking up subtle signals from their handlers: the dogs successfully demonstrate their learning through the use of computer touch-screens, eliminating potential human influences.
Four dogs were shown both landscape and dog photographs simultaneously and were rewarded with food if they selected the dog picture on the touch screen.
Then they were shown a new set of dog and landscape pictures. They continued to reliably select the dog photographs, demonstrating that they could transfer their knowledge gained in the training phase to a new circumstance, even though they had never seen those particular pictures before.
In a second test, the dogs were faced with a choice between a new dog pasted on a familiar landscape and a completely new landscape with no dog, In this case, they reliably selected the landscape with the dog.
"These results show that the dogs were able to form a concept, that is 'dog', although the experiment cannot tell us whether they recognized the dog pictures as actual dogs," said Dr Range.
"Using touch-screen computers with dogs opens up a whole world of possibilities on how to test the cognitive abilities of dogs."
The dogs that took part were a Border Collie (Maggie), one Border Collie mix (Lucy), one Australian Shepherd (Bertl), and one mongrel (Todor). Two dogs were male (Bertl, Todor), two were female (Maggie, Lucy).
In earlier work, the team showed striking similarities between humans and dogs in the way they imitate others, showing they do more than copy. They also interpet what they see.
Bill and Bob are walking down the street, as Bob walks his dog with them.
Suddenly, Bob’s dog stops in his tracks and begins licking “himself.”
Bob looks at Bill and says “Ya know, Bill, I’d kill to be able to do that.”
Bill says “Well, he is your dog Bob, he might let you.”
Regardless, we never taught him this. He does other stuff that often makes me pause and wonder.
My Sol could sail over the baby gait with a foot to spare...I started leaning it instead of fixing it firmly.
One crash and fall was enough to keep her from approaching it.
Herding dogs are an excellent choice for an intelligence test! My Australian Shepherds are really smart as dogs go. If they had hands instead of paws, I'd be in trouble. They are inquisitive about everything and listen to all that I say with intense expressions on their faces. You can tell when they understand a word or phrase. They go nuts over words such as "walk", "treat", etc. My wife and I used to spell to avoid over-exciting them, but now that they can spell, our conversations are becoming increasingly cryptic to maintain the calm. The trouble is, they catch on to speech too fast! Once time the dogs wanted to go outside -- my wife said, "Go tell Sonny that you want to go out". The male dog left the room and shortly thereafter, we heard "woof!" -- we had never trained him to do that.
If you haven't, before, please click on my name to see my dogs. Mastiff (18 mo in that photo) is now almost 4 and HUGE, but still just as sweet and kind.
We have talked about your hound with a heart of gold before.
He looks like a good boy...they both look very sweet.
My girls. Solitare left, Black Jack right.
Whoa! Very glossy, very beautiful. Precious “smile for the camera” faces—I bet they know when you’re taking pictures. Mine come right up to the phone, when I hold it up to snap them. They think it’s food or a toy. *sigh*
Funny how they find the loopholes.
Mine are very sweet and different as night and day.
Freshly bathed for pictures.
They were pretty excited by the tree but once they got comfortable with the idea, I just put them on a stay and snapped away.
Best camera mugging.
I am a dog lover and would greatly appreciate being added to your dog Ping list.
Thank you,
Gator
Katie, Luke, and Ladybug says two paws up.
I really like that one! If I could get photos off my razr, I’d post some cute ones of the furkids, but I need to get some software installed, I guess.
ACtually, if your dog eats poop it proves he is a dog.
It’s common and normal behavior for dogs.
susie
The puppy is still a sprawler, she's growing so fast she hasn't found her balance yet. But she'll learn . . .
Border collies are scary smart!
Smartest dog I ever knew was my Sheltie, Robin. I talked to him like a person,conversationally, and he KNEW what I was saying. I could give him anything he could carry and tell him who to bring it to, and he would.
He would even take a Hershey bar(yes, I know about chocolate and dogs, but small amounts never bothered mine) that he badly wanted, tell him to bring it to ‘papa’ and to wait for a piece and he did just that. He was also a great babysitter. He’d lie on the sofa with his head near the baby’s feet and bark the minute the baby was awake-or come to get me.
He even trick-or-treated with his own pumpkin, putting it down for candy then picking it up and continuing on. He was the hit of the neighborhood. Everyone knew Robin, and he was in love with every child he saw. Incredible patience. All of the babies in the family learned to walk by getting handfuls of his fur . Never growled at a soul, didn’t have a mean moment in his life. God, I miss him.
So yes- I think dogs are much more intelligent than people want to admit. Some breeds more than others- but it’s in the raising too. Want them to think like ‘people’, talk to them like people! It’s worked for me...until...
My little Maltipoo. Smart but stubborn, much shorter attention span than the Shelties. Typical of Maltese- he knows what I want him to do, he just doesn’t give a hoot!
Punchline: (heavy redneck accent): "That dog goan BITE you!"
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