Dogs Can Now Understand Words
Since the dawn of time, dogs have been man’s best friend. From companionship to hunting, these friendly animals have been loyally devoted to people. Recent studies have shown that their closeness with humans has resulted in dogs increasing their vocabulary.
Seven-year-old Basket, a Border collie living in Manhattan, can understand over 150 words, mainly the names of her toys, since she‘s more familiar with them. This is thanks to Elle Baumgartel-Austin, Basket’s owner. She started the word lessons when Basket was a puppy, starting with ten toys and increasing the toys over time.
“There never seemed to be a limit,” Austin said. “It’s basically like, how many toys could I feasibly store in my tiny apartment?”
In a similar case, Chaser, another Border collie living with her owner, Professor John W. Pilley of Wofford College, also learned a bunch of new words. Dr. Pilley taught Chaser over 1,000 nouns, practicing with her for four to five hours a day. He used 800 cloth animals, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees, and a menagerie of other items. To train her, Dr. Pilley first showed Chaser an object, such as a toy, spoke the name of the object up to 40 times, hid the object, and then asked Chaser to find it. Using this method, Dr. Pilley taught Chaser 1,022 nouns.
Sadly, Chaser passed away at 15-years-old, and Dr. Pilley passed last year at 89-years-old. They both received worldwide recognition for their hard work.
Whiskey, a third Border collie, can also recognize words. She lives with her owners in Norway. Despite only attending a puppy course when Whiskey was young, Whiskey knows the names of 54 out of 59 of her toys.
While scientists are unsure why most dogs can’t understand the names of specific objects, these three outliers have proven themselves as the most intelligent of their kind. Scientists have theorized that these dogs often eavesdrop on their owners’ conversations and engage directly with their owners, which allows them to pick up words. Specifically, herding dogs seem to develop this skill.
