Skip to content

Nature

Chaser the Super Smart Wonder Dog

by Michael Evans 18 Jan 2011
Chaser the Super Smart Wonder Dog

Chaser the Super Smart Wonder Dog; Photo Credit: © Mark Olencki

Many readers will have seen or read of amazing animals who can count, or respond to complex commands. Most of these are the result of simple stage tricks, but researchers at South Carolina's prestigious Wofford College have Chaser the super smart Wonder Dog.

Chaser is a female Border Collie and she has learnt to recognises the names of over a thousand objects; but not only does she recognise them, she can differentiate between the names of the different objects and orders to fetch them.

This research went even further than earlier German research that involved a dog that knew the names of a couple of hundred objects. The Wofford researchers had been left wondering just how far a dog could go and whether it really did understand that the object names were nouns and not simply commands to retrieve the object.

They really wanted to know exactly how large a dog's vocabulary can become if given extensive training and what dogs can actually understand when we use human language to communicate with them.

The researchers, John Pilley and Alliston Reid, demonstrated that in three years Chaser learnt the names of 1,022 objects. There was apparently no upper limit and training only stopped, not because Chaser had reached saturation point, but because they simply ran out of time.

The study demonstrates Chaser's ability to learn the names of proper nouns and her extensive vocabulary was repeatedly tested under carefully controlled conditions. The 1,022 objects were her toys and the researchers admitted that she remembered their names better than they did.

Chaser is a super smart border collie

Chaser; Photo Credit: © Mark Olencki

Chaser's ability to remember over a thousand proper nouns, each attached to a unique object, revealed that not only could she discriminate between the different sounds, she could discriminate between them visually. It was also clear that she had an extensive vocabulary and a substantial memory system that was able to link the auditory and visual stimuli.

In their second experiment Pilley and Reid demonstrated that Chaser really understood that these were names of objects and not commands to go and fetch. In order to test this, the researchers randomly combined nouns with commands to see if Chaser would produce the correct behaviour towards the correct object in each trial.

No special training was given and from the outset Chaser responded correctly every time. It was clear that she fully understood that the commands and the names of the objects had completely different meanings, with the names referring to the object in question and not to the action involving the object.

The third experiment demonstrated that Chaser understood the names for categories of objects or common nouns, rather than individual names or proper nouns. She learnt that "toy" referred to all of the 1,022 objects that she was allowed to play with and that some of these toys might be balls or Frisbees.

Additional research is needed to determine whether or not this impressive learning ability is solely confined to Border Collies or whether other breeds of dog can be similarly successful.


Trending Eco-Friendly Clothing

Love My Planet Women's Relaxed Fit Hoodie
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Love My Planet Women's Relaxed Fit Hoodie
Love My Planet women's eco-friendly relaxed fit hoodieSize Guide Centimeters 8 10 12 14 16 18 Bust 84 88 92 97 103 108 Waist 66 70 75 80 85 91 Hips 91 95 99 104 109 116 Bust: Measure around the fullest part of...
£38.00
£38.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Penguins Hate Push-Ups Men's Pullover Hoodie
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Penguins Hate Push-Ups Men's Pullover Hoodie
Penguins Hate Push-Ups men's eco-friendly pullover HoodieSize Guide Centimeters XS S M L XL XXL Height 171 175 179 183 189 195 Chest 86 93 99 104 116 129 Waist 71 76 81 89 99 112 Chest: Measure all round your chest just below...
£38.00
£38.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Lightning Bolt Kids Long Sleeve T-Shirt
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Notify me
Lightning Bolt Kids Long Sleeve T-Shirt
Lightning Bolt kids eco-friendly long sleeve t-shirtSize Guide Centimeters 3-4yrs 5-6yrs 7-8yrs 9-10yrs 11-12yrs Height 98 112 125 136 147 Chest 60 66 70 75 84 Chest: Measure all around your chest just below your armpits. Height: Your natural height If you fall between...
£18.00
£18.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Notify me
Union Jack Tote Bag
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Union Jack Tote Bag
Union Jack eco-friendly colour tote bagProduct Specification Organic Cotton Tote Bag. Twill Weave (170gsm). 37 x 42 cm (7cm gusset.) Made in India / Designed on the Isle of Wight. Wash Cool, Hang Dry.
£16.00
£16.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Prev Post
Next Post

Eco-Friendly Shop

Women's Clothing

Eco-Friendly Clothing for Women Our online shop offers a wide range of sustainable women’s clothing products, including t-shirts, hoodies, vests, sweaters, shorts, and...
Shop Now

Men's Clothing

Eco-Friendly Clothing for Men Our online shop offers a wide range of sustainable men’s clothing products, including t-shirts, hoodies, vests, sweaters, shorts, and...
Shop Now

Kids Clothing

Eco-Friendly Clothes for Kids Our online shop offers a wide range of sustainable kids clothing products, including t-shirts, hoodies and jumpers. Our garments...
Shop Now
Someone recently bought a
[time] ago, from [location]

Thanks for subscribing!

This email has been registered!

Shop the look

Choose Options

Earth Times
Sign up for exclusive updates, new arrivals & insider only discounts

Recently Viewed

Edit Option
Back In Stock Notification
this is just a warning
Login
Shopping Cart
0 items

Before you leave...

Take 20% off your first order

20% off

Enter the code below at checkout to get 20% off your first order

CODESALE20

Continue Shopping