Dogs are pretty smart

pmv · Sep 3, 2024

At first was struggling to reconcile this with the moronic, mindlessly-aggressive behavior of so many of the dogs I encounter. Then I remembered how so many human beings behave, despite their (supposedly) greater language skills.

Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

Research into canine cognition suggests some pets store object names in long-term memory

www.theguardian.com

Dog owners may have trouble remembering which toy is Mr Squeaky, but such names can be seared into the memory of their pets, researchers have found.

Scientists previously discovered some dogs have a remarkable ability to learn the names of toys, with a border collie known as Chaser having learned the labels of more than 1,000 objects.

Now researchers have discovered some dogs can remember the name of a toy even when they have not seen it for two years.

dave_the_nerd · Sep 3, 2024

Dogs are smart. They work on "grey and gray morality" though.

That said, if you encounter a lot of poorly behaved dogs, I'd encourage you to spend time with a better class of dog owner. Dogs can and should be trained to be docile around new people, especially out in public.

SteveGrabowski · Sep 4, 2024

pmv said:
At first was struggling to reconcile this with the moronic, mindlessly-aggressive behavior of so many of the dogs I encounter. Then I remembered how so many human beings behave, despite their (supposedly) greater language skills.

Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

Research into canine cognition suggests some pets store object names in long-term memory

www.theguardian.com

BBC Horizon did a great episode called The Secret Life of the Dog that had a border collie that could recognize his toys by name. Thank god a bunch of episodes of this amazing series got saved on archive.org, including this one:

https://archive.org/details/BBCHorizonCollection512Episodes/BBC+Horizon+-+s2010e01+-+The+Secret+Life+of+the+Dog.mkv

JulesMaximus · Sep 4, 2024

SteveGrabowski said:
BBC Horizon did a great episode called The Secret Life of the Dog that had a border collie that could recognize his toys by name. Thank god a bunch of episodes of this amazing series got saved on archive.org, including this one:

https://archive.org/details/BBCHorizonCollection512Episodes/BBC+Horizon+-+s2010e01+-+The+Secret+Life+of+the+Dog.mkv

We have a lab/border collie mix and she will fetch various toys of hers by name. She knows when to get up every day and will come to the bed and whine softly, if she’s too early my wife will tell her to go back to bed and she will do so immediately. She has never had an accident in the house nor has she destroyed anything. She is the smartest dog I’ve ever had.

pmv · Sep 4, 2024

dave_the_nerd said:
Dogs are smart. They work on "grey and gray morality" though.

That said, if you encounter a lot of poorly behaved dogs, I'd encourage you to spend time with a better class of dog owner. Dogs can and should be trained to be docile around new people, especially out in public.

Can't really avoid them, though. e.g. the dogs who go berserk and bark aggressively and hurl themselves repeatedly at the garden fence, because I've had the temerity to walk along the pavement past the garden. Or the snarling angry ones who bound up to me when walking through the park (while the owner shouts "stay still or he'll 'ave you". So many people seem to own perpetually-angry dogs as macho status-symbols.

There was also the guy I encountered walking home late at night who demanded money from me or he'd set his "pitbull" on me. Said dog was clearly _not_ a pitball, but a poor hapless-looking indeterminate mongrel that I could have kicked into the middle of next-week had the need arisen (not that it was likely to, and I'd have felt bad about it). Don't know if he was trying a bluff or if someone had sold him the mutt and he genuinely believed it was a pitbull.

dave_the_nerd · Sep 4, 2024

pmv said:
Can't really avoid them, though. e.g. the dogs who go berserk and bark aggressively and hurl themselves repeatedly at the garden fence, because I've had the temerity to walk along the pavement past the garden. Or the snarling angry ones who bound up to me when walking through the park (while the owner shouts "stay still or he'll 'ave you". So many people seem to own perpetually-angry dogs as macho status-symbols.

There was also the guy I encountered walking home late at night who demanded money from me or he'd set his "pitbull" on me. Said dog was clearly _not_ a pitball, but a poor hapless-looking indeterminate mongrel that I could have kicked into the middle of next-week had the need arisen (not that it was likely to, and I'd have felt bad about it). Don't know if he was trying a bluff or if someone had sold him the mutt and he genuinely believed it was a pitbull.

Nothing you describe screams "good dog owner" to me. Sorry you have to deal with that stuff.

BoomerD · Sep 4, 2024

The more I know people, the better I like dogs.

herm0016 · Sep 6, 2024

Odin says hello.

Dogs are pretty smart

pmv

Lifer

Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

dave_the_nerd

Lifer

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member

Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows

JulesMaximus

No Lifer

pmv

Lifer

dave_the_nerd

Lifer

BoomerD

No Lifer

herm0016

Diamond Member

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