Can your pooch do this?

[ellen_datlow]

This is pretty effing amazing Meet the Dog who knows 1,000 words.

via
jezebel

Comments

[canadiansuzanne]

Wow. Unbelievable.

[lizziebelle]

I saw a story about this dog on Nova the other night. What's even more amazing is that he tested the dog with a bunch of random toys, and the dog got it right every time; then he put in a new toy ("Darwin") and asked the dog to retrieve it, and she figured it out by eliminating all the toys she did know.

[ellen_datlow]

I know--it's in the video above--from the program.

[lizziebelle]

Oops! I can't watch videos on my old computer. ;)

[deadshrimpblues]

What amazes me more is how she can recognize verbs. I grew up with Border Collies and understanding words is pretty par for the course with them - my BC has a hell of a repertoire himself - but the verb thing just blows my mind. They're amazing dogs, and definitely not for people who won't give their sharp minds the stimulation they deserve and crave.

[ellen_datlow]

I was just worried it wasn't actually there!

[jeffpalmatier]

I'm convinced that my cat Smokey must have recognized a lot of words. We'd be speaking around her and I'd watch how she'd react to the conversation of her family. Obviously cats and dogs also use other nonverbal clues to interpret what you're doing, but I got the definite impression that Smokey could follow a lot of spoken language. It didn't hurt that she was also extremely intelligent anyway.

[ellen_datlow]

One of my first cats, Nielson, was very smart --she's the one who live 23+ years. My other cat Blue was adorable but not brilliant and got scared after climbing up the fire escape outside my apt window and wouldn't come down. I told Nielson to bring her down and she did :-)