Dog's intelligence
Here is an interesting article about dogs:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921614-1,00.html
it says that dogs understand pointing. Well, I knew that, I discovered that with my mom's dog. When I walk with him, he is always far ahead and waits at a forking, because he doesn't know which way I will go. Sometimes I just point him to the right way, and he starts to walk again - in the right direction. That is hardly new. I met a dog once who understands basic sign language, like "ball - get the ball".
But this article says that only humans and dogs are doing it naturally. Chimpazees can't do it without much learning. And Chimpazees are much closer to humans and smarter. Nor can any other species do it.
Apparently they are too aggressive to learn that skill, an experiment on foxes in Russia determined that those less agressive were evolving more social skills and pay more attention to humans and how they behave. And understand pointing.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921614-1,00.html
it says that dogs understand pointing. Well, I knew that, I discovered that with my mom's dog. When I walk with him, he is always far ahead and waits at a forking, because he doesn't know which way I will go. Sometimes I just point him to the right way, and he starts to walk again - in the right direction. That is hardly new. I met a dog once who understands basic sign language, like "ball - get the ball".
But this article says that only humans and dogs are doing it naturally. Chimpazees can't do it without much learning. And Chimpazees are much closer to humans and smarter. Nor can any other species do it.
Apparently they are too aggressive to learn that skill, an experiment on foxes in Russia determined that those less agressive were evolving more social skills and pay more attention to humans and how they behave. And understand pointing.