BC Word learning

[Pippin's person]

Science Dailey reported on a new study today that expands on the work done in Germany on Rico several years ago. In the Rico study, the issue was about how Rico, the Border Collie, went about learning the names of objects and it seemed to indicate that he used a similar process to what we see in human children (n.b. this is really just about object labels and not about other aspects of language like syntax and grammar, which seem to be fairly human specific).

 

In the current study, the researchers focused on issues like whether there was a limit to how many unique object names the Border Collie could learn (answer seems to be no) and also whether the dog could learn superordinate categories (e.g. understand both the individual name for an object and also that "toy" could refer to the whole class of objects) and there the answer seems to be yes.

 

I haven't read the whole paper yet, but it looks like a better controlled study than the Rico study and a fairly promising approach to the question of how species specific some aspects of human language are. I think it'd be very interesting to find out if this is an ability unique to border collies (among dogs).

[Laurae]

This is fascinating; thanks for sharing, Robin. I'd also be interested to know if this is an ability unique to border collies when compared with other dogs--mostly because of my five dogs, I think the bc/aussie mix is the smartest (the other four are working border collies). But that perception may be the result of Sophie being my first dog and having my undivided attention (dogwise, anyway) for four years before I got Taz and then the others. She certainly knows the names of more objects than any of my other dogs, and she seems to understand a bit more contextually. She seems to have more understandable "common sense." On the other hand, the border collies (except puppy Meg, of course) have learned very sophisticated concepts with regard to working stock. Not sure how to compare those intellectual differences...

[Eileen Stein]

Laura, I think you're on to something when you say, "But that perception may be the result of Sophie being my first dog and having my undivided attention (dogwise, anyway) for four years before I got Taz and then the others." My first border collie, whom I got as a puppy and who was an only dog for more than two years, was WAY head and shoulders above all the other dogs I've had in verbal skills. She learned lots of words, and more interestingly, she seemed to focus on words and try to relate them to things and actions in a way none of my other dogs (also border collies) do or have done. I do believe she was a very, vary smart and perceptive dog -- an outlier, really -- but I think her abilities were more fully developed by her close and exclusive relationship with me (and to a lesser extent, my husband).

 

Very interesting article.

[Pippin's person]

The same thing is true for our first Border Collie, Pippin. She is head and shoulders more advanced in terms of words she knows and in terms of how she interacts with verbal information--I hadn't really thought of that until you two pointed it out. She has very little work ethic, wasn't interested in sports (flyball and agility) and not talented on stock. But, definitely the smartest dog we have.

 

I worked at home for the first 8 mos of her life and spent a lot of exclusive and intensive time with her.

 

I'll bet Chaser and Rico are both only dogs as well. That's a really interesting angle to consider.

[Anda]

Ouzo is an only dog. And we did spend A LOT of time with him from the first day we brought him home at 8 weeks. He started developing his vocabulary by learning the general term 'toy" - that meant any toy he could find. Then we refined it to ball, chicken, lamb, whatever name the toy bears.

 

He can bring any toy you ask him by name, distinguishing between differently named toys and general categories. "Ball" and "Frisbee" includes any ball and any frisbee.

 

But "bunny" is a different toy from "rabbit" and from "iepure" (some of his names have Romanian names - we were running out of words - LOL). However, outside, all these three words signify on thing: the animals that hop in front of us and drive him nuts and which he's not allowed to chase. It's all very clear to him

 

 

He also takes directions when searching for something - "this way", "behind you", "the other way", "go in the bedroom", "it's in the kitchen", "Chris has it", "under the couch", "on the balcony", all in relation to an object he's been asked to locate and bring.

 

[bc4ever]

 

He also takes directions when searching for something - "this way", "behind you", "the other way", "go in the bedroom", "it's in the kitchen", "Chris has it", "under the couch", "on the balcony", all in relation to an object he's been asked to locate and bring.

Scooter knows directions too. We just sort of take it for granted now, but visitors are always amazed that we can tell him to "go find your squirrel upstairs in the den" and a few seconds later he trots back with the requested item in his mouth.

[OurBoys]

The same thing is true for our first Border Collie, Pippin. She is head and shoulders more advanced in terms of words she knows and in terms of how she interacts with verbal information--I hadn't really thought of that until you two pointed it out. She has very little work ethic, wasn't interested in sports (flyball and agility) and not talented on stock. But, definitely the smartest dog we have.

That's JJ. He's our first Border Collie and he was an only dog for the first 2 yrs. His knowledge of the English language is amazing-Get back on the path, get out of the flowerbed, go in the living room, etc. I found out by accident he even knows the word Now! (All 3 know that word now.) One night I was showing DH I had taught JJ to Give Me Right & Give Me Left. Of course, when I said "give me left", JJ gave me his right paw. I said "No, the other left". JJ put his right paw down and gave me his left paw. DH couldn't believe it. He asked me how I taught him that. At first I didn't understand what he was talking about because I thought it was normal that JJ understood what I was saying. We constantly accused him of easedropping. I had read how smart BC's were and I thought we were treating him as if he were intelligent but we still got, what I call, his Stupid Human look. When we started talking/treating him as if he understood everything we said, he stopped giving us that look.

 

We treat all 3 of ours the same and there are times Jake has shown me he knows words I didn't realize he did but I don't think he knows as many words as JJ. When we ask/tell him something he doesn't understand, he gives us his cute head tilt so I have to show him. (I don't know if it's that way with all BC's but that's Jake's cue.) And even though we've only had Josie for 2 yrs and hasn't had as much training, I believe she already knows more words than Jake. And in some ways, I believe she's even smarter than the boys.

 

I strongly believe if you actually talk to your dogs, they learn more. At least, ours do.

[geonni banner]

I read an interview with Rudd Weatherwax (Lassie's trainer) one time. He said he is very conversational with his dogs when he's training them. He doesn't use one-word commands. He speaks to his dogs in sentences. He said that the dogs understood better and were perfectly capable of getting nuanced meaning. I think it's true.

 

They say humans have a time window during which they can acquire language, and that if a person doesn't get exposed to language in that window, they can't ever learn it. I think it was something like from infancy to seven years. But if you think, as some do, that all domestic dogs have juvenile characteristics of mind and body for life, it makes sense that even a dog who was not talked to as a puppy could learn to understand the meanings of words later on.

 

My dog listens when I talk to her. And I talk to her a lot - about things that have little to do with her as well as things that do. She understands a lot. and you can see her trying to work things out when I'm speaking to her. I talk to her as if she were an adult human. She is quickly disgusted with strangers who baby-talk at her. (Although if she already knows and likes the person a lot she will wriggle with delight.)

 

On occasion we will meet with a non-doggy person who tries to be friendly to her. They ask me her name and then repeat it back to her as if she was a retarded pre-schooler: "Hi Shoo-grrr-fooot." Sugarfoot will look up at them as if she's thinking, "You've GOT to be kidding me..." And they will turn to me and say, "Look at that! She knows her name!"

 

Sugar will cut her eyes at me as if to say, "Can we lose this one now?" And we usually do.

[OurBoys]

I read an interview with Rudd Weatherwax (Lassie's trainer) one time. He said he is very conversational with his dogs when he's training them. He doesn't use one-word commands. He speaks to his dogs in sentences. He said that the dogs understood better and were perfectly capable of getting nuanced meaning. I think it's true.

I think it's true too with some dogs. Our Jake understands 1-2 word commands better than whole sentences but I recognize a difference in Jake vs JJ & Josie. JJ & Josie see reflections and they watch us in those reflections (Josie more so than JJ and she picks up things/words/sentences sooner than JJ did when he was at that age). Jake doesn't. JJ & Josie also understand sentences (and sometimes full paragraphs) where Jake doesn't. I think it would be an interesting study if someone compared dog's (any breed) intelligence that see/uses reflections to those that don't. Are dogs that see/uses reflections better at learning actual sentences? Do dogs that don't see/use reflections do better with 1-2 word commands? Do dogs that can see/use reflections (mentally) process info differently than dogs that don't?