smarten-up

Border collies know to retrieve toys when owners present replicas or, in some cases, photos of those toys
By Bruce Bower
Web edition : Friday, March 20th, 2009


Dogs are lousy conversationalists and can’t write worth a lick. But don’t sell the family pooch short when it comes to grasping subtle references in human communication, a new study suggests.
Border collies quickly realize that their owners want them to fetch a toy from another room when shown a full-size or miniature replica of the desired item and given a command to “bring it here,” say biological psychologist Juliane Kaminski of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and her colleagues. Even a photograph of a toy works with some dogs as a signal to fetch that toy from an unseen location, the researchers report in an upcoming issue of Developmental Science.
Three dogs already trained to fetch objects succeeded on both replica tasks right away. Two untrained dogs got the hang of replica requests after a bit of practice.
“The most reasonable interpretation of dogs’ success in the replica tasks is that they understood that by showing a replica, a human was trying to communicate something to them,” Kaminski says. Dogs evolved a feel for how people communicate as a result of living in human settlements for thousands of years, she proposes.
Earlier studies have found that chimps, dolphins and other nonhuman animals have great difficulty retrieving objects after being shown replicas of those objects, even after many trials.
The new study shows that the border collies interpreted a fetch request as meaning that they should find a toy resembling that held by owners, remarks psychologist Alexandra Horowitz of Barnard College in New York City.
It’s not clear that the dogs’ ability to see a replica of an object as a stand-in for that object in a fetching situation translates into a general capacity for knowing that some items can be used to represent others, Horowitz says.
Among the five dogs studied by Kaminski’s group, one trained and one untrained animal regularly retrieved toys depicted in photographs displayed by their owners. The remaining dogs did poorly on this task. Dogs have little experience with photographs and may have difficulty treating a photograph of an object as a separate representation of that object, at least without training, Kaminski posits.
Her team conducted experiments at each dog owner’s residence in Germany. A researcher put eight dog toys on the floor of a room and then joined the owner and the dog in an adjacent room. Next, the owner requested a particular toy by showing the dog one of three visual cues — an identical replica, a miniature replica or a photograph of the toy — and saying “bring it here.” Dogs searching for a toy in the adjacent room could not see their owners or the researchers.
Over eight trials, trained dogs nearly always fetched toys that corresponded to identical and miniature replicas.
One untrained dog successfully used miniature replicas to retrieve toys, but neither untrained dog did well with identical replicas right away. In a second round of trials with identical replicas, untrained dogs’ performance improved.
In another experiment, the three trained dogs were shown a full-size photograph of a toy and selected from among four toys and full-size photographs of them mounted on small stands. Two dogs usually retrieved what they had seen, with one favoring corresponding toys and the other preferring corresponding photographs.

Science News / Dogs Show A Fetching Communication Savvy

Well, that settles that argument. Go with a Border Collie if you wanna train your dog how to fetch your bong . Maybe even you weed too .

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dirtbomb

It's kind of like a game of Charades, when my Dog is trying to tell me something. I end up feeling really stupid afterward.
She gets upset when I swear, so it's obvious that she understands stuff that may not be directed at her.

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smarten-up

My dog used to have this toy gorilla, before he mangled it, we used to say "wheres kong? Go get kong", and he would fetch him. Hes always been kinda savvy with that kind of stuff. Only with words though not replicas or pics. Im sure he would just sit there and wait for me to throw the replica, or try to play tug-o-war with the picture. This reminds me of that dog that can open the fridge grab a beer and then shut the door behind him. That shits incredible.

dirtbomb

Awww! That looks like my Doggie.

smarten-up

Haha I love black labs, is yours a mix? Ive got myself a golden, hes the man.

dirtbomb

Yep! She's half Golden Retriever.
So, she looks like a Black Lab with longer fur. Boy can she shed!

smarten-up

Tell me about it, hes so affectionate too. Im always about to leave and he wants to hang out on the couch or somethin. Bless his heart but damn it, Ive been through like 40 of those hair roller deals.