a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Border Collie Intelligence and Fame

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Border Collie Intelligence and Fame

SUMMARY: This dog has some interesting cognitive abilities.

There's a Border Collie on the cover of this month's National Geographic! (And it's not Rico, for those who are tired of the same dog used over and over for animal intelligence articles). This border collie not only recognizes over 300 objects by name, but learns words for new ones "as quickly as a human toddler," and can recognize the items by word or by photograph! So, when shown an object, can pick out the matching photo; when shown a photo, can pick out the matching object.

But they didn't say whether she does agility.

(Read the article here.)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for putting this on your blog! I put it on mine, now, too (with a thanks to your blog). I just LOVE this kinda stuff!

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  2. Thanks; I was in a rush yesterday and didn't put link to specific article, so thanks for that--I've added it. I talked with a couple of people about the article yesterday; it's all amazing what so many animals can do, given the older prevailing wisdom that they're just "dumb animals."

    -ellen

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