Now THIS is really interesting

[summer_jackel]

Chaser, a border collie who lives in Spartanburg, S.C., has the largest vocabulary of any known dog. She knows 1,022 nouns, a record that displays unexpected depths of the canine mind and may help explain how children acquire language.

I am utterly fascinated. I am also really pleased that the article discussed how Chaser's human trained her to have such a large vocabulary. I don't know that it would be worth the time to train my dogs to put words to many different objects, but I agree that most dogs, especially herding breeds, could be taught to do something like this if the trainer wanted to put in the time. It might be fun to train some of mine to name some items (Rogue has known what her "duck" is for years).

Naming the item might help me teach Coba to retrieve a dumbbell, something he will have to learn eventually for obedience showing. I'm afraid he's not going to like it and am not looking forward to training this at all, so I'm trying to devise ways to make it more interesting for him before I start. Teaching him a name for at least a couple different toys (including the retrieve dummy) could be a useful angle.

Science is neat. So is training dogs to do stuff.

Comments

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Housefoxes will sully their delicate muzzles with very few things! Coba doesn't even like to retrieve in play; he will tug on a toy quite fiercely and happily if _I_ get it, but if I throw it, he will wait for another dog (or myself) to retrieve it for him.

The retrieve dummy we'll be using is very small and light, and I suspect that keeping it very clean...and perhaps flavoring it with something nice to begin with...will help. Who knows---when I actually get one (which I should soon), maybe he will love the thing and have no problem with it.

Housefoxes can be very odd little canines.

[howl-at-the-sun.livejournal.com]

What a curious (and adorable) little beast. I'd love to hear how he gets along with the dummy. Good dog training is a pleasure to read about.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

He's a fascinating animal to work with---a really odd combination of shy reserve and unmitigated shirtiness. I'm pretty certain that he is trying to train me to do things, too.