What the dog knows: May 2014

My initial question was, “What does the dog know?” My first answer is another question: “What do you want the dog to know?” Dog intelligence, as I first outlined at the beginning of my paper, is an expression of human intelligence. For centuries, humans have shaped dogs into new creatures able to read our social clues to better survive with us. Dogs love to cooperate with humans and make them happy. For them it is a matter of life or death.

Thousands of years of domestication have affected dog intelligence. Civilization interfered with evolution to the point that you cannot talk of natural selection when it comes to dog breeds. Humans obtained the obedient dog they wanted to herd or hunt, sport or work. Now, I am not surprised the “smartest” dogs belong to shepherd breeds, the breeds that have been the longest in humankind’s history.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

What Language Does a Dog Speak?

In Europe, there is a joke about languages. It says that French is the language for love, Italian for food, English for money, and German……for dogs! It is a silly joke. Dogs understand any language equally, provided they can hear it in a consistent way and associate it with a specific gesture and tone. Monosyllabic words are easier to memorize, but that does not mean disyllabic or multisyllabic words are out of dog understanding. If that were the case, Italian trainers would be jobless because Italian words have an average length of 2.5 syllables. My first dog was raised in a French speaking area, adopted by an Italian family and often in the company of an English-speaking friend. He would perfectly know what to do to get a treat: as-sis (French), se-du-to (Italian), or sit (English), and he would respond sitting nicely at the feet of the speaker, accordingly to the language of the command and independently from the number of syllables of the word.

Can We Define a Dog Vocabulary?

The vocabulary development of puppies depends on the growth of their brain and on the training they receive from the owner.

It is not until about three months of age that they recognize their own name, when 90% adult dog brain mass is present. When they are four months old, they respond to commands such as “COME”, “SIT”, “WAIT”, and “DOWN”. At the age of six months, they respond to “HEEL”, “FETCH” and “STAY” and when they are nine months old, dogs can recognize names of individual family members. (IAMS 9)

With training, dogs can understand more than 150 words and intentionally fool other dogs and people. Boone, our neighbor’s dog, used to get very excited at hearing the word PARK because he associated it with a nice, long walk. To bypass this stage of inappropriate excitement, his owner started spelling the word park (P-A-R-K) when talking to her family members or friends about her intention of going to the park. This solution did not last long. After a few weeks of spelling, Boone understood that P-A-R-K was the place of his long walk!

If you want to know more about dogs, their intelligence and their vocabulary, do not miss this video “How smart are dogs?”

Does the Breed Affect Dog Intelligence?

The Brightest Dogs

1. Border Collie

2. Poodle

3. German Shepherd

4. Golden Retriever

5. Doberman Pinscher

6. Shetland Sheepdog

7. Labrador Retriever

8. Papillion

9. Rottweiler

10. Australian Cattle Dog

Taken from the dog expert Carolyn Georgariou

It is hard to find specific data about the origin of each breed. What we know for sure is that sheep farming is one of the most ancient human activities and it is not a coincidence that the majority of the top ten “brightest breeds” are a shepherd dog breed. In fact, dog “breeds have developed not from natural selection, but from selection by humans for various uses in different societies, leading to different proclivities for certain behaviors like retrieving, herding, and guarding, between breeds.” (Benson)

You might wonder now, after centuries of domestication, how dog intelligence compares to wolf intelligence. Once again, the answer depends on what kind of intelligence we look at. Dogs now show higher obedience and working intelligence, while wolves definitely demonstrate higher adaptive intelligence. This makes sense because both have developed the type of intelligence they need to survive.

For more about wolves vs dogs, watch this video:

How Would You Define and Measure Dog Intelligence?

Dog intelligence is the ability to learn, think, and solve problems. A dog’s intelligence depends primarily on his breed and on the training he receives. Based on the combination of these two factors, we can distinguish three types of dog intelligence:

• instinctive - what the dog is bred to do

• adaptive - the problems the dog learns to solve from living in the environment

• obedience and working - the equivalent of 'school learning'.

I will focus on the third type of intelligence because it is the only measurable one. In fact, experts have developed standard tests to quantify the mental ability of dogs to perform specific actions/works on request. They measure how quickly the dogs learn and how accurately they perform the requested task. As a result, they estimate an I.Q. value that is approximate. Many variables can affect the result: the timing, the environment, the treat, and mainly, the ability of the trainer.

To see dogs taking I.Q. tests, click on this hyperlink:

Is Your Dog a Canine Einstein? Dog IQ Tests

Ultimately, the dog’s I.Q. is a reflection of the trainer’s intelligence and ability to communicate with the dog. Following these tests and based on an AVERAGE performance by a group of dogs of the same breed, canine researchers attempted a list of the “Brightest Dogs” – I think it would be more correct to speak about “Brightest Breeds”.

Why Dogs?

There are many creatures on Earth with an excellent olfactory system. Why should we focus on dogs? Experiments have proven bees, pigs, and even cats excellent animals in detecting specific smells. You certainly understand the inconvenience of working with bees or pigs to detect drugs at an airport. But what about cats? Unfortunately, they have no interest in reporting the success of their findings to the trainer. The critical difference between dogs and cats is the way they relate to humans.

The story between man and dog is a very old one and deserves attention because it explains why the dog tries to please us when using its expertise. This pleasing attitude is decoded as “working/obedience” intelligence.

For a taste of working pigs, watch this video:

How Old Is the Dog-Man Story?

The initial relationship between man and dog is lost in time. The first man buried with his dog dates to 25000 B.C. Scientists tend to go back to the prehistoric era when weaker wolves would follow nomadic groups of people to eat their leftovers. On the one hand, the animals became accustomed to the presence of men and started to appreciate human beings as food providers. On the other hand, the nomadic community domesticated the wolves more inclined to respect human life and used them to perform what became the two traditional canine tasks: guarding and hunting. This is how man and dog co-evolution began.

Men hunting for deer with dogs- Valcamonica, Italy, 8000 to 6000 B.C.

For other images of dogs in history, watch this video:

Warning!

My journey into dogs’ mental abilities starts with a crucial warning: let us keep in mind that the idea of “intelligence” refers inevitably to humans. Any kind of explanation or measure of canine abilities has to take into account our human point of view.

Let us consider a paradox: imagine a world dominated by dogs that want to measure human abilities to perform canine tasks. Would it be fair for us to be “measured” on our ability to find a bone? For the same reason that this would be unfair, it is unfair to measure a dog’s intelligence based only on human signs.

After this clarification, I think it is appropriate to report that canine research proves that dogs’ mental abilities are similar to a two-year-old child. Canine researcher Stanley Coren concluded that dogs have the ability to solve complex problems, and they are more similar to human beings and to other primates than what the scientific world has so far recognized.

To visit Coren’s web site, click on this hyperlink: The Intelligence of Dogs

Dogs solve problems mainly through smell, their strongest sense to interact with the world. It is thanks to their smell and their ability to detect particular scents that humans have used them for centuries for different purposes, from finding truffles or drugs, to hunting for lively game or human remains.

For a better understanding of dog’s smell, watch this video:

What does the dog know?

We often say, "This is a clever dog". Is this an appropriate statement? Can we speak of intelligence about dogs? Can we measure dog’s intelligence? Is it true they can have a vocabulary? If yes, how many words? Is it the word or the tone of the term that makes a command efficient? Can we define an English vocabulary for dogs? Does the breed affect the dog's knowledge?

These and other questions I will try to answer through a journey into the mind and behavior of our four-legged friend. My main sources will be a book entitled "What the Dog Knows'', my personal experience with my dogs, Google and YouTube.

Foreword:

What the Dog Knows by Cat Warren

What the Dog Knows: The Science and Wonder of Working Dogs promises in the book cover “a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about four-legged working heroes.” What the book cover does not tell you is that the main character of the book – Solo, a beautiful German shepherd - is a cadaver dog. I was quite disappointed with the specific task he was asked to perform – finding human remains - and a little disgusted with the details of the treats he was offered.

To know more about cadaver dogs, click on this hyperlink:

Cadaver Dogs Video

The writing style, together with the cadaver work, was also an obstacle. The author is a University Associate Professor of Science Journalism, and her style is sometimes too academic. However, once I overcame Solo’s peculiar task and the reading difficulties, I found the book very interesting. The book gave me many ideas and insights into a dog’s knowledge and intelligence. The main benefit I received from the book, I must admit, was the scientific approach; the author backed up every statement she made. Her rigorous style was very helpful to me, because I tend to have more the soul of an artist rather than the mind of a scientist.