Dogs are clever - it’s official!
Jan 7th, 2010 by max
There was a very interesting programme on TV last night, called Horizon - the secret life of the dog. If you happen to have missed it for some reason it is still available - on BBCi player!
I made my humans watch it with me, although Hilary had already spotted it in the TV listings and also had a text from her mother about it- which started “Don’t tell Monty!” Tim however was a bit scornful initially and I think he thought it was going to be a soppy sentimental programme!
Anyway this programme demonstrated scientifically how intelligent us canines are. Strangely it didn’t show any pawage of a dog doing a blog at the computer, but it did show dogs communicating with humans, following them pointing at objects (now that is something I have never got the hang of), and so on.
Most impressive (apart from the German Shepherds which appeared throughout the programme) was a Border Collie in Austria called Rosie who recognised over 130 words humans said, and could fetch appropriate objects on command, and also do this when shown a similar object (a larger ball for example) or even a picture of the object! She was really clever and very quick! The humans said she made me look stupid!
The programme also talked a lot about wolves and at one point compared the skull of a GSD and a wolf- barely distinguishable! It also showed how different us dogs are to wolves, and that if you try and domesticate wolf cubs they won’t become tame like dogs for several generations at least!
Anyway apart from making me feel a bit stupid for not understanding the pointing thing (it cannot really be anything more than an invite to lick the entended digit can it?) I thoroughly enjoyed the programme and it did prove that dogs are superior beings who have developed close bonds with humans!
