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Four Legged Thinker
Washington Post this morning carried this article on a new study on just how much language, exactly, a dog can pick up:
A series of careful studies concluded that the energetic German house dog has a stunningly large vocabulary of about 200 words and can even do something scientists thought only humans could do: figure out by the process of elimination that a sound he has never heard before must be the name of a toy he has never seen before.
Right now they're not sure if all dogs can do this, or if they've stumbled across some sort of doggy Einstein. What the paper based on the study does mostly is establish protocols and procedures that could allow behaviorists elsewhere to try and repeat their results.
Cats will always ignore you. That's because cats can only process information at a level equivalent to an 18 month old child. And a surly one at that. However, dogs can get to a full two years or so - and they want to make you happy.
From what I've heard, with the exception of lions, most cats are solitary animals. Dogs are almost always pack animals. Therefore, making pack-mates happy was a good thing and they learned these behaviors - thus leading to an increase in cognitive behaviors...
However - Dogs rule, cats drool!
Posted by: ron on June 11, 2004 02:10 PMUm..WRONGE site to say that Ron! ;P Only PONGO drools! :) Uma is a sweetie kitty!
BTW- you are also wrong on the cat thing. MOST large cats tend to be solitary. Domesticated cats inside and out live in colonies. Hence, your feral groups.
Posted by: ellen on June 11, 2004 02:16 PMAs a new cat person, or person owned by two cats, I am still learning about these furry critters. I find them so fascinating but miss the affection I had with my dogs. My cats are affectionate, in their fashion and on their terms. lol
Posted by: Pat on June 11, 2004 04:28 PMI hate it when the articles I read lead me down the wrong path. I do seem to remember something about feral domestic cats living in groups, but I didn't think they had any loyalty, alpha males/females, or the like...
ah vell - and Pongo doesn't drool. Sleeps, sheds hair, likes his little man, but not too much drooling...
Posted by: ron on June 11, 2004 06:29 PM