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Border Collie has Scientists Rethinking the Intelligence of
Dogs
Border Collie has Scientists Rethinking the Intelligence
of Dogs
Rico, a border collie, has learned more than 200 words
and displays an ability to learn new words very quickly.
by Steve Johnson, staff
June 11, 2004
In today's issue of the journal, "Science", researchers
at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
described a border collie named Rico that has an acute ability
to learn human language.
Rico has so far learned the names of over 200 objects, but
more importantly, demonstrated the ability to apply simple
logic.
In one test, Rico and his owner were placed in one room,
while several of Rico's toys were placed in another room.
The owner commanded Rico to fetch certain items by saying
their names. Rico was able to fetch the correct item in 37
out of 40 times. The fact that the owner was in one room while
the toys were in another prove that Rico could not receive
any other signals from his owner.
In another test, seven of Rico's toys were placed in the
room along with a new toy that Rico had never seen before.
His owner commanded Rico to fetch the new toy by calling a
name that Rico was unfamiliar with. Rico was able to correctly
return with the new toy in 7 out of 10 times, suggesting that
he was able to apply logic knowing that the other toys did
not match the name his owner called out.
Maybe this is the Albert Einstein of dogs. Or maybe this
is something that other dogs can do too," said Julia Fischer,
a biologist at the Max Planck Institute .
Some scientists seem to believe that dogs are much more intelligent
than currently believed, even going so far to suggest that
dogs might even be able to speak if they had the necessary
organs. "If Rico had a human vocal tract, one would presume
that he should be able to say the names of the items as well,
or at least try to do so," said Sue Savage-Rumbach, who studies
animal communication and intelligence at Georgia State University.
"It also raises the issue of whether Rico or other dogs or
mammals might already be trying to say words but have great
difficulty being understood."
Some skeptics however, have pointed out that being a border
collie, a breed of dog known for loving to play fetch, it's
not really a fair assessment of dogs in general. But while
most dogs can be trained to understand commands and names
of objects, Rico is unique for his large vocabulary of words,
and his ability to remember them weeks after.
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