Chaser (dog)
| Species | Dog |
|---|---|
| Breed | Border Collie |
| Sex | Female |
| Born | Chaser |
| Nation from | American |
| Title | The Smartest Dog In The World |
| Owner | Dr. John W. Pilley |
| chaserthebordercollie.com | |
Chaser is a Border Collie dog with the largest tested memory of any non-human animal.[1][2] She can identify 1,022 toys by their name and retrieve them. She was taught by retired Wofford College professor and psychologist Dr. John W. Pilley, with the formal research published.[2]
Chaser knows over a thousand names of items, more than any other animal of any species except humans. In addition to common nouns like house, ball and tree, she has memorized the names of more than one thousand toys and can retrieve any of them on command. Based on that learning, she and her owner and trainer, retired psychologist Dr. John W. Pilley, have moved on to further impressive feats, demonstrating her ability to understand sentences with multiple elements of grammar and to learn new behaviors by imitation.[3]
See also
- Betsy, a border collie known to understand over 340 words
- Rico, a border collie who was reported to understand over 200 words
- Koko, a gorilla who learned sign language
- Kanzi, a bonobo who has learnt language through keyboard lexigrams
- Alex, an African grey parrot known for intelligent use of speech
- Dog intelligence
- Ayumu, a chimpanzee
- Talking birds, including a budgerigar named Puck
- Animal cognition
References
- ↑ Nicholas Wade (January 27, 2011). "Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
- 1 2 "Smartest Dog". Popular Science. December 22, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
Psychologist John Pilley of Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., wanted to test if there was a limit to the amount of words a border collie could learn, so he taught Chaser the names of 1,022 toys, one by one, for three years. New Scientist reports that he got her to fetch the toy and then he repeated the name to reinforce her understanding.
- ↑ Dr. John W. Pilley and Hilary Hinzmann. Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows 1000 Words. One World Publications. ISBN 1780747020.