Meet the Wonder Dog Chaser

Just as children learn to associate rudimentary words with pictures, the Border collie named Chaser has learned over 1,000 words! -But wait, dogs can’t talk… right? -No, they cannot. This amazing dog cannot speak, she is able to remember the names of her toys and fetch a specific one by name. Chaser has even been able to find a new toy amongst her known toys without ever seeing it before.

The Border collie breed has for hundreds of years been agreed upon by farmer, breeders, and trainers to be an especially smart breed. Among the consensus Psychologist John Pilley became Chaser’s owner and trainer and worked with Chaser for over three years, while working to discover if there was a limit of words Chaser could learn. Patiently Pilley and Reid taught Chaser the names of toys during those three years.

To begin training Chaser would be shown one toy for an extensive time period, hoping to avoid simultaneous training because that could confuse Chaser. As Chaser continued to learn more and more vocabulary Reid and Pilley regularly tested Chaser by putting random groups of 20 toys into a room and have her find a specific toy by name. 

Chaser As Seen On TV

On a TV appearance Chaser was set up to find a completely new toy, named Darwin that she had never seen or heard of before. The toy was placed among a lot of her old toys when she was asked to find the new toy. Although, at first stumped by the new toy it took her only two tries to find the toy.  In order to make sure that Chaser was not associating the names of her toys with the word fetch, Chaser was taught to paw, nose, and fetch her toys to assure no confusion. Also to prevent “cheating” Pilley would stand behind a screen or leave the toys in a different room so Chaser would not be able to see any hints in Pilley’s face as to the whereabouts of her toys.

This amazing feat is something that will hopefully lead to new knowledge on how children learn. When children grow they learn about 10 new words a day. Chaser of course learned each word slower because she had nothing to relate the new sounds too. Just as she was able to fetch the new toy she had never seen before children as well learn by exclusion.

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CHECK OUT THE AMAZING DOG CHASER LEARN ABOUT TOY DARWIN! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8HFdPMsiM