Dogs show human-like learning ability

[ysengrin]

Friederike Range at the University of Vienna in Austria and colleagues trained the collie to always pull the lever with her paw. They also taught her to do the same while carrying a toy ball in her mouth ...

Forty other dogs – none of which had seen the food lever before – observed the well-trained collie pull it for a biscuit 10 times. Half of them saw the collie carry out the task with nothing in her mouth. Almost all of these observers used their paws when given a chance to tug the lever for food.

By comparison, nearly all the dogs in the audience that saw the collie demonstrate the trick while carrying a ball went on to use their mouths to pull the lever.

"We were very surprised to see this 'selective imitation' by the dogs," says Range, referring to how the dogs' actions depended on whether the Border collie carried a ball. "They didn't just copy blindly what they saw."

Article at New Scientist, with video.

Comments

[bosn.livejournal.com]

Wow, thats awfully close to saying that Dogs are self aware. Thats heresy in some religions.

[tiado-ab.livejournal.com]

In some religions, gravity is considered heresy still. :/