A Big Yawn

So Pablo and I are not as deeply bonded as I’d thought. Sob. According to a recent NY Times article on canine intelligence, one way to test if you and your dog are strongly bonded is to yawn and see if your dog reciprocates. Well, I’ve yawned until my lips ache and Pablo just looks at me as if to say, “What is that crazy person doing?”

Above is a shot of Pablo yawning–just to show that he does know how!

Persistence Thy Name Is Pug

When Pablo first received this IQ toy from his grandma he found it a bit of a challenge. It’s really meant for a much bigger dog, one that can remove the yellow lids with its mouth. Pablo tried and tried, but his jaws only open so wide. Ever resourceful, he hammered at the lids with his paws. At first it took him anywhere from three to five minutes to remove a single lid and retrieve a tasty bit of duck jerky tucked underneath. Practice makes perfect, though, and he’s whittled his time down to three and a half minutes to remove all four! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When food is involved, this pug is a genius!

Pablo’s Thank You Letter to His Gammy

Dear Grandma,

Thank you for coming to my birthday party last Thursday. And thank you for my presents! I loved the Happy Birthday biscuit. I would have gobbled it up by now, but a Certain Someone insists on doling it out in little bits each day. Maybe you could have a talk with her…..?

The Dog Toy from Hell

The spiffy new puzzle you got me also gets me treats. Except it’s a little hard for me. It’s not that I’m a dope, Grandma! You see, my mouth just isn’t big enough to lift off the lids the way you’re supposed to. I try and try, because I know that a yummy treat’s inside.

And I’m resourceful, Grandma. I am! I knock it around and bang it with my paws until a lid pops open. Sometimes I make so much noise I can hardly hear the big folks screaming at me to stop it already. So Grandma, once again,your plan worked! You present is driving those guys nuts and it’s getting me more treats than before. I love you, Grandma!

Your very smart grandpug,

Pablo

Pablo Is Learning ASL

For the past month I’ve been taking a continuing-ed class in American Sign Language (ASL). I’m writing a book on the subject for a client so I thought it would be useful if I could learn some basic signs. And it has helped. Enormously. If nothing else, I’ve discovered how hard it is to contort my hands into different shapes, not to mention memorizing the manual alphabet and all the many signs.

To reinforce what I’m learning, I decided to teach Pablo some simple signs. BTW, teaching dogs ASL is not unheard of. A few breeds, such as Dalmatians, are genetically prone to deafness and older dogs can become deaf as well. The first sign I taught Pablo is SIT, which I fingerspell. SIT has its own sign, of course, but fingerspelling seems to work better with Pablo.

After a few tries, Pablo caught on–and here’s the amazing part, he’ll sit even when I don’t have food! He doesn’t do that when I give him the verbal command–just looks at me as if he’s thinking “What’s in it for me?” I wish I had known ASL when he was a pup. Think of all the commands he would know by now!

 

Animal Smarts

Chaser

Watched the Nova scienceNOW episode on animal intelligence on PBS last Wednesday and it was pretty good. The hour-long show featured dogs, dolphins, octopuses, and Alex, an African parrot. The highlight of the dog section was a border collie named Chaser. What an amazing dog! As mentioned previously in this blog, Chaser knows the names of more than 1,000 of her toys. In the special, she is told to fetch a specific toy from a bunch hidden behind a couch. Off she trots and time after time she brings back the correct one. Then comes the show stopper. A toy that she has never seen before (a plush figure of Darwin–clever!) is placed in the pile. Chaser is instructed to fetch Darwin, an unfamiliar name. Can she do it? It’s obvious the dog is befuddled. She noses around the pile of toys. All but one are familiar. Will she be be able to infer that the one toy whose name she doesn’t know must be Darwin? She’s called back and again told to find Darwin. This time, success! She grabs Darwin and bring the toy back to lavish praise.

While these feats of canine intelligence were being portrayed on the screen, Pablo snored by my side, unimpressed. Chaser was doing all this work and not getting treats? Pablo was having none of it!

My second favorite section was the one on octopuses. I’ve always found cephalopods to be fascinating creatures, the way they jet around, instantly camouflage themselves, and escape from predators in a blast of inky smoke. In this section viewers were introduced to Ruby, an octopus able to problem solve. In his home at the Biomes Marine Center in North Kingstown, Ruby was given a jar with a twist-on lid. Inside was a delectable shrimp. Not shown how to open the jar, the mollusk sometimes tightened it instead. Through trial and error, Ruby learned how to consistently open the lid and retrieve his snack. Sadly, Ruby died a year ago. His memory lives on.

Ruby

And Thereby Hangs a Tail

And the longer it is, the better. At least according to a recent study entitled “Behavioral responses of Canis familiaris to different tail lengths of a remotely-controlled life-size dog replica.”

Say what????

In simple terms, does the length of a dog’s tail matter to other dogs? Sorry, Pablo. The answer is yes.

In the study, 500 dogs were videotaped as they approached a robot dog with either a short tail or a long one. Sometimes the tail was wagging and sometimes it was still. The results? A wagging long tail won out. Dogs were more likely to approach this robot without hesitation than a robot with a short tail, whether wagging or still. The researchers concluded that dogs find it easier to understand what a tail is saying (one way dogs communicate is through their tails) when the tail is long. Dogs with short, curled, or docked tails have a harder time getting their messages across.

Read more about the story in this blog post by Bark magazine, while I go and console Pablo.

Chaser, One Smart Dog

Chaser (Cass Sapir/Nova Science Now)

 

Last summer I tested Pablo’s IQ, and while he did more than okay on some tasks (those having to do with food), in others he was sorely lacking. Well perhaps there’s hope for him yet! An article in today’s New York Times features a border collie named Chaser, and she knows more than 1,000 words. Not only that, she’s a wiz with grammar too, able to distinguish between nouns and verbs. Pretty impressive!

John W. Pilley, the scientist who taught the pooch her vocabulary, got Chaser as a pup in 2004. He worked with her four to five hours every day, teaching her a word or two a day. Chaser loved the challenge and still does, badgering him if they slack off. According to Pilley, “I’m 82, and I have to go to bed to get away from her.”

Chaser knows way more words than Rico, a border collie living in Germany, that was recently featured on the NOVA’s Dogs Decoded. A new NOVA episode, How Smart Are Dogs?, will air on February 9th, and this one will highlight Chaser. Can’t wait to see it. And, maybe, just maybe, Pablo will learn something to make his IQ go up a point or two.

Decoding Dogs

I watched a very informative NOVA show about dogs and genetics last night on PBS. Called Dogs Decoded, it covered a range of topics from how dogs evolved to how they communicate with humans. While a lot of it wasn’t new to me, for instance how wild foxes can be domesticated just like dogs, some was. There is an amazing scene of a border collie living in Germany that knows more than 300 words and that can retrieve an object in another room by looking at a two-dimensional image of it. Overall the entire show was very well presented and the focus was on the science and not on showing dogs being adorable (although of course they were). And a pair of pugs were among the pets featured!

If you can’t catch it on TV, watch it on-line here. The site also has some cool interactive features, such as trying your hand at interpreting barks and matching breeds to where they originated.

What It All Means

Now that Pablo’s IQ test is finished, what are the results? Let’s add up his test scores:

Test #1   5 points

Test #2   5 points

Test #3   4 points

Test #4   4 points

Test #5   5 points

Test #6   1 point

Total:    24 points

Scoring

More than 25 points     Your dog is a genius

15-15 points    Your dog is smart, but won’t go to Harvard

5 to 15 points     Your dog isn’t too bright, but most likely very cute

Below 5 points   No comment, but check for pulse

Pablo missed being a genius by 1 point!

In conclusion, I have severe misgivings about this test. As others have commented, a lot depends on how motivated a dog is. If  a dog isn’t a fiend for treats the way Pablo is, he/she might not score as high on some tests. Does that mean the dog isn’t intelligent? Not necessarily. Also, Pablo did very well freeing himself from the towel (test #2). But ever since he was a puppy, after a bath we’ve played a game where I chase him and throw a towel over him as he wriggles away. Did this game give him an unfair advantage?

Now that you know your dog’s IQ, do you wonder about your own? After spending a week  testing Pablo’s, I know I question my own intelligence (and sanity). Here’s a quiz from Mensa. While not a valid IQ test, you will still find out how you measure up in the brain department. So go on, what are you afraid of?

IQ Test #6

The last test of the series. And Pablo flunked. Big time.

A test of language comprehension, it requires that your dog have a name. Once your dog is settled about 6 feet away from you, call to him/her. But instead of saying your dog’s name, call out “refrigerator.”

Scoring

If your dog shows some response to come     3 points

If your dog does not come, call “movies” and if he/she comes     2 points

If after all this, your dog shows no response, call it by its true name. If your dog then comes or shows any tendency to move to you     5 points

If your dog hasn’t moved, call its name again. If he/she comes     4 points

If your dog still doesn’t come     1 point

Pablo was sitting a few feet away from me. I called “refrigerator.” His ears pricked up, registering it, but he made no move to come. I then called “movies.” Again, a flicker of the ear, but he made no other move. Finally I called “Pablo.” This time he cocked his head and gave me his quizzical look. I called “Pablo” a second time, but he remained where he was. Scoring: 1 point

Now I know damn well that Pablo knows his name. He also knows the words “toys,” “breakfast,” and “dinner,” among others. However, Pablo has never been one to come when called (unless his best interests are involved). This is the major reason I never let him off leash when outside, except in a fenced-in area. I can’t trust him to come when called. So to me this was more a test of Pablo’s obedience, not his language skills. And obedience-wise, he’s a dope.

It is a wise pug who knows his own name.