that seems very intuitive..but then again i think thats always been the case with dogs...they are perseptive but i dont think that the research has come across any new finding really..
as we hav always known that dogs are perseptive and aware of there surroundings and dont just blindly mimick others

What a fascinatiing subject. I've been blessed with working with many dogs and horses that often surprised me with their problem solving skills.
I had a female Greyhound that I tried to do some obedience training with that didn't seem the least bit interested. I finally found a food item that she was excited about: canned whipped cream. She learned nothing that I tried to teach her ( the ONLY time this has happened) but learned to go into the refrigerator, find the can of whipped cream, take the cap off and help herself. She was also the only dog I ever had that could climb up and down a ladder to get on to the roof, and unlatch all of the gates. Spooky. The only way she could have learned any of these things is by watching us do them, though she modified the behaviours to suit her preferences; like climbing forward down the ladder instead of backward like we did. She had no behavioral problems and was always quiet and respectful, so I gave up on trying to train her as she was a pet, anyway. But I DID end up locking the fridge, moving the ladder and getting a different locking system for my gates . I wish there was more out there on this subject.
Not much surprises me anymore .

Anita, you beat me to it. I was fascinated by this article and wanted to share it.

Wow! The prospect of my dog being smarter than all my coworkers is - oh wait, I already knew that! - is very cool indeed.

Maybe it's dogs who belong on top of the food chain!

Just imagine a world where they were in charge - they have all of our intelligence and NONE of our bias, judgment, greed, selfishness or despicable desire to inflict pain on others!

What a nice world that would be.

Judy, you're overlimit in your in-box.

And back to our regularly-scheduled programming. :>

Connie, thanks, I'll go in and clear it up.

Finally, somebody beleives dogs learn by imitation. I have so often heard that 'if dogs learned by imitation, they'd run our credit cards up with dog toys and treats'. I have always disagreed, not that they can use our credit cards lol, but that they do watch us.
I had a female GSD that could not be left loose in the house until she was about 10 years old. She could open every door in the house (inside and out), the car door (oh, the times in the winter when we would go to the car just to find it filled with snow, or we would go to drive out the driveway and the passenger door would fly open. She could open all the cupboards and the fridge. She would open any kind of peel top container (margarine, tupperware etc..). She did not chew her way through anything, she opened them. She unpeeled cheese slices, untied garbage bags. When we sent her to the breeders, he had to put a lock on every door of her kennel, something he had never had to do with a dog before. Smartest dog I ever knew. She was something special, and I always challenged people to explain to me how she does this if I never taught her and dogs don't learn by imitation.
Hehe, well that is my story, I am just glad that they are finally studying how dogs imitate, I find it fascinating.

 Quote: mikelia_bradford

Finally, somebody beleives dogs learn by imitation.

In the book "Animals in Translation", the author makes a point to the effect:

"It makes sense for animals learn by imitation. It's a much better survival strategy than learning only through experience. If all gazelles had to learn by experience that lions like to eat them, there wouldn't be a lot of gazelles around. It's a lot safer to observe other gazelles avoiding lions and imitate that behavior."

What was fascinating in this study is just how sophisticated that imitation can be - it's not just "monkey see, monkey do." But that's probably a pretty good survival strategy, too - being able to selectively decide when to imitate a behavior.

Love those stories Mikelia and Kristel. I have a "Schutzkatz" who's pretty adept at opening cabinets, too. And the way he looks at me, I swear there are more than a few gears going round in his head.

Great book by Temple Grandin who has autism - which crosses into my line of work with people with Autism. I tell my dog trainer he would be great at my job but he just shakes his head. A great article posted here and importance of showing someone what you want them to do when there are communication issues.

Once my dog as in the car and for some reason he wanted to get to me - he had always been fine but maybe the yard full of other dogs worried him.

Long story short he tore up the vinyl on my door but the worst part of it was around the doorhandle so I think he knew that was a key to opening the door from watching me. He also bit the rearview mirror and chewed through my seatbelt so I don't know why he did that.

I wasn't mad - I just figured for some reason he felt he needed to "be there".

mmmm interesting.

So a smart dog can learn from imitation. Friends often tell me my dog is smart. I have to correct them. My dog is well trained, and trainable. If he were smart here are a few things he would have figured out by now:

1-That my garbage can is always open. My "starving" dog thinks I can see him all the time and has NEVER gotten into the garbage even though he has access to it when I am not home, and knows it is full of stuff he would love to eat. He has seen another dog steal food from my garbage.

2-That he can easily jump my fence and go pee and mark wearever he wants and chase cats. He has seen other dogs jump my fence!

3-That he can push doors open with his nose or paws. Despite seeing and other dogs do this, he never pushes doors open or scratches at them. He will wait quietly by the door to go in or out with out ever scratching or barking.

Outside of imitation, I think a smart dog is likely to try many different behaviours to be successful at their goal. Seems to me their goal must be something rewarding (food, freedom, to be with their people....)

My dog is dumb and I love to encourage his dumbness! Thank goodness I am still smarter than he is. I would love to how my dog would have done in that study