Yes I have noticed surprising signs of intelligence from my critters. Ferrets are a lot smarter than people give them credit for - as are rats. I trained my ferrets and when I had them I trained my rats. They sit, down, stay, come, etc.

My cat is extremely intelligent.

Duke recently surprised me.. I left in my car and picked up my cousin from the airport. Cousin needed to borrow my car, he dropped me off at the end of the driveway, I walked up the driveway (very long driveway) and he took off. The pups were happy to see me, I played with Duke for a moment and went inside. Two hours later my cousin pulls up in my car and Duke went nutso even before my cousin was within sight, in my car and after he could see the car.

Duke and all the dogs around here are used to our vehicles, there are 5 vehicles that come and go on a regular basis and after the dogs got used to the specific vehicles they didn't alert to them pulling up the driveway anymore. Duke knows my car, nothing has happened to make my car sound different, no strange music. I'm not the only one that drives my car - 2 other people that live here drive my car now and again and Duke has never alerted to the car when they drove it.

Did Duke somehow know that I was not in MY car(must be a stranger?) Who knows. It shocked me to say the least, that he barked before he could even see the car coming up the driveway. I expected him to bark when he saw my cousin (doesn't know him) but not at my car.

Random little things through the years have made me realize how smart four leggers can be.

Like my horse watching me untie the grain bucket from the fence and walking to the next one on the line and untying it. Not biting through it, he untied it with his mouth, then brought the bucket over to me.

It's called fast mapping when a dog can identify something unknown by the process of elimination. Name/word they don't recognize combined with a toy they have never seen.

I've heard of dogs being trained on computers the way great apes and monkeys are. They do quite well.

I'll have to email the radio host and find out the person's name but I heard in a radio interview with a lady in northern california a few months ago that's working with teaching german sheperds sign language for purposes of search and rescue. She had done work in the past teaching signlanguage to a horse and her personal dog to see if it was possible. Her dog at home distinctly signs for kibble, chicken, beef, certain toys, certain people, leash, car, where does it hurt?, and a few others.

The commands she's looking for the S&R dog to sign back are dead, alive, basic numbers, person, man, woman, or animal.

It was a cool interview. I'll see if i can find a podcast of it somewhere.

Probably the best part of the whole interview was when she mentioned pointing to the cat and said "what's that" and the dog made the sign for Toy.

Melissa, that sounds really interesting.. maybe I am dense, but how would a dog sign? Using paws? I feel silly for asking but I know teaching a dog to understand hand signs, but never heard of teaching a dog to actually sign. Intrigueing!

I have my own ideas regarding S&R work, though - I will be getting a white necked raven next year and I will be training it for S&R to be used alone or with dogs. I think people know how smart parrots and other birds are but they don't utilize that intelligence for anything but tricks.

I am way too ambitious. Hah.

 Quote: Jennifer Marshal

. . . I will be getting a white necked raven next year and I will be training it for S&R to be used alone or with dogs. I think people know how smart parrots and other birds are but they don't utilize that intelligence for anything but tricks. . .

Then you'll like the portions of the NG article about the parrot, New Caledonian crows and Scrub jays.

It's interesting, as pointed out in the article, that many human cognitive psychologists refuse to concede that some animals show signs of mental abilities similar to ours.

Mike

I will have to go buy that issue I love birds, especially corvids. Would be nice to know what other people were doing regarding formal non trick training for birds.

I'd love to read other people's personal accounts of canine or otherwise four legged intelligence. I think this was touched on in another thread.

The NGC had a special on Canine intelligence: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ET/popup/200802151500.html

They also had another show that I can't find the info for.. it was NGC Explorer: the Science of Dogs. Great stuff.

It was a very interesting interview. It was the best time I've ever had stuck in traffic at 11pm.

Basically the dog signed back using sweeping, tapping and other motions with feet or in the case of where does it hurt pointing with her nose to where she felt a pressure sensation moments prior. (they didn't actually hurt the dog). She got the idea for that one after speaking with a vet and she mentioned how different and helpful diagnosis would be if the dog themselves could tell you where it hurt or ached.
The idea of your dog truly talking back is an interesting one. I often thought it would be interesting to have a bomb or drug detection dog tell you which type of item they have a hit on or in the case of an S&R dog how many people are in that rubble or if they're alive or dead.

My Dobe was crazy about a frozen ice cream type treat called Frosty Paws and once or twice a week I would give her one at bed time. One night there was an empty laying on her bed and she picked it up, led me back into the kitchen and stopped in front of the fridge where she put the empty down then looked up at the freezer and started barking. You can bet she got another one.


Lisa

Melissa, did you happen to find that podcast? I am very interested in hearing it. I know my GSD can follow my hand signals but I think it would be neat if she could signal back.

Sandy

P.S. I think my GSD has already given me a few paw signs but I don't think its anything I can repeat in a public forum.

I'm not sure yet if I can get the pod cast. I sent an email to the interviewer who is no longer with the company he did that show for but *fingers crossed* let's see what I can get.