How smart is your lab? If you base it on social media, you’d think they’re extremely intelligent. They seem to be the equivalent of four-footed humans in fur coats, at least sometimes. Research of late has done a lot of looking into the phenomenon behind the higher mental abilities in dogs. Pavlov only studied simple reflexes.
Perhaps one breakthrough when it comes to the cognitive abilities of our dogs, came around in the 1990s. At that time, I was reading a lot of books about dogs and their abilities to process things themselves and also react socially to other environmental factors. One of the tests seemed simple. If a dog could pass the test, he demonstrated that mental ability. Scores were based on age and cognitive abilities in humans this led researchers to conclude that most canines have cognitive abilities that truly mimic human children, especially toddler age. They can know approximately 200 words which is amazing. They can understand gestures and read body language like an FBI agent. They even can learn and understand several languages!!!!!
FUN FACT: based on careful research and controlled research, perhaps the most linguistically talented dog to date with “Chaser,” of border collie owned by a retired psychologist. Chaser had a vocabulary of about 1000 words which is equivalent to what we might expect of a 3 to 4-year-old human child. He even recognized the word “ball”– but also its various sizes and textures as well.
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