2.11.11 - 11:00AM
- by
Jay Hathaway

Amazing Dog Knows 1,000 Words (And Has 1,000 Toys)

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Animals
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chaser the smart dog who knows 1000 words holding a darwin doll Astrophysicist and TV host Neil DeGrasse Tyson just did a story on an amazing dog named Chaser, who recognizes 1,000 different words. Sure, the words are all names for the 1,000 toys(!) in Chaser's collection, but she fetches the right one every time. That's quite a memory for a dog!

To put Chaser to the test, Neil gave her a Darwin doll she had never seen before, and then asked her to find it. It took two tries, but Chaser learned the name of her new toy. She's either a doggy supergenius, or an example of what normal dogs can do if we ask them. Heck, maybe your dog would have an awesome memory too if she had that many toys!

more dogs of science:// This Weiner Dog Plays Fetch with a Robot

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2.13.11

By Kitti

Neutral

I had a border collie mix who loved playing with toys. Each time I bought a new one for her I would tell her what it was and we would play with it. She had aproximately 25 that she could bring to me without hesitation. She even knew the difference between her pink ball and her blue ball. They were exactly the same except for color. She had a snowman and a santa clause who looked a lot alike...same colors..similiar chubby bodies but she always brought me the right one. She never missed. Her name was Chubs. She was a chubbly roly poly puppy and that name fit her. Her dad was a border collie and her mom was a purebred pomeranian. There was 3 puppies...all of them black and white and the peach colored mom. Needless to say the owners were Very surprised....LOL I miss her a lot and look at her picture often.

2.14.11

By YellowRose3218

Highest Rank

All dogs have the capability to do the same thing.
If we took the time to teach them gentally, we would be surprised at the things they are capable of doing.
I had a chihuahua that was almost as bright as this dog here.
With one or two words her knew exactly what we were saying, After a while of training, we had to spell somethings around him, the dog was smarter than some people are.
I have always thought that animals are gifts from God, and never to be abused.

2.14.11

By Allison Powers

Neutral

Our dog also learned the "spelling" for favorite words!

2.14.11

By joeomar

Neutral

Dogs understand English more than we realize. A while ago I was putting down my dogs' breakfast in the kitchen. Joshua the Labrador Retriever was on a couch in the other room and Harlan the Great Dane was lying down near the place where Joshua eats. I called to Joshua a couple times to come eat breakfast but he wasn't interested so I finally said "Joshua, if you don't eat your breakfast, Harlan's going to eat your breakfast". He JUMPED off the couch, trotted in the kitchen, growled once at Harlan and chomped down his kibbles. I certainly never TRAINED him to understand the phrase "Harlan's going to eat your breakfast", he recognized the keywords and figured out the meaning. He's almost nine and still surprises me.

2.14.11

By Bob

Neutral

Dogs are smarter than we give them credit for being. My Boston Terrier knew when I was getting ready to go the post office, grocery store, etc. Must have been the sight of me getting car keys or hat. He would bolt out the door to the center of the driveway and look up asking what vehicle we were going in. If I said " pickup" he went to the door of the of the pickup. If I said " car " he went to the car. Truly man's best friend.

2.14.11

By scoval711

Neutral

So big deal.
All the dogs who played Lassie, and now we are up tp Lassie 10, see Lassie.net, knew mor,e and know more, than 1,000 wortds, which is a small number, anyway.

I have a dog, a collie, (of course), who understands EXACTLY what I or anyone says to him---he may not be able to answer, but he UNDERSTANDS. The dog in this article is very intlligent, sure, but cannot compare to Lassie or my dog.

2.14.11

By Wendy

Neutral

My Shih Tzu only understands words that mean something good to him and ignores the rest. When I try to teach him something he pretends to go into a trance so I'll stop talking to him. He may not be the sharpest pencil in the box but he has me well trained.