Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 16, 2013

B9

JUST FOR BEST FRIENDS

 Mountain Views News Saturday, March 16, 2013

COGNITIVE CAPACITY OF 
THE CANINE

PET OF THE WEEK 

SCOOBY DOO: #A4549197 


Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc

 It is no secret 
that the average 
domestic dog is 
capable of learning 
and responding to 
a wide variety of 
verbal commands. But, how many words can a dog understand and 
respond to? We humans typically use a short list of simple, single-
consonant terms in training our dogs such as ’sit’, ‘lay“, ’stay’, ‘good 
dog’, and ‘no’, right? As a dog walker and pet sitter I am pleased to 
say that I have yet to meet an owner who hasn’t taken the time to 
teach their pet at least one or two of these commands, and I think 
that is great. Most of us would agree that basic behavioral training 
for domestic pets definitely helps keep them happy and helps us 
maintain some semblance of order in the household.

 Historically, a canine’s capability of learning and obeying 
the human’s verbal commands has been associated more with 
the dog’s parsimonious survival instinct than intellectual or 
cognitive capacity. However, results of relatively recent scientific 
studies indicate that there is a lot more to the dog’s response to 
the human than we realized in the past. Recent studies show that 
dogs can apply previous personal experience to new situations, 
and have the capacity for selective imitation, which means they 
are independently capable of interpreting and imitating human 
behavior. The idea of selective imitation is more notoriously known 
to be applied to observational studies related to the growth of 
human infants, but recent findings say it also applies to the canine’s 
intellectual capabilities. Another recent finding is that dogs have 
no problem understanding the meaning of human gestures. This 
came as no new concept to me, because I often see my dogs notice 
and respond to my physical posture (good, bad or ugly) even when 
my human friends or family don’t notice. Another rather new-
found fact is that dogs are able to understand and respond to words 
they’ve never even heard before, when directly associated with a 
human‘s particular vocal tone, gesture or body language.

 The general consensus among contemporary canine behavioral 
research scientists is that the domestic dog’s ability to understand 
and respond to human interactivity is more related to cognitive 
capacity than survival instinct. While many mammalian species are 
apparently quite capable of learning and responding to our attempt 
to train them, the culturally cooperative nature of the canine is 
what sets it apart from other mammals. The main difference lies 
in the fact that the domestic dog harbors a certain loyalty towards 
the human that other mammals do not possess, presumably due 
to the fact that the dog has been taught to depend on the human 
for day-to-day nourishment and safety over the years, whereas 
other mammalian species have not. Another factor is that the dog 
genuinely enjoys the human’s company more than other mammals 
do. Whether this is related to the evolution and domestication of 
the canine is still in question. Who knows? Maybe the original wild 
dog (aka: wolf) was a natural-born people-pleaser from the very 
beginning. My guess is, no.

 Take “Chaser” for example. He is a six-year-old Border Collie 
trained to understand and comprehend more than 1,000 English 
spoken words. He even comprehends the words when they are used 
in a combination of simple sentences. Chaser responds correctly 
when told to either retrieve and deliver, nose, toe or hide a given 
object. We are talking about a collection of 1,000 different items, for 
each of which Chaser remembers the given name. Indeed, Border 
Collies are more attentive and trainable than many dog breeds, and 
they are considered to be more intelligent than most, but it is still 
amazing that any dog can perform a task involving such complex 
memory and problem-solving combinations.

 Another excellent example of the remarkable cognitive capability 
of the canine was shown in the results of a 2007 study at the University 
of Vienna in Austria where numerous dogs were prompted to select 
particular photos on a touch computer screen. The point of the 
study was to show that the subject canines could recognize and 
categorize the graphic matter in the photos per command, based on 
visual familiarity and memory. When shown different sets of dog 
and landscape photos, the tested canines consistently selected the 
appropriate photo per command, demonstrating that they could 
apply their own understanding and previous learning to a new 
situation totally un-related to previous experiences. The researchers 
further tested their four-legged subjects by showing pictures of a 
empty landscapes along with others of similar landscapes including 
a dog. Most subjects selected the pictures with the dog in the 
landscape versus those without a dog.

 To tell you the truth, I have personally never questioned whether 
my dog was at least as intelligent as I am, if not more, and it doesn’t 
matter to me whether she could select the correct picture in an 
experiment or remember a command I hoped to instill in her. Just 
knowing that the dog is capable of understanding, comprehending 
and responding to the human in the way it can is remarkable to 
me. I hope someday to have a better knowledge of what my dog 
is thinking, and perhaps learn from those thoughts. Meanwhile, 
I will continue to show love and respect and assume her level of 
intelligence based on research. Speak kind words and show positive 
physical gestures to your animals. They have so much to offer and 
it’s time we started learning from them just as they do from us. 
When you stop learning, you stop living. Hug your pet daily and 
don’t forget to love and let live.


Meet an amazing dog, the incredible Scooby-Doo (A4549197)! 
Scooby-Doo is a happy-go-lucky four year old tricolor and black 
neutered male Beagle mix who was forsaken at the Baldwin Park 
Animal Care Center with his companion Spiky (A4549198) on 
March 2nd after his former owners lost their home. Weighing 
seventeen pounds, Scooby-Doo is familiar with the concept 
of a leash but needs additional training. He does seem to be 
housetrained. He gets along well with most small dogs, but would 
rather avoid big ones, and we think he will do fine with kids. This 
is a medium-energy, clever, affectionate boy who loves belly rubs. 
Scooby-Doo is the perfect indoor pet for anyone anywhere. 

To watch a video of Scooby-Doo and Spiky, please visit: www.
youtube.com/watch?v=8iw0gRax26M

To meet Scooby-Doo in person, please see him at the Baldwin 
Park Animal Care Center, located at 4275 N. Elton St., Baldwin 
Park, CA 91706 (Phone: 626-430-2378 or 626-962-3577). He is 
currently available now. For any inquiries about Scooby-Doo, 
please reference his animal ID number: A4549197. The shelter 
is open seven days a week, 12 pm-7 pm Monday-Thursday and 
10am-5pm Friday-Sunday. This is a high-intake shelter with a 
great need for adoptions. 

For more information about Scooby-Doo or the adoption process, 
please contact United Hope for Animals Volunteer Adoption 
Coordinator Samantha at Samantha@hope4animals.org. To 
learn more about United Hope for Animals’ partnership with 
the Baldwin Park Shelter through its Shelter Support Program, 
as well as the many dogs of all breeds, ages, and sizes available for 
adoption in local shelters, visit http://www.unitedhope4animals.
org/about-us/shelter-support-program/.


We’d like to hear from you! 

What’s on YOUR Mind?

Contact us at: editor@mtnviewsnews.com or 
www.facebook.com/mountainviewsnews AND 
Twitter: @mtnviewsnews