A new article in Time Magazine shows that dogs may well be smarter than we thought. Seems Brian Hare, an anthropologist at Duke, has worked out an experiment that shows that a dog can respond to a finger point. Now those of you who have trained your dogs using hand signals may not think this is too ground-breaking, but apparently, it’s quite an accomplishment. From the article:
Consider…all the mental work that goes into figuring out what a pointed finger means: paying close attention to a person, recognizing that a gesture reflects a thought, that another animal can even have a thought.
When you think about it that way, I guess it is pretty remarkable! Apparently, no other animal (besides man) is capable of interpreting a gesture.
The article goes on to discuss other evidence of intelligence in dogs, as well as looking at how these abilities developed. It’s a bit long, but worth the time – very interesting!
OK, now I have to be snarky for just a minute. Does anyone else think it’s funny that the picture from the article (shown above) shows a greyhound and a guy named HARE? Wonder if the dog chases him around the lab???? Wonder if his mother knows she paid for his education only to find him playing with dogs!
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!