By Amanda Gardner
MONDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News) -- According to accumulating
research, the beloved family dog is really a toddler with a snout and
tail.
"Dogs basically have the developmental abilities equivalent to a human
2-year-old," said dog expert Stanley Coren, who was scheduled to present
recent canine research developments at the American Psychological
Association annual meeting this week in Toronto.
The average dog can learn 165 words, although "super dog" Rico, a
border collie, could understand 200 spoken words. Experts think some dogs
can learn up to 250 words.
Dogs can count up to four or five and can correct you if you
can't add one plus one.
One dog apparently learned to "read." Coren recounted the case of the
canine who was able to "deliver" mail addressed to two girls, one with a
short name and one with a long name. Although the owner thought the dog
was actually reading, it turns out the canine was gauging the length of
the name, not the individual characters, enabling him to deliver the mail
to the right person.
Different breeds of dog differ in their intelligence, with border
collies topping the list for working (instinctive) and obedience
intelligence. The next six smartest are poodles, German shepherds, golden
retrievers, Dobermans, Shetland sheepdogs and Labrador retrievers. (The
third type of dog smarts is adaptive or problem-solving ability.)
"There are two extreme viewpoints when we talk about dogs," said Coren,
professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia in
Vancouver and author of numerous books on dogs including How to Speak
Dog and How Dogs Think. "Some tend to think of dogs as if they
are little human beings with fur coats. The other extreme is to think of
dogs as if they're unthinking but programmable robots. My little beagle
would then be a beagle-shaped bag, a biological equivalent of transistors
and gears. The truth of the matter is somewhere in between."
More and more, scientists are realizing that dogs can think and solve
problems in ways previously thought to belong only to humans and higher
primates.
Indeed, one recent study also found that dogs were like 24-month-old
children, at least when it comes to figuring out where humans have hidden
a treat.
Like 2-year-olds, dogs can experience fear, anger, happiness and
disgust (perhaps at a human's sub-par math skills), but not guilt. Humans
don't feel guilt until about age 4, Coren said.
That doesn't mean they can't make humans feel guilty. That desolate
look when a dog's human leaves the house is probably legitimate. "Dogs are
pack animals," Coren explained.
Dogs apparently can ponder the meaning of "dog," in a way. According to
Coren, they do have a consciousness of self, though not as complex as that
of humans.
They also recognize differences among beings and are cognizant of
others' variable viewpoints and talents.
And they dream, as demonstrated through movements they make while
they're asleep.
Dogs can figure out how to get to the couch before you do and how to
operate a latch or other simple mechanism.
They can also deceive other dogs.
Not to mention people.
Coren has both a beagle (ranked seventh from the bottom in obedience
intelligence) and a cat. The cat is fed on the counter so the beagle can't
interfere with feline meal-time.
One time, though, the beagle started scrabbling around, digging at the
kitchen floor. "I was quite confused," Coren recalls. "He looked around
and continued again, then he looked up at me. I finally got down on my
hands and knees and he immediately jumped onto my back and onto the
counter. He decided his psychologist father could be used as a
ladder."
"This presentation asks and answers some very deep questions about if,
and then how, dogs might think," said Bonnie Beaver, a professor in the
department of small animal clinical sciences at the College of Veterinary
Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University. "[But]
there is always the possibility that generalizations do not quite fit the
data or that the original data may have been weak. Serious students of
dogs are advised to go back to original studies, lovers of dogs should
view this with interest and leave a little room for doubts."