On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:32:03 -0700, "mgg" wrote:


"Wizard of Woodstock" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:59:36 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

However, anybody with a dog will realize their pet is capable of some
sort of reasoning and intelligence.

I wouldn't say some sort - I would say that dogs are fully capable of
reasoning and even the average dog has innate intelligence.

When these discussions come up, I always point to my buddy Duke Doggee
Dog who was a blind Border Collie. He had a vocabulary of 350 plus
words, he understood complex sentences and even offer an opinion from
time-to-time. :)

Proof of the pudding that dogs can reason and even rationalize was
Duke and one other dog I had in the service - a Belgian Shepard named
Major. Duke was blind, but I didn't know it until he was five - I
happened to notice calcium deposits in his eyes and took him to the
top veterinary opthamologist at Tufts Vet School who tested him and
calmly asked me if I knew he was blind. :)

Major could even read body language, had a similar vocabulary to Duke
and had an uncanny ability to work off leash to a complex set of hand
commands.

Even average dogs have 200+ word vocabularies - it's just a difference
in levels of intelligence.

Just like in humans.

I have a 7 year old German Shephard Dog, and I PROMISE you he is more
intelligent than some in this group.

Seriously though, I talk to him in sentances, not commands. He understands
just fine. I just wish he could talk.

He does - you just don't understand what he's saying. :)

Duke was simply amazing at that - he had about eleven distinct
"sounds" and sometimes could link them together to make a "sentence".
I knew exactly what he was "saying" - others just heard noise.

Same with Major, but you have to understand that both of those dogs
were with me 24/7/365 - I knew the dogs behaviors as well as they knew
mine.