Dog Breaks Vocabulary Record: Chaser The Border Collie Understands More Than 1,000 Words (VIDEO)

For some of us, it's hard to imagine our dogs understanding many more words than "sit" and "stay." Many of us can't even teach our dogs those simple words. But a border collie named Chaser has recently demonstrated a comprehension of over 1,000 words, putting many of our pets to shame.

Wofford College conducted a three-year experiment to test a dog's word comprehension limit. They introduced Chaser to 1,022 toys, and then asked her to fetch each one. Toys were grouped at random and placed in a separate room, as seen in this NewScientist video. Psychologist Alliston Reid reports that the dog completed over 838 tests, and always scored at least 90% correct.

The previous record-holder was a dog named Rico, who held a vocabulary of 200 words. Chaser has now far passed Rico in vocabulary knowledge.

Chaser's abilities places her at an intelligence level equivalent to a three-year-old human child. Now if only we could teach children to put away their toys as diligently as this dog...

WATCH this dog show off her vocab knowledge:

Comments

[colliesrtops]

11:13 PM on 01/22/2011

Hard to believe that the so-called record jumped from Rico's 200 (which my Collies did anyway) to Chaser's 1,022. That's an awful big jump, and I didn't see anything in the video to support this. BCs (Border Collies) are smart, but they are not "the smartest." That's been mostly a marketing move after the movie Babe some years back, and the BBC series A Man and His Dog. There are many intelligent individuals in many breeds and mixes, but certain breeds have been bred for centuries for their workability, versatility, and wits. The herding breeds appear to be tops in the brains department, but isn't just limited to BCs. In my book, their parent breed -- the COLLIE -- is even smarter, is an easy-to-live-with dog for the average person, none are better as a kid's dog, and they know when to settle down as opposed to the BC who shows clin signs as a breed of having OCD making them a bad choice for the average person to own. Used to be when one mentioned COLLIEpeople knew you were talking about the Scotch ollie (like Lassie). But now, people confuse the Border Collie a Collie descendant) with THE Collie. While both are super smart, there IS a diffreence between the breed. Regardless it's great to see and har of the super smart dogs!

[Lyndw]

01:55 AM on 01/21/2011

Another article said the trainer had to write the name on each item so he could remember the exact name when testing Chaser. I suspect Chaser cheated and read the names.

[SallyShears]

09:20 AM on 01/20/2011

I believe this. I have a lurcher mutt, and she can go looking for something when I ask "where is the..." She understands many commands, but also knows her reflection in a mirror and remembers individual people and behaves with them according to their personalities (like if they're very affectionate or not, or if they prefer to play or to snuggle).

As smart as dogs can be, you also have to remember that they live in the now. You can't punish a dog for something they did ten minutes ago; it's already long gone out of their minds and they really don't know why you're angry. (I've never had kids, but from what I've seen two and three year-olds are kind of the same way.)

[Curmudgette]

02:10 PM on 01/17/2011

Having been the proud owner of a border collie, who has since gone to her reward, I have to say that they are scary smart. Sometimes I swore she was gonna start talking. I have never seen a dog with such a range of expression, sensitivity, and sense of humor. They are amazing dogs.

[SallyShears]

09:16 AM on 01/20/2011

I think border collies are the smartest of all the breeds by far, aren't they?

You'd never think it, but standard poodles are really smart, too.

[IMissAmerica]

08:40 PM on 01/12/2011

My setter knows right from left. True!

[Justin Stamper]

12:25 PM on 01/12/2011

Buddhism teaches that we should seek to enlighten all creatures, even animals.

See what can happen when you raise a dog to it's full potential.

[g-moi]

11:13 AM on 01/12/2011

Animals also have feelings and friends. When I mention certain names my dog gets so happy and if at the park he will run back to the gate and start looking for his friend. He loves to play with his pals.

[amantedelibros]

05:49 AM on 01/12/2011

Love Border Collies :)

[MagicUnicorn]

07:51 PM on 01/11/2011

Thats cute but they could've rehearsed before they did the video. You never know. That dog might be trained!

[Fortune27]

11:22 PM on 01/11/2011

Aren't we "trained" to identify objects as children? Of course, the dog has been trained! You're kidding, right?

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

07:30 PM on 01/11/2011

Wonderful story. Thanks.

ps. I still say my poodles are smarter!

[sizogee]

06:44 PM on 01/11/2011

Chaser might look soft and cuddly, but he's actually a mean, mean dog. Don't trust him -- he'll take you out if given the chance.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

05:56 PM on 01/11/2011

"Chaser's abilities places her at an intelligence level equivalent to a three-year-old human child."

Three year old children may have a vocabulary of a thousand words, but they also have the ability to understand what words mean in the context of other words--ie, syntax. Lots of social animals make and understand sounds that correspond to a singular thing or event. This dog can make an astounding number of associations of sounds to items.

However, by no means does that mean it's as smart as a three year old, who should by that age be able to understand and form sentences, differentiate between nouns and verbs (including verbs and nouns that sound the same), etc. Without syntax, without grammar, it's not language.

[laaambchop]

12:08 AM on 01/12/2011

Very narrow interpretation of 'smart'...

[SolarPowerGuy]

04:25 AM on 01/12/2011

He has a point. There's a lot more to the intelligence of a three-year old than just vocabulary.

[colliesrtops]

11:19 PM on 01/22/2011

Sorry, but frankly our Collies are smarter (and, better behaved) than moats 3-year-old human children in my experience. There are super smart breeds like Collies, Border Collies, German Shepherds, Shelties, and Poodles, and there are just regular dogs who seem to learn things by rote. Some of our scary smart breeds appear to be as smart as perhaps a human 8-year-old (and, a few 12-yer-olds), so the comparison to a 3-year-old is not true in this case.

[Opening Shares]

05:07 PM on 01/11/2011

My cat told me to write this:
Silly humans, silly dogs. Humans think that just because dogs share the same neuroses to please people that that is intelligen­ce. Prrrlease!

[LiberalHick]

05:16 PM on 01/11/2011

Nicely done.

[Opening Shares]

05:26 PM on 01/11/2011

Thanks and sycophantically fanned.
I had to change that because instead of silly for one of the two times I used the word 5tp1d. Silly huh?

[NHGranite]

04:51 PM on 01/11/2011

I can tell what the crows in the trees are yelling about. They are communicating. They see a cat, they caw in a more mewing way, Caaat Caaat. And here comes the cat! Same thing with catbird and a mockingbird. Sometimes when my cat gets off her leash, the birds "tell" me where she is!
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Catbird/sounds page down for the MEWS

[LiberalHick]

04:53 PM on 01/11/2011

Crows and ravens are excellent communicators. Still, they lack language.

[NHGranite]

04:55 PM on 01/11/2011

Ok, you are wrong. If they can convey to me what they are seeing, it's a language. But you can split communication from language, good for you.

[Weehawk]

03:39 AM on 01/12/2011

Actually they make 250 different calls for different kinds of threats, etc. I'd call that language. There was a good episode of "Nature" about it.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/oct/21/nature-murder-crows/

[colliesrtops]

11:26 PM on 01/22/2011

I watched a program where they demonstrated how sper smart ravens and crows were. The birds wagched humans pull up fish through ice holes on their line and hooks. The humans got to where they weren't catching anymore fish on their unwatched lines. They set up a ideo camera which found that when they went away, a bird flew down, pulled up the line using beak and foot one section at a time, and took the fish! One way in which mankind thought that they were so superior to the other animals is that they used tools. It's been proven many times over that many other species and strains uses tools -- not all, but certain types of birds; not all, but certain ttypes of nonhuman primates (such as chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas); etc.

[j0em0mma]

04:37 PM on 01/11/2011

To be clear, HuffPo, my comment to @TheWarYouDontSee was a vile, delete-worthy statement, but his "I hope you d1e" is acceptable?

What is the MATTER with you???

[Cory111]

06:24 PM on 01/11/2011

It might be best if you two move your dog fight to another area, this topic is about intelligent dogs.

[j0em0mma]

06:27 PM on 01/11/2011

I'm not fighting with them, I am protesting the deletion of an attempt to peacefully moderate with the person in question. If you read through, you will note
a) I never spoke to this person except the aforementioned attempt
b) This person is in dire need of moderation and
c) The fact that those types of comments were allowed to persist while moderate admonishment was not is worthy of protest.

Thank You