The smartest dog in the world | 60 Minutes Archive
Summary
TLDRThis '60 Minutes' segment delves into the cognitive abilities of dogs, challenging the notion that they're merely pets. Highlighting Chaser, the 'smartest dog in the world,' it showcases her vocabulary of over a thousand toy names and her understanding of nouns and verbs. The segment explores dogs' capacity for social inference, similar to human toddlers, and their neural responses to their owners' scents, indicating a deep emotional bond. It also introduces 'dognition,' a platform for dog owners to assess their pets' intelligence, emphasizing the complexity of canine cognition.
Takeaways
- đ Scientists have only recently begun to study dogs seriously, despite humans living with them for thousands of years.
- đŸ Chaser, a Border Collie, is known as the smartest dog in the world, having learned over 1,000 toy names.
- đ¶ Chaser has cognitive abilities similar to a two-year-old toddler, understanding words, sentences, and even the difference between nouns and verbs.
- đ§ Dogs like Chaser are capable of social inference, a cognitive skill similar to that of young children, allowing them to understand human gestures like pointing.
- đŹ Dr. Greg Burns has conducted brain scans on awake dogs, showing that dogs experience positive emotions when they recognize their owners' scents.
- đ Dogs and humans share a unique bond, evidenced by the release of the 'love hormone' oxytocin when they make eye contact or interact closely.
- đ Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist, believes dogs like Chaser are important for understanding animal cognition and has created a website to test dog intelligence.
- 𧩠Intelligence in dogs varies, just as it does in humans, with different dogs excelling in different cognitive areas like communication or memory.
- đ Chaser's exceptional abilities are not unique; many other dogs could potentially achieve similar feats with the right training.
- đ The close relationship between Chaser and her owner John Pilley is a result of extensive training and interaction, which has unlocked Chaser's full cognitive potential.
Q & A
How long have humans been living with dogs?
-Humans have been living with dogs for thousands of years.
Why haven't dogs been a focus of serious scientific study until recently?
-Dogs, despite sharing our lives, were never thought to be worthy of serious study compared to other animals like dolphins, apes, and chimps.
What is the significance of Chaser, the border collie mentioned in the script?
-Chaser has been called the smartest dog in the world and has been taught by her owner, John Pilley, to recognize the names of over a thousand toys, demonstrating advanced cognitive abilities in dogs.
How does John Pilley teach Chaser new words?
-John Pilley teaches Chaser by signing names to toys and using simple sentences, spending up to five hours a day, five days a week for nine years.
What is the size of Chaser's vocabulary and how was it measured?
-Chaser's vocabulary is over a thousand words, and it was measured through hundreds of tests over three years where she correctly identified 95 percent or more of the toys.
What breakthrough did Chaser have that allowed her to learn words faster?
-Chaser had an insight at five months old that objects have names, which allowed her to start learning words faster, similar to how young children learn.
What is social inference and how does it relate to Chaser's learning?
-Social inference is the capability to make inferences from social cues, such as pointing, which humans acquire around age one. Chaser demonstrated this ability, indicating a level of thinking previously not attributed to dogs.
How does Dr. Greg Burns study the canine brain?
-Dr. Greg Burns conducts brain scans on awake and unsedated dogs using an fMRI machine, training them to stay still during the scans.
What does the activation of the caudate nucleus in a dog's brain indicate?
-The activation of the caudate nucleus, or Reward Center, in a dog's brain when sniffing their owner's scent indicates a positive feeling and recognition of someone important to them.
What is the role of oxytocin in the bond between dogs and humans?
-Oxytocin, known as the love hormone, is released in both dogs and humans when they make eye contact, play, or touch, indicating a mutual bond and positive feelings.
What is Dognition and how does it help dog owners?
-Dognition is a science-based website created by Brian Hare where owners can play games to test their dog's brain power, helping them understand different types of intelligence in dogs.
Outlines
đŸ The Smartest Dog in the World: Chaser
The first paragraph introduces Chaser, a border collie who has been called the smartest dog in the world. John Pilley, a retired psychology professor, has been teaching Chaser like a child, using sign language to help her learn words and simple sentences. Over nine years, Chaser has learned the names of over a thousand toys, demonstrating her extensive vocabulary and understanding. Pilley's method of teaching involves treating Chaser as a two-year-old toddler, and her abilities have been scientifically tested and published. Chaser's intelligence is compared to that of a young child, and her capacity for learning is highlighted as a significant breakthrough in understanding canine cognition.
đ§ Canine Brain Research: Understanding Dog Intelligence
The second paragraph delves into the scientific exploration of dogs' cognitive abilities. Dr. Greg Burns, a neuroscientist, has been scanning the brains of awake, unsedated dogs to understand how they process information. His research focuses on the dogs' reactions to different scents, particularly their owners', and how these activate the brain's reward center. This area, known as the caudate nucleus, is associated with positive feelings and recognition of significant individuals. The study suggests that dogs experience a genuine emotional response to their owners, much like humans do in similar social contexts.
đ€ The Bond Between Dogs and Humans: Oxytocin and Beyond
The third paragraph discusses the bond between dogs and humans, emphasizing the role of oxytocin, often referred to as the 'love hormone.' This hormone is released in both dogs and humans during eye contact, touch, and play, suggesting a mutual enjoyment and bonding experience. Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist, has created a website called Dognition to help dog owners understand and test their dogs' cognitive abilities. The website offers insights into various types of intelligence in dogs, such as communication, empathy, cunning, and abstract reasoning. The paragraph also touches on the idea that every dog has the potential to be as remarkable as Chaser, given the right environment and stimulation.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄChaser
đĄInferential Reasoning
đĄNouns and Verbs
đĄSocial Inference
đĄCaudate Nucleus
đĄOxytocin
đĄBorder Collie
đĄfMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
đĄDognition
đĄCognitive Research on Dogs
Highlights
Dogs have been under-studied compared to other animals like dolphins and apes.
Chaser, a border collie, has been called the smartest dog in the world.
John Pilley, a retired psychology professor, has been teaching Chaser like a child, using toys and language.
Chaser has a vocabulary of over a thousand toy names, three times more than the average toddler.
Chaser's abilities were tested and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Chaser understands the difference between nouns and verbs and can combine them.
Chaser's learning is attributed to her ability to make social inferences, similar to human toddlers.
Dogs have shown to be capable of inferential reasoning, a previously unrecognized capability.
Dr. Greg Burns is conducting brain scans on awake, unsedated dogs to study their cognition.
MRI scans show dogs' brains react positively to the scent of their owners, indicating a strong bond.
The caudate nucleus or Reward Center in dogs' brains is stimulated by their owner's scent.
Oxytocin, the 'love hormone', is released in both dogs and humans during interaction.
Brian Hare created 'Dognition', a website for dog owners to test their dog's intelligence.
Dognition helps measure various types of intelligence in dogs, not just one.
Chaser scored highly on reasoning and memory in intelligence tests.
The relationship between humans and dogs has evolved over fifteen thousand years.
There are over 80 million dogs in the United States, outnumbering children.
Transcripts
60 Minutes rewind
human beings have lived with dogs for
thousands of years you'd think that
after all that time we'd have discovered
all there is to know about them but it
turns out that until recently scientists
didn't pay much attention to dogs
dolphins have been studied for decades
apes and chimps as well but dogs with
whom we share our lives were never
thought to be worthy of serious study as
a result we know very little about what
actually goes on inside dogs brains do
they really love us or are dogs just
licking us so they can get fed how much
of our language can they understand
but before you answer we want you to
meet Chaser who's been called the
smartest dog in the world
yeah we're going to Wilfred
good girl good girl good girl 86 year
old retired psychology professor John
pilley and his border collie Chaser are
inseparable we're almost there we're
almost there
you speak speak
do you viewed Chaser as a family pet as
a friend how do you see Chase she's our
child she's a child she's our child a
member of the family yo yes she comes
first
many people think of their dogs as
children but John pilley has been
teaching her like a child as well by
signing names to toys okay chase Billy
has been helping Chaser learn words and
simple sentences take kg he's been
teaching her up to five hours a day
five days a week for the past nine years
my best metaphor is this is a
two-year-old toddler that's how you
think about your dog a two-year-old
toddler yeah she has the capabilities of
a two-year-old chicken chicken chicken
where's chicken he's not kidding yes
good girl those two-year-old toddlers
and tough know about 300 words figure
eight figure eight
good girl that's figure eight chaser's
vocabulary is three times that to tub
she's learned the names more than a
thousand toys and all of those toys add
up wheel yes but you know to show us
chaser's collection pilly brought us to
his back porch so these are all the toys
in here yes
Chicken in here okay is there if I dump
them out please do please do okay there
are 800 cloth animals 116 different
balls and more than 100 plastic toys
1022 toys in all each with a unique name
so Chaser could recognize the names of
every one of these toys that's true
that's true to prove it pilly cataloged
the toys and then over the course of
three years gave Chaser hundreds of
tests like this Jason find Circle find
Circle in every test Chaser correctly
identified 95 percent or more of the
toys
the results were published in a
peer-reviewed scientific journal and a
star was born
Chaser even landed a book deal you too
but John pilley didn't stop with the
names of toys nose kg knows kg knows it
nosy good girl he's taught Chaser that
nouns and verbs have different meanings
it could be combined in a variety of
ways take wheel do it go do it okay out
out Chase take kg do it good good girl
good girl so she's actually
understanding the difference between
take paw putting her paw on something
and putting her nose on something right
and that's what we're demonstrating all
this learning has been possible pilly
says because of a breakthrough Chaser
had when she was just a puppy at certain
point she realized that objects have
names right it was an Insight it came to
her how could you tell that she'd
suddenly have that Insight well it was
in the fifth month and she'd learned
about 40 names and the time necessary to
work with her kept getting shorter and
shorter she was starting to learn words
faster and faster yes it's the closest
thing in animals we've seen to being
like what young children do as they're
learning words Brian Hare an
evolutionary Anthropologist at Duke
University believes Chaser is the most
important dog in the history of modern
scientific research this is very serious
science we're not talking about stupid
pet tricks where people have spent you
know hours trying to just you know train
a dog to do the same thing over and over
what's neat about what chaser's doing is
Chaser is learning tons literally
thousands of new things by using the
same ability that kids use when they
learn lots of words he's talking about
what researchers call social inference a
capability humans like Harrison Luke
acquire around age one okay to
demonstrate the concept hair hides a
ball under one of these two cups hey
looky Guy where is it can you get it can
you get the ball
Luke doesn't know which cup the ball is
under can you get it but when his father
points he makes an inference
you got it so what does that show you so
when kids his age start understanding
pointing it's right when
um the foundations of what lead to
language and culture start to develop
hey it might look simple but when hair
tried the same test with bonobos great
apes he studied for more than a decade
look what happened
bonobos are closest genetic relatives
can't do it you chose the wrong one but
here discovered dogs can you ready all
right I'm gonna hide in one of these two
places this two-year-old Labrador named
sisu has no trouble understanding the
meaning of pointing now she doesn't know
for sure which place that's right
there's no way she could know and I'm
just going to tell her where it is okay
so that's really hard for a lot of
animals and that's what's really special
about dogs is they're really similar to
even human toddlers that's a level of
thinking that people didn't really think
dogs could do right I mean there was no
evidence until the last decade that dogs
were capable of inferential reasoning
absolutely not so that's what's new
that's what's shocking is that of all
the species it's dogs that are showing a
couple of abilities that are really
important that allow humans to develop
culture and language it's not surprising
the dogs share characteristics with
humans after all we've evolved alongside
each other for more than fifteen
thousand years there are now some 80
million dogs in this country more dogs
than children but for all the playing
and petting the companionship we still
know very little about their brains Dr
Greg Burns a physician and
neuroscientist at Emory University has
studied the human brain for more than
two decades but three years ago
questions he had about his own dog
inspired him to start looking at the
canine brain it started out with the
desire to know really what does my dog
think of me I love my dog but do they
reciprocate in any way when they hear
you come home you know they start
jumping around is it just because they
expect you to feed them is this just a
scam by the dogs
our dog just big scammers yeah to try
and answer that question Dr Burns is
doing something scientists have had a
difficult time with he's conducting
brain scans on dogs while they're awake
and unsedated
inside the fmri machine they're trained
to stay completely still how hard is it
to get a dog to do this this represents
probably about three to four months of
training and so most of the dogs take
that long what's around tigger's head
here the scanner makes a lot of noise
it's quite loud and because dog's
hearing is more sensitive than ours we
have to protect their hearing just like
ours so we we put earplugs and ear muffs
and just wrap it all to just keep it in
place okay now we go up
Tigger certainly knows the drill that's
good once in the machine he lies down
and doesn't move
these scans are giving Dr Burns the
first Glimpse at how a dog's brain
actually works so these are slices of
tigger's brand that you're seeing yeah
exactly so we're slicing from top to
bottom we analyze them later to see
which parts increase in response to the
different signals well in the scanner
the dogs smell cotton swabs with
different scents first the underarm
sweat of a complete stranger next the
sweat of their owner as Dr Burns
expected when the dogs sniffed the swabs
the part of their brain associated with
smell an area right behind the nose
activated it didn't matter what the
scent was but it was when the dogs got a
whiff of their owner's sweat that
another area of the brain was stimulated
the caudate nucleus or Reward Center Dr
Burns believes that means the dog is
experiencing more than the good feeling
that comes with a meal it shows the dog
is recognizing somebody extremely
important to them it's the same area in
a human brain that activates when we
listen to a favorite song or anticipate
being with someone we love so just by
smelling the sweat of their owner it
triggers something in a much stronger
way than it does with a stranger right
which means that it's a positive feeling
a positive Association and and that's
something you can prove through MRIs
it's not just I mean previously people
would say well yeah obviously my dog
loves me I see it's tail wagging and it
seems really happy when it sees me right
now we're using the brain as as kind of
the test to say okay when we see
activity in in these reward centers that
means the dog is experiencing something
that it likes or it wants and it's a
good feeling my takeaway from this is
that I'm not being scammed by my dog did
you have that yeah yeah I worry about
that all the time the story will
continue after this
watch YouTube videos of dogs welcoming
home returning service members and it's
easy to see the bond between dogs and
their owners
Ryan Hare says there's even more proof
of that Bond it's found in our
bloodstreams we know that when dogs and
humans make eye contact that that
actually releases what's known as the
love hormone oxytocin in both the dog
and the human
turns out oxytocin the same hormone that
helps new mothers bond with their babies
is released in both dogs and humans when
they play touch or look into one
another's eyes thank you very much what
we know now is that when dogs are
actually looking at you they're
essentially hugging you with their eyes
really yes and so it's not just that
when a dog is making a lot of eye
contact with you that they're just
trying to get something from you it
actually probably is just really
enjoyable for them because they get an
oxytocin or they get an uptick in this
love hormone too all these new
discoveries about dogs have led Brian
Hare to create a science-based website
called dognition where owners can learn
to play games to test their dog's brain
power so you're allowing people to do an
intelligence test for their dog that's
exactly right and the idea though is
that there's not one type of
intelligence we help you measure things
like how your dog communicates how
empathic your dog is is your dog cunning
is your dog actually capable of abstract
thought like reasoning so there are
different kinds of intelligence for dogs
just like with humans absolutely and so
just like some humans are good at
English and others are good at math it's
the same for dogs when hair tested his
own dog a mixed breed named Tassie he
was surprised Eyes by what he learned
what I found out was that I had somebody
sleeping in my bed that I didn't even
know really and I didn't know my dog
doesn't really rely on its working
memory so if I'm saying sit and stay I
no longer have to wonder why my dog
wanders off he like literally forgot so
your dog's not the sharpest of dogs he
did great on uh communication he's very
communicative so he could basically be a
TV anchor see what you're saying yeah
fetch shirt that's shirt
there we go if you're wondering how
Chaser did on Brian Harris intelligence
test she was off the charts on reasoning
and memory
not surprising perhaps considering
Chaser is a Border Collie dogs bred
specifically for their ability to
understand how Farmers want their sheep
herded is Chaser just like an Einstein
of dogs so that's really fun is Chasers
somehow special and I think the idea
actually is that no I mean when uh Dr
pilley chose Chaser he just randomly
took her out of a litter
what's special is that he spent so much
time playing these games to help him
learn words but are there lots of
Chasers out there absolutely on your
mark
get set go
there's going to be a lot of people who
see this and are jealous of your
relationship with Chaser I mean I now
think about my own dog and kind of think
wow I've
I've missed the boat I haven't sort of
helped my dog live up to her potential
well uh start working with your dog more
yeah you're so sweet
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