Dog understands 1,022 words

You can teach a pet dog some words like 'sit' or 'stay'. But how many words can a dog learn?

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercise. Remember you can read the transcript at any time.

Transcript

Speaker: Psychology professor John Pilley was interested in finding out how many words a dog can learn and seven years ago he found the perfect student, Chaser. Using crate loads of toys, John and his colleagues devised a groundbreaking study of canine intelligence. The toys all have names that Chaser has learned throughout her life and John picks eight at random.

John: Chase, let's play some. Chase, find Punt. Go get Punt. Bring Papa Punt. Do it, girl, do it. Yeah, good girl! Chase, find Roach. Find Roach. Find Roach. I want Roach. Good girl!

Speaker: John never looks at the toys on the mat, so to pick the right object Chaser has to actually understand what he's saying.

John: Yeah, there's, wow. In tub, in tub.

Speaker: In three years of intensive training, Chaser has learned an astounding 1,022 words. That's 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and over 800 cloth animals. But how does she do it? On the mat are five items Chaser knows and one new one she has never seen, a cat that John calls Meow.

John: Chase, find Meow, find Meow. Find Meow. Do it, girl. Do it. Do it. Do it, girl. Bring it to Papa.

Speaker: This task involves highly complex logic. The new word isn't in Chaser's vocabulary, so she has to understand that it might refer to an unfamiliar object.

John: Chase, get Meow. I want Meow. Do it, girl. Do it. Right now.

Speaker: The way to solve the puzzle is by a process of elimination.

John: Get Meow. Do it, do it. There's Meow. Come here, come here. That's good, good girl, good girl. Good girl, good girl.

Speaker: After only one trial, the new toy and the sound 'Meow' are lodged in her brain.

John: Watch Meow, catch Meow. Good girl!

Speaker: And it just goes to show that you can teach an old dog new tricks!

© BBC

Discussion

Do you think animals can understand human language?

Language level
Average: 5 (1 vote)
Personal online tutoring
EnglishScore Tutors is the British Council’s one-to-one tutoring platform for 13- to 17-year-olds.

Comments

Submitted by BlackPigeon2' on Mon, 02/06/2023 - 09:23

I think some animals can understand some words, but I think only the
most intelligent ones can do it, like dogs, horses, elephants and monkeys.

Yesterday I discovered that pigeons can understand words!

Submitted by LauraMar on Tue, 10/04/2022 - 23:14

Do you think animals can understand human language? The animals obviously can know human language but not all the words, that depends of the evolution or the memory of the dog, when the future is moving along the things can change, dogs could talk the human language or they could be the dog of the video.

Submitted by PolinaLogvinenko on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 13:34

I think that animals can't understand human language.

Submitted by valeAlgeciraM on Thu, 03/26/2020 - 17:39

yes, tis video show us that you can teach an old dog new tricks, and that the pets can understand the human language

Submitted by nohnoh on Sun, 12/22/2019 - 11:41

I think that not all animals can understand the language of humans. The dog is a smart one so he can do. If i get a dog one day i'll teach him some things i find that interesting.

Submitted by making_things_easier on Sat, 10/12/2019 - 10:27

yes, sometimes better than babies.

Submitted by GlebGrunichev on Tue, 06/26/2018 - 10:31

It's amazing for the dog.
Profile picture for user Golab50

Submitted by Golab50 on Sat, 03/10/2018 - 20:48

I don't think so. They can understand a few words like their names, but not an all human language !
English courses near you