Dr. John Pilley (1928-2018) was a psychology professor (behavioral psychologist) at Wofford College who worked extensively with dogs in his research. He had the most amazing Border Collie, Chaser, who learned to recognize over 1000 words, including the names for 1000 toys.
In 2009, Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson visited Pilley and Chaser to check out Chaser’s skills. Tyson took a random sampling of about 10 of Chaser’s toys and placed them behind a couch, without Chaser and Pilley watching. Tyson then called Chaser over and gave the command to find a specific toy, such as “Find Inky.” Out of nine tests, Chaser got every one correct.
Things got really interesting when Tyson pulled out a new toy that Chaser had never seen before: a Charles Darwin toy that he called “Darwin.” Tyson put seven toys behind the couch, along with Darwin, which Chaser had still not seen. The test? To see whether Chaser could pick out Darwin by inference. The result? You can probably guess, but check out the video at the link below to see this heart-warming story.
See the story HERE.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/chaser-smartest-dog/