Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County Lead Lines February, 2017 Lead Lines A Newsletter for Members February, 2017 1 Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County Lead Lines February, 2017 Inside this Issue 2017 Club Officers President - Betty Gansky Dogs Really Do Understand 3 Vice President - Steve Campbell Rating a Dog’s Intelligence 4 Treasurer - Fran Smith Brags 6 Recording Secretary - Celeste Platte Club Events & Volunteer 9 Corresponding Secretary - Liese Hookey Board Members at Large: Diane Wolak, Nancy Honhchar , Page Athan Obedience Coordinator - Marti Hohmann Tracking Coordinator - Agility Coordinator - Barbara Bounds, Kim Carey, Assistant Lead Lines Editor - Celeste Platte - EMAIL ADDRESS for all things Lead Lines - [email protected] REMINDER The next general meeting will be held Monday, March 6, 2017 @ 7:00 PM at the OTCPBC Building. 1250 Gateway Road, Lake Park Light refreshments will be served after the meeting. 2 Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County Lead Lines February, 2017 Research Shows Dogs Really Do Understand Humans This is What’s Trending Today.... Researchers at a university in Hungary say there is truth to what many dog owners always believed. Dogs do understand what humans say. The researchers made images of the brains of 13 dogs using a machine that records brain activity. The dogs were trained to lie down in the machine for seven minutes. During that time, they listened through headphones to their trainers’ voices. Dog owners may think the news is not surprising. But scientists are impressed. Brian Hare is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. He called one of the findings a “shocker.” The brain imaging showed dogs processed words using the left side of their brains, just as humans do. They use the right side of their brains to understand tone and pitch. The study showed dogs understand words and how they are said. Meaningful words said in a neutral way did not have the same effect as the same words said in an encouraging way. Attila Andics was the lead researcher on the project. “Dog brains care about both what we say and how we say it,” he said. Researchers say they think dogs are tuned in to what people say because dogs have lived with people for a long time. Andics said he thinks other animals probably can understand human language like dogs do. But those ani- mals are not very interested in what humans have to say. People reacted to the story on Facebook and Twitter. They said they always knew their pets could under- stand them. And they were happy to see scientific support for what they experienced every day. One reader from Virginia said she thought her dog could probably read her mind, too. Published by VOA – Learning English What’s Trending Today, August 2016 3 Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County Lead Lines February, 2017 There's no easy way to rate dog intelligence. T20. Standard schnauzer 23. Brittany spaniel As the psychologist Stanley Coren wrote in the '90s, T24. Cocker spaniel there's adaptive intelligence (i.e., figuring stuff out), T24. Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever working intelligence (i.e., following orders), and instinc- 26. Weimaraner tive intelligence (i.e., innate talent) — not to mention spa- T27. Belgian Malinois tial intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal T27. Bernese mountain dog intelligence, and more. 29. Pomeranian 30. Irish water spaniel As the animal behaviorist Frans de Waal has argued, hu- 31. Vizsla mans tend to judge animal intelligence in limited and un- 32. Cardigan Welsh corgi fair terms and often bungle the experiment. THIRD TIER — above-average working dogs, who tend to learn a new trick in 15 to 25 repetitions and obey at While labs at Yale and Duke, and around the world, are least 70% of the time. studying this question, for now we have data on at least one metric: working intelligence. The Chesapeake Bay retriever is an above-average work- ing dog. In his book "The Intelligence of Dogs," Coren featured the results of a lengthy survey of 199 dog-obedience judg- T33. Chesapeake Bay retriever es. The responses, he said, were remarkably consistent. T33. Puli However, he noted that many judges said that there are T33. Yorkshire terrier exceptions in every breed and that a lot comes down to T36. Giant schnauzer training. T36. Portuguese water dog T36. Airedale Here's what he found: T36. Bouvier des Flandres TOP TIER — the brightest working dogs, who tend to T40. Border terrier learn a new command in less than five seconds and obey T40. Briard at least 95% of the time. 42. Welsh springer spaniel 43. Manchester terrier A border collie shows how it's done. Dan Kitwood 44. Samoyed 1. Border collie T45. Field spaniel 2. Poodle T45. Newfoundland 3. German shepherd T45. Australian terrier 4. Golden retriever T45. American Staffordshire terrier 5. Doberman pinscher T45. Gordon setter 6. Shetland sheepdog T45. Bearded collie 7. Labrador retriever T51. American Eskimo dog 8. Papillon T51. Cairn terrier 9. Rottweiler T51. Kerry blue terrier 10. Australian cattle dog T51. Irish setter 55. Norwegian elkhound SECOND TIER — excellent working dogs, who tend to T56. Affenpinscher learn a new command in five to 15 exposures and obey at T56. Silky terrier least 85% of the time. T56. Miniature pinscher T56. English setter Don't underestimate the small Pembroke Welsh cor- T56. Pharaoh hound gi. Pmuths1956 on Wikimedia Commons T56. Clumber spaniel 62. Norwich terrier 11. Pembroke Welsh corgi 63. Dalmatian 12. Miniature schnauzer 13. English springer spaniel FOURTH TIER — average working dogs, who tend to 14. Belgian Tervuren learn a new trick in 25 to 40 repetitions and obey at least T15. Schipperke 50% of the time. T15. Belgian sheepdog T17. Collie The soft-coated wheaten terrier is about average at fol- T17. Keeshond lowing orders. Shutterstock 19. German short-haired pointer T64. Soft-coated wheaten terrier T20. Flat-coated retriever T64. Bedlington terrier T20. English cocker spaniel T64. Smooth-haired fox terrier 4 Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County Lead Lines February, 2017 T67. Curly-coated retriever T116. Lakeland terrier T67. Irish wolfhound 121. Old English sheepdog T69. Kuvasz 122. Great Pyrenees T69. Australian shepherd T123. Scottish terrier T71. Saluki T123. Saint Bernard T71. Finnish Spitz T125. Bull terrier T71. Pointer T125. Petite Basset Griffon T74. Cavalier King Charles spaniel T125. Vendeen T74. German wirehaired pointer 128. Chihuahua T74. Black-and-tan coonhound 129. Lhasa apso T74. American water spaniel 130. Bullmastiff T78. Siberian husky T78. Bichon Frise SIXTH TIER — the least-effective working dogs, who T78. English toy spaniel may learn a new trick after more than 100 repetitions and T81. Tibetan spaniel obey around 30% of the time. T81. English foxhound T81. Otterhound The Afghan hound doesn't care what you want. Shutter- T81. American foxhound stock T81. Greyhound 131. Shih Tzu T81. Harrier 132. Basset hound T81. Parson Russel terrier T133. Mastiff T81. Wirehaired pointing griffon T133. Beagle T89. West Highland white terrier 135. Pekingese T89. Havanese 136. Bloodhound T89. Scottish deerhound 137. Borzoi T92. Boxer 138. Chow chow T92. Great Dane 139. Bulldog T94. Dachshund 140. Basenji T94. Staffordshire bull terrier 141. Afghan hound T94. Shiba Inu 97. Malamute Again, there are exceptions. Coren talks in his book about T98. Whippet a trainer who managed to win obedience competitions T98. Chinese shar-pei with multiple Staffordshire bull terriers (No. 94). T98. Wirehaired fox terrier There are also, again, other ways of measuring intelli- 101. Rhodesian ridgeback gence. T102. Ibizan hound T102. Welsh terrier Coren tells us about a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever T102. Irish terrier (No. 24) he owned that was in some ways too smart for T105. Boston terrier competitions. T105. Akita "He was so bright and attentive that he read my every FIFTH TIER — fair working dogs, who tend to learn a motion, head turn, and even the direction that I was look- new trick in 40 to 80 repetitions and respond about 40% ing with my eyes, as a command," he wrote in an email. of the time. "That made him very difficult to compete with in obedi- ence trials, since, for instance, a glance with my eyes in It's not easy to win an obedience trial with a Skye terrier. the direction of the high jump might be interpreted by Stephanie Keith / Getty him as a command and that would send him off, taking 107. Skye terrier the jump beautifully of course, but nonetheless disquali- T108. Norfolk terrier fying us from that round of competition." T108. Sealyham terrier 110. Pug De Waal, in "Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart 111. French bulldog Animals Are?" defended the Afghan hound (No. 141), T112. Brussels griffon saying that they may not be unintelligent but rather inde- T112. Maltese terrier pendent-mined, stubborn, and unwilling to follow orders. 114. Italian greyhound 115. Chinese crested "Afghans," he wrote, "are perhaps more like cats, which T116. Dandie Dinmont terrier are not beholden to anyone." T116. Vendeen T116. Tibetan terrier T116. Japanese chin 5 Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County Lead Lines February, 2017 AGILITY THANK YOU Just wanted to send a BIG thank you to all that help make our Agility trials this past weekend in Ft. Pierce such a success. It takes a village & that's what showed up! Thanks to our judges: Sandy Moody & Lisa Rieves. Both of you were outstanding! We had a lot of fun between runs as well! To Trial Secretary, Lori Patterson & her assistant Sheyla: Thanks for keeping every- thing running so smoothly. To my team: Peter Liu, Wien Yu, Tracy Hanna, MOC, Nancy Atkins RV Coordinator, Carol Perrella, Bob Gale, Chris Villano, Calusa.