Funny, yes. But, I'm also amazed.
I came across the video above through a post by my friend Paula. The part I'm referring to is at about 1m: 25s into the video--where Maggie (the dog) demonstrates abilities in basic arithmetic. I also saw a killer whale at Sea World and a parakeet on a TV news journal perform similar skills before. (It's about the only thing that both my wife and I can agree about which tv clips will make me stop my incessant channel flipping with the TV remote control.)
I used to call these tricks. But I'm not convinced "tricks" is the correct term. Not if there's actual intelligence behind it. The media recently wrote about recent research results suggesting some dog breeds being as smart -- perhaps smarter -- than a 2-year old human.
Meanwhile, Dr. Stanley Coren, renowned author and researcher about the intelligence and history of dogs, reportedly presented to a standing room only audience yesterday at the American Psychological Association's annual conference about the intelligence of dogs. In his 2006 book, The Intelligence of Dogs, Dr. Coren surveyed dog obedience judges in the U.S. to get their input for ranking dog breeds by intelligence.
In case you're wondering?
Top 5 dog breeds by intelligence:
1. Border collies
2. Poodles (don't let the funky haircut fool you)
3. German shepherds
4. Golden retrievers
5. Doberman pinchers
Bottom 5 dog breeds by intelligence:
106. Borzoi
107. Chow chow
108. Bulldog
109. Basenji
110. Afghan hound
