Comments by "Misty Culous" (@mistyculous9644) on "The Dodo" channel.

  1. It's not true that animals only learn associated contexts of words as commands. Some animals learn both context and content. I knew a husky who did this very thing I'm describing below. For instance, I had a cat who listened as intently as this dog. Proof was the cat imitated my unique intonation of certain words, even though she couldn't shape with her kitty mouth the words themselves. The reason it was so strange is the cat used these sing-song intonations herself in the perfect associated context. So she sounded as if she was saying words - really talking! And NOT just when prompted by repeating the word back to her - she used these words to communicate her wishes. As in - when you wanted to disturb where she was laying - she "said," Nooooooo if she didn't want to move. By a door, she "said," Ouuut." If you were in her way, she'd "say," Mooooove." If she got tired of waiting for you, she "Said," Nooooow! She had a little more than twenty words in total that she'd learned to use to communicate like this. I imagined it as if the cat had learned a form of "human creole."
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  2. Yes, these dogs are really smart, but they need "jobs" to have a long life. Did you have - or do you have now - an awesome dog? Tell us about it!! Once I had a German Shep/Aussie Shep mix (no hip problems!) who knew 246 different "commands." (Had to write them down for a house-sitter. This female knew 3x as many words for specific items.) She was trained off-leash with hand signals to safely accompany a bicycle and stop & stay where ever ordered. She would stay in or swim beside by a kayak. You could have her "run home" after being let out of a car 2 miles away - verified she arrived after a dead run. (I learned all this after reading Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog.") Strangely enough - this dog also invented unique "greeting dances" for different people she knew. You could say the person's name, she would do their greeting dance. If indicated you were walking to their home - she would take off and be waiting on their doorstep for you when you arrived sometime later. Lived for 18 years in a small town where everyone knew her. (45 lb. dogs need daily running to live that long.)
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