See, we're not crazy,

our canine roommates understand us. From "The Scientist" http://www.the-scientist.com/2004/12/20/18/1/printerfriendly (free registration)


Does Your Dog Understand You?
Strong selective pressure has made Fido seem smarter | By Clive Wynne

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When stacked up against man's closest relatives, man's best friends perform remarkably well in tasks that gauge a comprehension of human commands and cues. A knack for vocabulary and an intense attentiveness to human action are the kinds of behaviors that look intelligent to people. But this is because they were selected, first naturally and later artificially, to be adapted to their niche, human society. Further studies will shed more light on how dogs fake human intelligence.

DOGS GET THE POINT Dogs outperform chimpanzees on several tests that require understanding someone else's point of view – what psychologists call "theory of mind" abilities. Here is a simple and compelling test that any dog owner can easily reproduce. Hide a piece of food in one of two opaque containers. The dog is not permitted to see where the food has been hidden but instead must find the food by following a communicative gesture, such as pointing, by the experimenter.

Brian Hare and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, found that dogs, even puppies brought up at a kennel with minimal human contact, were fully competent at this task. On the other hand, of nine chimpanzees tested, only two showed any success. Wolves performed above chance, but not as well as the dogs.

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There's more. Lots more.