Sallow
The Big Bad Wolf.
I've always held dogs are much smarter then we currently recognize. Not only are they able to communicate with their own kind..the can communicate on a reasonable level to other animals..like humans. I read some theories that have even pointed out, that humans (in our present form), were able to thrive because of canines. They would bark out alerts when predators threatened human young. Anyway..great article.
One of the questions raised by the Rico study was that of what was going through the dogs mind when he was asked to fetch something. Did he think of his toys as items labeled fetch-ball, fetch-Frisbee, fetch-doll, or did he understand the word fetch separately from its object, as people do?
Dr. Pilley addressed the question by teaching Chaser three different actions: pawing, nosing and taking an object. She was then presented with three of her toys and correctly pawed, nosed or fetched each one depending on the command given to her. That experiment demonstrates conclusively that Chaser understood that the verb had a meaning, Dr. Pilley said.
The 1,022 words in Chasers vocabulary are all proper nouns. Dr. Pilley also found that Chaser could be trained to recognize categories, in other words common nouns. She correctly follows the command Fetch a Frisbee or Fetch a ball. She can also learn by exclusion, as children do. If she is asked to fetch a new toy with a word she does not know, she will pick it out from ones that are familiar.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/science/18dog.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Dog vocabulary 1000&st=cse