John W. Pilley - Chaser.

Chaser is the most scientifically important dog in over a century. Her fascinating story reveals just how sophisticated a dogs mind can be.

Brian Hare, co-author of The Genius of Dogs

After you read Chaser, you will realize that you may have underestimated the intelligence of your dog. Marvelous insights into a dogs mind.

Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human

This is an extraordinary book, full of warmth and wisdom that has the potential to forever change the way we look at dogs.

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep and Dogs Never Lie About Love

A Border Collie that understands lots of words wont surprise people who work with these inventive dogs, but what makes John Pilleys tale special is his dogged determination, long after his retirement from teaching psychology, to keep his own brain fizzing with all the new words and techniques and ideas he needs to learn to get his results published in a respected science journal.

Bruce Fogle, author of The Dogs Mind and The Encyclopedia of the Dog

If a truly great book leaves one better for having read it, then Chaser is quite simply a masterpiece. Dogs and those of us who love them owe a debt of gratitude to the brilliant, courageous author and his equally heroic subject.

Jennifer Arnold, author of Through a Dogs Eyes

A delightful memoir that offers a challenge to behavioral psychologists and inspiration for pet lovers.

Kirkus Reviews

An engrossing and remarkable tale.

The Bark

This marvelous blend of good science and heart-warming dog story will inspire all of us to reexamine our canine friends.

Booklist, starred review

JOHN W. PILLEY is an emeritus professor of psychology at Wofford College. He has been working with Chaser since 2004 and has published the findings from their work in the journal Behavioural Processes.

HILARY HINZMANN is a freelance editor and writer based in New York.

Unlocking the Genius
of the Dog Who Knows
a Thousand Words

JOHN W. PILLEY

WITH Hilary Hinzmann

A Oneworld Book

This ebook edition published by Oneworld Publications, 2014

First published in Great Britain & Australia by Oneworld Publications, 2014

Copyright John W. Pilley, Jr. 2013

The moral right of John W. Pilley, Jr. to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78074-702-6
ISBN 978-1-78074-703-3 (eBook)

Oneworld Publications
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London WC1B 3SR
England

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To Sally

There are some simple truths... and the dogs know what they are.

Joseph Duemer, A Dogs Book of Truths

Chaser

T HE TWENTY OR so nine-year-old boys and girls squirmed and murmured in their seats as Chaser walked into their fourth grade classroom at Public School 31 in Brooklyn.

Shes here!

She looks bigger on TV.

Shes so cute!

The childrens desks were pushed to the back and sides of the room, positioned so they all had a good view of the space that had been cleared at the front of the classroom.

I let Chaser off the leash and she went straight to my grandson, Aidan, who was sitting at one end of the first row with a giant smile plastered on his face.

Aidan had been begging us to bring Chaser to visit his class. He had told his teacher, Mrs. Tapper, about our visit to New York for several national television appearances, and most of the class had watched Chaser demonstrate her unprecedented language skills on Nova scienceNow a few days before. Now here we were, about to present those skills in person.

After greeting Aidan, Chaser moved on to the other children, looking up at each one expectantly and wagging her tail. As Aidans classmates leaned down to pet Chaser, her tail wagged harder and her tongue lolled out of her mouth in an ecstatic canine grin.

Chaser is not an imposing dog physically. Shes normal Border collie size, about twenty inches tall at the shoulder and about forty pounds. Her thick, fluffy coat is mostly white with splotches of gray and flecks of black, except for large patches of black on the left side of her head, both sides of her torso, and her hind legs. Although she has plenty of spirit, overall she has a soft temperament. I often tell people, Shes a lover, not a fighter.

All the same, a few children were a little shy about touching Chaser. Any dog can be intimidating for people who arent used to them. Chaser has lots of experience with children, however. She knows that theyre the best possible candidates for her favorite activity, play. She wiggled and squirmed and wagged her tail appealingly in front of the shier kids, and soon even the most reluctant children were grinning right back at her.

It was time to begin. We only had an hour and there was a lot to show. The principal, Mrs. Scarlato, went and stood in the back of the classroom with her camera, and Mrs. Tapper introduced my wife, Sally, our daughter (and Aidans mom) Debbie, and me to the class. Then I called Chaser to me and she lay down at my feet.

Im Dr. Pilley, I told the children, and Im a scientist. Can anyone tell me what scientists do?

One boys hand shot up, and I pointed to him. Scientists invent things, he said. Another offered, They look at stars and rocks and stuff like that. And a girl said, They study plants and animals, too.

I asked, Why do scientists study things like rocks and stars and oceans and plants and animals? What are they looking for?

Another girl said, They want to discover things.

Aha, thats it! Thats what we scientists are after, discovery! Chaser and I have been trying to discover how much human language she can learn. I see Chaser as a co-investigator and research assistant rather than as an experimental subject. Just as shes a part of our family, shes also the other half of my research team. I understand youve heard that Chaser knows more than a thousand words.

Over the previous few weeks there had been headlines around the world about Chaser. It all began just before Christmas, with the epublication of a peer-reviewed scientific article on my research with Chaser. Id written it with the help of Alliston Reid, a former student of mine at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he had succeeded me as a professor of psychology.

The article, published first online and later in print by the British journal Behavioural Processes, reported that Chaser had learned and retained the proper noun names of 1,022 objects over a period of three years. She had also learned to understand and distinguish the separate meanings of proper noun names and commands, and had learned at least three common nouns, or words that represent whole categories of things. Furthermore, she could learn a new word by exclusion, meaning that she could infer the relationship between a name she had never heard before and an object she had never seen before, by picking the new object out of a group of objects whose names she already knew. These abilities are normally seen in children when they are acquiring language as toddlers, and there is fierce debate among scientists as to whether animals can really do the same things.