Chaser The Border Collie:The Smartest Dog In The World?

"The most scientifically important dog in over a century." -Brian Hare

Chaser has fascinated dog lovers and scientists alike. Her story reveals the potential for taking out dialogue with dogs well beyond "fetch." 

When retired psychology professor John Pilley first got his new Border collie puppy, Chaser, he wanted to explore the boundaries of language learning and communication between humans and man's best friend. 

  

Exhibiting intelligence previously thought impossible in dogs, Chaser soon learned the names of more than a thousand toys and sentences with multiple elements of grammar. Chaser's accomplishments are revolutionizing the way we think about the intelligence of animals. John and Chaser's inspiring journey demonstrates the power of learning through play and opens our eyes to the boundless potential in the animals we love.


Chaser (dog)


Connected to: Border Collie John W. Pilley Spartanburg, South Carolina

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Chaser in 2013
Species Dog
Breed Border Collie
Sex Female
Born
April 28, 2004
Pauline, South Carolina, U.S.

Died
July 23, 2019 (aged 15)
Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S.
Title The Smartest Dog In The World
Owner John W. Pilley


chaserthebordercollie.com

Chaser (April 28, 2004 – July 23, 2019) was a Border Collie with the largest tested memory of any non-human animal. Chaser worked with Professor John W. Pilley, at his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, from eight weeks old, until Pilley's death in June 2018. Pilley spent that time training her in a formal research project. Chaser could identify and retrieve 1,022 toys by name. 

 Chaser The Border Collie

https://twitter.com/ChasertheBC

John Pilley - Chaser the Border 

https://www.youtube.com/user/pilleyjw

Chaser

ChasertheBC

The Dog who knows 1022 words. Seen on Nova,

Science NOW, ABC World News + Today Show. 

Background

Chaser had the largest tested memory of any non-human animal.[1][2] She was bred by Wayne West at his Fleet Hill Farms in Pauline, South Carolina.[3] She was taught by her owner, Wofford College Professor Emeritus of Psychology John W. Pilley, with the formal research published in Elsevier's journals Behavioural Processes and Learning and Motivation.[2][3]

Memory study

Chaser could identify and retrieve 1,022 toys by name,[3] which was the foundation for her vocabulary. She began to understand that objects have names at five months of age. At this point, she became able to pair a novel object with a novel name in only one trial, although rehearsal was necessary to log it into her long term memory. She recognized common nouns such as house, tree and ball, as well as adverbs, verbs and prepositional objects.[4] Based on that learning, she and her owner and trainer Pilley continued her training, demonstrating her ability to understand sentences with multiple elements of grammar and to learn new behaviors by imitation.[5]

Chaser could also learn new words by "inferential reasoning by exclusion", that is, inferring the name of a new object by excluding objects whose names she already knew.[3]

Pilley's death

On Sunday, June 17, 2018, John W. Pilley, died in Spartanburg, South Carolina. A professor and a scientist, he was recognized for his research in canine cognition, the latest example being with Chaser.[6] After Pilley's death, Chaser lived with her former owner's daughters, Deb Pilley Bianchi and Robin Pilley, as well as his wife, Sally Pilley. 

Deb Pilley Bianchi is completing a second book that she and John Pilley were writing before he died, which has a working title of "A World of Chaser's".[7]

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Chaser_(dog)#/External_links


CHASER.

chaserthebordercollie.com

Joined - June 2013