Border Collie dogs can count and add or is this a Hans the clever horse effect.

[Payman Saghafi]

There is a video on animal planet in which a dog trainer claims that border collies can count and add.  See the video here: http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/dogs-101/videos/border-collie.htm/

Now, many of you may be familiar with the case of Hans the Clever horse.  The story is here:

At first people believed that Hans could add, subtract and divide.  The horse would count by moving its leg.  It was finally discovered that the owner was unintentionally giving signals to the horse that caused the horse to stop moving its hoofed leg when it reached the correct number.

Now, notice the video with the border collie is counting at around 3:26 of the video.  Also, notice that the trainer moves his body and angles the frisbees downward right before the border collie starts barking out the number. You may also notice that the trainer changes the angle of the frisbees right when the dog finishes the sixth bark.

This looks like a Hans the Clever horse type of effect.  Agreed?  I do not buy the argument that the dog understands multiplication.

Now, I know that Border Collies are considered one of the smartest dogs, and that there is some dispute among specialists as to whether the poodle is more intelligent or the border collie.  It all depends on whom you ask. 

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[Payman Saghafi]

Here is the story of Hans:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans

[Niko]

When i first read your post I was also very skeptical of the a dogs ability to multiply numbers.

However I found this:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201103/do-dogs-know-mathematics

The article concludes that dogs cant not only count but also do simple arithmetic. They explain it in evolutionary terms, theorizing that wolves would benefit from knowing the number of cubs they have and keeping track of it. If that it the reason dogs can count, and it seems like a plausible explaination there might be many other animals who can also do arithmetic.

I would argue that this also shows something about the animals ability to conceptualize. Very interesting in relation to consciousness and brains imo.

Anyway I digress, if dogs can add and subtract, multiplication doesn't seem very far fetched.

[Payman Saghafi]

I can accept the possibility.  I do believe, however, that there was cheating going on in the animal planet video.  The trainer clearly turns his body into a particular position when the dog starts counting and signals the dog to stop counting at the appropriate number.

You could very well be right though!  It is probably just easier to teach a dog to follow signals than actually demonstrate numerical reasoning.

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