http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/11/22/MN30608.DTL&ty pe=science
When dog became man's best friend David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Ingenious experiments by scientists exploring that indefinable quality called the animal mind shed new light on the skills that dogs have evolved over millennia to make their relationship with humans unique. Thousands of years of selective breeding have given dogs the uncanny mental ability to respond to the most subtle human cues -- a talent not shared even by smart chimpanzees, whose genes are almost identical to humans, the first direct comparison shows. *snip* To compare "social cognition" skills between dogs and chimpanzees, Hare and his colleagues tried hiding food in one of two opaque containers and then offering cues to the food's location, either by subtly staring at the right container, reaching for it with a hand, tapping on it or marking it with a wooden block. In test after test, dogs of varying breeds, even without training, were quick to pick up communication signals from the human experimenters, while the chimps -- known to most zoo visitors as highly intelligent -- failed repeatedly. ********************************* They obviously don't know my dog. Adam C. Lipscomb [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Silence. I am watching television." - Spider Jerusalem _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
