Average dog or canine Einstein?

• Position: Science - Brief Article

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? At least one senior canine is a quick study when it comes to vocabulary. Researchers in Germany have found that Rico, a 9-year-old border collie, listens and learns much like a human child. In one try, he learned the name of a new object by a process of elimination. Told to fetch an unfamiliar object with a name he had not heard before, Rico picked out the new item from a group of familiar ones. More importantly, he proved in other tests that he remembered what he had learned, says Julia Fischer, a member of the research team. Rico displays "fast mapping"--a kind of...