A dog of many words.

• Position: Language - Brief article

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How much can dogs understand? It turns out, quite a bit--with the right training. Chaser, a border collie in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has learned 1,022 nouns--mostly names of toys; she has the largest vocabulary of any known canine. Chaser's owner, psychologist John Pilley, has trained her about five hours a day since 2004, teaching her two words every 24 hours. (Children learn 10 words a day and leave high school knowing 60,000 words.) After Chaser reached the 1,000--word mark, Pilley turned his...