Chaser, often described as “the world’s smartest dog,” made headlines worldwide for being able to identify objects by their names. Thanks to Al MacR for sending this in.
July 27, 2019
Many owners struggle to teach their dogs to sit, fetch or even bark on command, but John W. Pilley, a professor emeritus of psychology at Wofford College, taught his Border collie to understand more than 1,000 nouns, a feat that earned them both worldwide recognition.
In 2004, Dr. Pilley started an experiment after reading about a dog named Rico who was taught to recognize over 200 items.
Dr. Pilley bought a black-and-white Border collie from a breeder near Spartanburg, S.C. He named the puppy Chaser.
For three years, Dr. Pilley trained her four to five hours a day: He showed her an object, said its name up to 40 times, then hid it and asked her to find it. He used 800 cloth animal toys, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and an assortment of plastic items to ultimately teach Chaser 1,022 nouns.
Chaser died on Tuesday at 15. She had been living with Dr. Pilley’s wife, Sally, and their daughter Robin in Spartanburg. Dr. Pilley died last year at 89.
Another daughter, Pilley Bianchi, said on Saturday that Chaser had been in declining health in recent weeks. “The vet really determined that she died of natural causes,” Ms. Bianchi said. “She went down very quickly.”