Chaser (dog) facts for kids
Chaser in 2013
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| Species | Dog |
|---|---|
| Breed | Border Collie |
| Sex | Female |
| Born | April 28, 2004 Pauline, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | July 23, 2019 (aged 15) Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Title | The Smartest Dog In The World |
| Owner | John W. Pilley |
Chaser (born April 28, 2004 – died July 23, 2019) was a very special Border Collie. She had the biggest tested memory of any animal that wasn't human. Chaser worked with Professor John W. Pilley at his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She started training when she was just eight weeks old. Chaser continued until Professor Pilley passed away in June 2018.
Professor Pilley trained her as part of a special research project. Chaser learned to recognize and fetch an amazing 1,022 different toys by their names!
Professor Pilley's wife, Sally, gave Chaser to him as a 76th birthday present. Sally said Chaser came to them at eight weeks old and stayed with them always. One day, while playing outside, a red Jeep drove by very fast. Chaser chased after it, so they decided to name her Chaser.
In November 2021, Chaser became the official mascot of Spartanburg Community College. She was the first mascot in the college's history.
Discovering Chaser's Amazing Memory
Chaser was known for having the largest tested memory of any non-human animal. She was born at Flint Hill Farms in Pauline, South Carolina. Her owner, Professor Emeritus of Psychology John W. Pilley from Wofford College, taught her. Their formal research was published in important science journals.
How Chaser Learned Words
Chaser could identify and fetch 1,022 toys by their names. This was the result of many years of training by Professor Pilley. He started teaching her on June 28, 2004. Professor Pilley kept track of how many words Chaser learned over time.
- At 5 months old, she knew 50 words.
- By 7.5 months, she knew 200 words.
- At 1.5 years, she understood 700 words.
- When she was 3 years old, she knew over 1,000 words!
Chaser began to understand that objects have names when she was five months old. At this point, she could connect a new object with a new name very quickly. However, she needed to practice to remember it for a long time. She recognized common nouns like "house," "tree," and "ball." She also understood adverbs, verbs, and words that show location.
Based on this learning, Chaser and Professor Pilley continued her training. She showed that she could understand sentences with different parts of grammar. She could also learn new actions by watching and copying them.
Chaser was also able to learn new words by "inferential reasoning by exclusion." This means she could figure out the name of a new toy. She did this by knowing the names of all the other toys and realizing the new name must belong to the new toy.
Chaser's Later Life
On June 17, 2018, Professor John W. Pilley passed away in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He was respected as a professor and scientist for his studies on how dogs think. His most famous work was with Chaser.
After Professor Pilley's death, Chaser lived with his wife, Sally. She also lived with their adult daughters, Deb Pilley Bianchi and Robin Pilley. About a year later, on July 23, 2019, Chaser died peacefully at home. She was 15 years old.
Her family shared a message about Chaser on Facebook. They said they were with her when she passed away. It was a calm and quiet moment. Chaser had been doing well, but then her health quickly declined a couple of weeks before. She is buried with the other Pilley family dogs. Her grave also has some of John Pilley's ashes.
Deb Pilley Bianchi helped train and care for Chaser. She is now finishing a book that she and John Pilley were writing before he died. The book's working title is "A World of Chasers."
See also
- Alex, a grey parrot known for smart use of speech
- Ayumu, a chimpanzee who can remember numbers better than college students
- Betsy, a border collie known to understand over 340 words
- Rico, a border collie who was reported to understand over 200 words
- Koko, a gorilla who learned sign language
- Kanzi, a bonobo who learned language using a special keyboard
- List of individual dogs
- Human-animal communication
- Talking birds, including a budgerigar named Puck
