Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Ambrose Goes to Duke

Niamh hogs the blog all the time but I did something very interesting yesterday so it is my turn! She always makes fun of me and says rude things about my intelligence. Well I am very smart and now I have scientific proof! I was invited to participate is a research study at the Duke Canine Cognition Center. Niamh was in a study last fall and we both went to Duke when Barbara gave a talk there in January but this was my first time as an experimental subject.



The students at Duke really like dogs and everyone was very nice to me, petted me and let me sniff everything. The experiment was to see how dogs follow signals and get information. One of the students hid a treat under one of two cups. Then another student pointed to one of the cups and I had to find the treat. Sometimes the students would try to trick me by pointing to the wrong cup. Very shocking. But I soon figured out that if she was facing me, she was pointing to the cup with the treat and if she was facing away from me, she was giving me false information. The students thought I did very well, praised me a lot and of course I got to eat the treats.

Then they tried a new study with homemade biscuits. Emily showed me treats and sometimes she pretended to eat it and sometimes she put it near her ear! Then she would put the treats on the ground and see which one I went to.



You can see that I enjoyed the treat eating part of the experiment.



Emily and Katie were very nice to me. I was happy to help them advance the knowledge of how dogs solve problems and of course I would come back any time to eat some more of their treats. I did steal two treats off the table but they did not seem to mind.



While we were walking around the Duke campus we came across these statues.



I was a bit intimidated by the big camel.



But I went right up to the man to sniff him.



Niamh thinks that she is so smart, but I am too!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, Ambrose - that sounds like some advanced stuff! How cool helping students do experiments! (and get free treats while at it!)

Those statues were pretty interesting - I sometimes get scared of statues of humans - I keep looking at their faces and barking - so Hsin-Yi ignores me until I am quiet and acting brave, then she tells me I'm a good girl and gives me treats. Then she goes a bit mad and walks me past lots of statues with human faces until I just get bored and don't think they're scary anymore. Hee! Hee! But hey - I still think plastic bags flapping in the wind are REALLy scary! :-)

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

BRUTUS said...

Cool! Are they going to give you an honorary doctorate from Duke for your work there? I'd be worried if someone told me I was going to be experimented on, but that looked pretty fun. What's up with the camel?

Snorts-
Brutus the Frenchie

Samantha ~ Holly and Zac ~ said...

We think you both are very smart!

Well done Ambrose, hey that camel is huge... we don't think we would have been that sure about it at first either..hehe

Have a great weekend, sorry it has taken us so long to visit. :)

Lorenza said...

Hi, Ambrose!
Sure you had a interesting time there at Duke!
Good job!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Tama-Chan, Benny, Vidock, Violette, Ollie, Heloise, Momo, Ryu said...

You are clearly growing into a vert smart boy, Ambrose! But remember that your sister is still older and wiser than you!

Woofs,
Tommy

Molly the Airedale said...

Wow! What a way to spend the day, Ambrose! You are one smart boy (and handsome too) but we always knew that!
That camel is HUGE!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

Juno said...

Hi Ambrose!!!  We knew we knew both Niamh and you're very smart doggies!! It looks like you had a great experiment. Yeah... that camel is huge!

hugs
Momo & Pinot

Dexter said...

Well of course you are smart. It is the humans that are dumb thinking they could trick a clever chap such as yourself. That sounds lie a fun college.

Slobbers,
Mango

Agatha and Archie said...

Well we are glad to see that you got your degree from Duke..That is a very good school Ambrose..Did you get any decrease in your grades for stealing,,I mean taking those two cookies?? tee hee Way to go little buddy...Love and kisses A+A

Juno said...

Hello Niamh and Ambrose!! Just stopping by and say hello!!! We look forward to seeing your update soon!

Enjoy your spring breeze!

Momo & Pinot