Chaser

August 26, 2013
Retired psychology professor Pilley’s work with his border collie, Chaser, since 2004 is impressive, and his findings have been published in the journal Behavioural Processes. Challenging the bounds of animal knowledge, Chaser has “learned and retained the proper noun names of 1,022 objects over a period of three years”; the dog remembers more words than any other (nonhuman) animal known. Her achievements have made her a national celebrity, and she’s made appearances on the Today show and ABC News. Here, Pilley (and coauthor Hinzmann) effectively describes his family’s relationship with Chaser and the theory behind how she was taught such a large vocabulary. His findings have broader implications: the coauthors link the teaching methods developed for Chaser to the controversy about “teaching to the test” for children. Though there are occasional hiccups in the book, such as Pilley’s effusiveness regarding his meeting with news anchor Diane Sawyer, Chaser’s remarkable abilities speak for themselves. One 8-page b&w insert. Agent: Steve Ross, Abrams Artist Agency.

May 1, 2013

In 2010, headlines proclaimed that a Border Collie named Chaser had learned the names of over 1,000 objects. Pilley, an emeritus professor of psychology at Wofford College who's now teaching Chaser to understand syntax and semantics, explains how he has trained her, dropping hints for the rest of us. Pilley's (and Chaser's) success has far outpaced work with other nonhuman animals and has taught us much about animal intelligence. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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