02/18/2024
You know dogs are smart. They have a ridiculous amount of skill sets and a list of working applications that’s so long, humans haven’t even figured out just how extensive it actually is. The question is: Just how smart are they?
There have been and always will be opinions that they simply replicate trained behaviors in order to receive a reward. While that might be somewhat true early on in their training, at the point they “figure out the game” and begin accomplishing more complex tasks, we can see that they are processing situations well beyond the thought process of “If I do the same exact thing as last time, I’ll get the reward.”
That’s because they aren’t actually trained to “perform a task.” They’re trained to “achieve a result.” In the real world, the same result will always be achieved through a different process. That might seem a little convoluted, but luckily K9 Ernie is here to help us explain.
In this photo, Ernie has just located a stash of hidden narcotics and is letting his handler know where they are. So, what’s so unique about this situation?
Ernie was never trained to do this.
We’ll explain – Ernie is an “active alert narcotics detection K9.” It means that when he locates hidden narcotics, his job is to focus on that area and scratch and paw at the source of the odor. The problem is, in this instance, the narcotics are hidden in the ceiling and there is no physical way he can reach the hiding spot. So, if one were to limit his abilities to the specific actions he was taught, it would be impossible for him to actually do his job.
Now, we aren’t saying this training exercise wasn’t a curveball for him. Before this image was captured, we watched him walk around the room for a while, with his nose in the air, trying to get closer to the odor. Even jumping on tables didn’t work because he still couldn’t reach the ceiling. His solution? Get as close as possible, stare directly at the source of the odor, and start pawing at a different surface.
To understand the thought process, we need to consider 2 separate factors of his training.
1 – As dogs are the masters of non-verbal communication, they use body language to convey messages and information. One of the most important commands he was taught is “show me.” It essentially means to use his face and muzzle to point at an area he deems to be important.
2 – As an “active alert K9,” simply staring at the location of a hidden item is not enough. To get his reward, he has to scratch at it.
If we were to combine those 2 training factors, things start to make sense. Ernie knows to point with his face, but he ALSO knows that scratching is the final signal for confirmation that he’s located the source of the scent.
In this instance, even though he had always been trained to do both tasks at the same time, at the source of the odor, it was simply not possible. So, he did the next best thing – He pointed at the source with his face, while simultaneously finding a surface to scratch at. “Look, it’s right there. Yup, I’m sure.”
While K9 Ernie had initially been taught those 2 actions happen at the same time, he understood that each component sent a separate message and figured out a way to make it happen, even though it went against the basic training concept of “If I do the same exact thing as last time, I’ll get the reward.”
In humans, we call that objective reasoning. The real question is why so many people tend to assume dogs can’t do it too…
