NEWS in Measurable Animal Communication & Intelligence

Many researchers are focusing on animal intelligence and language. At this site you can link to the interesting articles on the topic on animals and relevant human studies.

Dogs can understand receptive language of over 200 words.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040611072744.htm

Dogs can learn to associate specific gestures with specific meanings.
www.animalsign.org

Dogs can detect various chemical previously not explored….
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/1205-mercury_detection_its_a_8220ruff_job8221.htm

Dogs can classify objects..
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080613145535.htm

Birds can recognize themselves…. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080613145535.htm

Horses can learn to associate specific gestures with specific meanings.
www.animalsign.org

Horses think through problems.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050201101836.htm

Horse learning with positive reinforcement..(you may need to log in to horse mag)
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=11436

***Human research relevant to facilitating animal language development***

Language develops in bursts…(human)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080206154123.htm

Language development stages (human)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/09/040915113243.htm

Language from whole to part (human)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040428062634.htm

Language lateralization (human)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040428062634.htm

Language learning stages and lateralization (human)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/09/040915113243.htm

Features of language (human)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080323210220.htm

Talking to babies helps langauge development (human)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050329143741.htm

Signing Language in Humans
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050201101836.htm

Babies can Sign
www.babysigns.com

AnimalSigning is spreading…in the dog world

NEWS!
Recently, my book AnimalSign To You was made available on Amazon and my website www.animalsign.org. The response has been great, with many international animal people showing interest.

The Koko foundation endorsed the book with a quote on the back cover. Soon after DogWise Publishing made it available to its clients.

Have you tried to teach your pet how to better communicate to you?

We’ll be making national trips this year (next year are the international trips) to tell and show pet people how to do this. If you’d like us to come to your town, contact [email protected].

Sean Senechal
AnimalSign Center

Teach your dog to ‘talk’ with sign language

DOG CAN LEARN TO EXTEND THEIR NATURAL COMMUNICATION with K9SIGN Language. Teach your dog!

Several events aimed at this dog language training will occur near Monterey this fall:
check out: www.animalsign.org/events.html

WHAT ARE YOUR ANIMALS SAYING? Don’t Guess—teach them to tell you in ANIMALSIGN® Language.

*Service & Companion dogs can K9SIGN ‘phone’, ‘alarm’, ‘potty’, ‘door’, ‘water’, ‘play’, ‘food’, ‘toy’, ‘car’, ‘human’, and more…
SEMINAR, WORKSHOP, BOOKSIGNING for ‘AnimalSign TO YOU! Imagine’

Sean Senechal, founder AnimalSign Center, animal lover, scientist, college instructor, author will speak on her ground-breaking work.

—————————————————————-
NOV 4: Sat 11-12 HARTNELL College, Salinas, Ca
K9SIGN & EQUINESIGN: Language Training for Dogs & Horses

NOV 6: Mon 6-7 pm HARTNELL College, Salinas, Ca
ANIMALSIGN: Signing Is Not Just for Primates Anymore!
DOGS & HORSES can SIGN TOO!

NOV 18: Sat 11-1 Mont. Peninsula College, Monterey, Ca
‘K9SIGN & EQUINESIGN: Language Training for Dogs & Horses’

DEC 2: 10-2 AnimalSign Language WORKSHOP
Monterey Area (Must Reserve-Limited Class) $55. Click

www.animalsign.org/ASWorkshop.html to register.

ANIMALSIGN PO Box 3346 Monterey, Ca 93942
(831) 663-3010 [email protected] https://animalsign.org/

Dogs Talking Using Gestures

Teaching dogs to communicate using body gestures. This is useful for enhancing communication with animals, giving companion and service dogs the ability to tell us what they sense. This revolutionary approach to animal communication will occur in Monterey this Oct, Nov, and Dec seminars, workshops, and booksigning will occur at Hartnell College and Monterey, Ca area. Check out www.animalsign.org/events.html for details. Amazon release booksigning will occur for AnimalSign TO You: Imagine! Signing is NOT just for primates anymore in November.

Sean Senechal

Dogs as Language Learners

As a teacher (of humans) I’m always thinking about how to better teach students who are language learners, new to the English language. As a teacher of dogs I also think about how to better teach language (voice and sign) to dogs. Our humans have tremendous access to language training, but our dogs have little. They must listen to our speech, our body language, much not directed at them, and learn. For the most part other than obedience and related classes they are on their own.

I aim to change that, to have people view dogs as potential (productive) language learners. We already know that Koko has learned to sign. (www.koko.org) Dogs should be given that chance as well. I do this by teaching dogs to sign, using AnimalSign, K9Sign, etc. We leave our dogs illiterate! Though they do have natural gestures, vocalizations (much recently discovered), they have the potential for more, if we taught them (as we teach our human kids).

How can you get started?
1. talk to your dog, as you would your child, tell them ‘that’s a TREE’, ‘that is a DOOR’
2. keep a journal of the gestures they make, the body moves (understood or not).
3. listen to the sounds, the nuances of those sounds, the facial expressions
4. use their gestures to talk to them, bark, move your limbs.
5. show them pictures, books, as you would a baby.
6. for more info you can go to my seminars, workshops or read my upcoming book…as well.check www.animalsign.org events page for Oct/Nov events.

On pictures, Bonnie Bergin from ADI has written a book about Teaching dogs to read!
www.assistancedogs.org

Animal Perception and Training

I keep track of research where animals are expected to communicate. Dogs are asked to sit, to alert, to push, etc. to indicate they have sensed something. My passion is dealing with teaching them to communicate in detail by signing using a structured-made for their body-language.

Recent work at Berkeley indicates that puppies with just weeks of training can communicate that they sensed a particular odor in breath. That odor was specific to lung cancer. They did this over 98% of the time and they never misdiagnosed (false positive). The remarkable aspect of the study was not just they could sense the specific odor, but that these were just plain puppies with simple obedience skills and it took a few weeks. They were not specially bred dogs.

This really opens up so much for dogs and people. Imagine a class where dogs get ‘health training’ where they learn to sniff various diseases for their owner. I can see that supplementing current diagnostics.

I’m investigating diabetics having their own dogs detect low blood sugar or high blood sugar. This can be done with specially trained dogs, but imagine training your own dog to do this!