'Dognition' app asks how smart your pooch is

Professor and author Brian Hare has started a company that will test canine cognitive skills.

(Credit: Dognition)

Is your doggy a dummy? Probably not. Most dogs are adept at simple problem solving and recognizing commands. But if you want more details on exactly how your pet's mind works, a new company has you covered. Dognition, started by a professor at Duke University, makes a product that lets you test your dog's cognitive skills and record the results.

Purchasing the $60 Web app allows you to fill out a personality questionnaire and run your dog through a series of simple experiments. The science-based tests playfully measure a dog's intellect on several fronts -- from empathy to memory to reasoning skills.

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Just as humans express intelligence in a range of ways, so do dogs. Brian Hare, an associate professor in evolutionary anthropology at Duke's Center for Canine Cognitive Neuroscience, along with his team, hopes to gather the data from Dognition and analyze why some dogs are, say, better communicators than others. It could a... [Read more]





by Bailey Johnson via CNET