Dogs are man's best friend. They always have been and always will be because they're so loving and smart. But actually, like people, they're all different. Some are loving, some aren't, some are smart, and others are just stupid. They're like people: every one of them has individual characteristics. This one special dog is one of the smart ones, maybe even the smartest of them all, as her vocabulary of human words exceeds 1000, which may actually be more than some people I know!

My old roommate had a dog, and it really wasn't that smart. Everyone knew it; there was nothing special about the dog, just boring and stupid. It's understandable that dogs don't get an automatic "smart pass" just because they're a dog. Just like not all kids are cute. Some are brats, some are boring, and some are cool and super smart. The same goes for animals.

Chaser, a 10-year-old border collie  from South Carolina, just may be the smartest dog in the world, or at least one of the smartest, owning a vocabulary of over 1000 words. But just like any other achievements in life, Chaser worked very hard to in order to become the genius that she is today. For the first three years of her life, her owner, Dr. John Pilley, gave her lessons for five hours a day, five days out of the week. He used 800 dolls, 116 balls and 106 frisbees and other plastic toys, and Chaser learned the words for ever single one of them! She can even combine words, and believe it or not, she can even be told to take the ball to the frisbee, and she'll know exactly what to do.

Dr. Pilley's research has been published all around the world in over 46 languages. Pretty amazing. The coolest thing about all this is that Chaser didn't have to be forced to learn all this through some kind of boring repetitive study sessions. All she had to do was play with Dr. Pilley! And all Dr. Pilley had to do was play with Chaser.
