Lola : $b or, The thought and speech of animalsKindermann, Henny
Science
Lola : $b or, The thought and speech of animals
Kindermann, Henny
Animal intelligence; Dogs -- Folklore
As the problems always took me longer than they did her I never checked
them at the time, but went over them later, after she had given all her
answers. I did this moreover, so that she should have no opportunity of
tapping my thoughts and thus rely on me; indeed, I really _forced_ her
to do her own thinking. For even if I did begin to calculate I did it
so slowly, that she was rapping out her reply long before I was done. I
say all this to my own shame, for Lola must have her due--and I never
had a head for arithmetic myself!
When she knew how to calculate time, I put the following question to
her: "How many minutes are there in an hour and a half--less thirty
minutes?" Answer: "60." "How many hours are there in 240 minutes?"
Answer: "4." By this time Lola had also learnt the value of money.
About the end of April, 1916, she could distinguish between such coins
as 5 Pfennige, 10 Pfennige, 50 Pfennige; 1 Mark, 2 Mark, and 5 Mark,
and could compute the value of the Mark in Pfennige. When showing my
friends what she could do in the way of arithmetic, her money sums were
a special feature and delighted everybody. Here is an example, the date
being 31 May: I put the question: "12 Mark less 4 Mark 10 Pfennige?"
adding--"Tell me the Mark!" Answer: "7." "And the Pfennige?" "90" (i.e.
7 Mark 90 Pfennige.) Question: "What coins do you know?" Answer: "5,
10, 50; 1, 2." "And what are they all?" "Fenig." (i.e. Lola's mode of
spelling Pfennig.) "Lola, how much of a Mark are 50 Pfennige? The
answer has to do with fractions." Answer: "1/2." "How much are 225
Pfennige?" "2-1/4." "And 20 Pfennige?" "1/5." "And 60?" "3/5." "And
3/20 Mark, how many Pfennige?" "20." _"No!_ "8/20 Mark?" Answer: "15."
Towards the close of 1916 I taught her to raise numbers to various
powers. At this she was slow in the beginning, but ultimately mastered
it fairly well. She could soon answer such questions as--"3^3 = ?" with
"27." And--"4^2 = ?" with "16," doing so, moreover, with ease; but up
to now I have not been able to take her any further in the matter of
extracting roots; in the first place I have had little time to give to
it, and secondly, I am by no means on very sure ground there myself! I
might, of course, have rubbed up my own rusty arithmetic had my
interest in this particular accomplishment of Lola's been greater.
But--for my own part, I attach greater importance to the psychological
side of this question, and would far rather probe and delve within the
depths of her dog-soul, exploring the extent of her other abilities,
since arithmetic has already some brilliant exponents in, for instance,
Krall's horses.
WORKING WITH OTHER PERSONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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