The short version
When Claudia Fugazza discovered that her dog knew how to turn on the bathroom faucet, the author was convinced her canine companion had learned through observation, and it inspired her to dig into scientific literature on the subject.
Researchers in the Ethology Department at the University of Budapest published a paper in 2006 reporting that a Belgian Tervuren, named Philip, could copy a human’s actions after a bit of training. Was Philip some kind of dog genius or can any dog be taught to imitate his owner? Fugazza was determined to find out. She documented her journey in the book, “Do As I Do: Using Social Learning to Train Dogs.”
What's he thinking?
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Frequently asked questions
Dogs imitate humans?
The AKC walks through this step by step — the key points are covered above, sourced to the AKC article linked on this page. When Claudia Fugazza discovered that her dog knew how to turn on the bathroom faucet, the author was convinced her canine companion had learned through observa…
Dogs imitating human speech?
The AKC walks through this step by step — the key points are covered above, sourced to the AKC article linked on this page. When Claudia Fugazza discovered that her dog knew how to turn on the bathroom faucet, the author was convinced her canine companion had learned through observa…
Do dogs imitate humans?
The AKC walks through this step by step — the key points are covered above, sourced to the AKC article linked on this page. When Claudia Fugazza discovered that her dog knew how to turn on the bathroom faucet, the author was convinced her canine companion had learned through observa…