Nazis tried to train dogs to talk, read and spell to win WW2

I call BS but never the less interesting idea

S&F

would like to read more about this, could you post your sources so we can read all the info available?

Cheers

reply to post by IkNOwSTuff


I tend to agree with you, as religion and art seem waaay out there. However, who knows? We can only speculate.

I tried to add the source, but it appears the "edit" code might be obscuring it.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Article Source

reply to post by freakjive


Very amusing story, I hope some more info is available.
That man had some ideas that were way out there. Scary.

OnlyLove

Coincidentally, I just finished reading "Sirius", a book by Olaf Stapledon, written about the time of WW2, where a super-dog is bred that can talk, and read and write. Very touching story, IMO.
www.infinityplus.co.uk...

reply to post by GaryN


Thanks for sharing! I will give this a read.

Reason # 6442 proving Hitler was a freaking nutcase

The message: "Nazis are so true, just and righteous that even DOGS want to join the Army"

Hows that for propaganda

I don't doubt the intelligence of dogs and the possibility to teach them to communicate (with their paws) in a simple and minimalistic manner, but its a bit of a stretch and sounds like past propaganda when it comes to the following part:

Some of them were able to imitate the human voice and one, when asked who Adolf Hitler was, is said to have replied 'Mein Fuhrer'.

or

He was said to have speculated about religion, learnt foreign languages, wrote poetry and asked a visiting noblewoman 'could you wag your tail?' The patriotic German dog even expressed a wish to join the army, because he disliked the French.

I didn'T find the actual study by Jan Bondeson and no evidence of the Tier-Sprechschule in Leutenburg near Hannover led by Margarethe Schmitt. Though of course most of the evidence and details are not archieved online.

BS,
fact is that Hitler loved dogs and had two of his own.

I use to have a Siberian Husky that had a 20-30 english word vocabulary. She's learned to mimick sounds to get what she wanted often saying things like "Outside, Food, Love, Walk, Water," etc. Not much more than a parrot trick but she did use these words correctly.
I don't think this story is far fetched (no pun intended) at all. I don't think they were thinking the pups were gonna be citing Shakespeare or anything, but words to alert officers to certain things like explosives, intruders, or other threats or info isn't outlandish at all.

*sigh* I miss that dog.

It's true, and they were partially successful.
The speech is a bit primative, and they can't spell very well, but they can march in a straight line and shout "EDL"!

Well shoot...it looks like this thread might die out rather quickly. If any of you that are interested find any useful info, please post here. I will continue to update this for the ones that have shown interest if I find anything new.

Cheers!

reply to post by BrianDamage


This is the 2nd time this week I've heard the EDL referenced as being dogs...earlier it was "a bunch of rabid dogs". haha...do they really have such a bad rep over there?

Check this out, kinda sums them up.




Had to add this second version, well funny.

reply to post by BrianDamage


HaHaHaHa! Woah! I'm pretty sure that dude is WASTED! Not exactly the kind of representation I would want for any group I belonged to.

reply to post by freakjive


Hmm . . .
The Nazis thought dogs were as smart as humans?
I always thought that those Germans were stupid.
I call BS on this one.

Peace,
SeraphNB

Back on topic...this is what I've found so far:

Scientists have made some progress in their study of this important subject: They've learned why dogs, and other animals, have rather poor pronunciation and, for example, completely botch consonants. They "don't use their tongues and lips very well, and that makes it difficult for them to match many of the sounds that their human partners make," Lucas says. "Try saying 'puppy' without using your lips and tongue."

Source: Scientific American

Basically these folks are of the mindset that dogs ARE NOT capable of intelligent communication through speech, etc.

I remember watching a documentary about Hitler before the war and it mentioned that during world war one when he was a corporal, he was an odd, effeminate sort of fellow. He only had one male companion who I think was killed and after that none of the other soldiers in his unit would have anything to do with him. After that the only companion he had was a dog which he slept with. Maybe that's where he got the idea?

War dogs have been around since there has been war between people. They are a huge moral booster and deflator for your enemy. Even the Russians trained dogs to attack tanks with explosives strapped to them during WW2. I'm not saying dogs can learn to speak German, but they can probably be trained to do something eerily similar.

reply to post by BrianDamage


Thank you. You've made my day.

"Muslamic Laws."

reply to post by BrianDamage


LMFAO

Thats a classic dude!!!!!!

While that dude was clearly spouting nonsense filth I kinda felt sorry for him
I dont think he was wasted I think he was handicapped, At around 1 08 you can clearly see a spasm or tick that reminds me of a guy I used to know who had schizophrenia, but I guess that kinda exlains his belief in muslamic ray guns

Back on topic
Read the full article and while I dont doubt they had a school that hoped to train talking dogs I think the successes they reported were all almost blatant propaganda.

I have always been around animals, from when I was a few weeks old and my parents got a puppy I have always had at least 2 pets. Dogs, Cats, Birds, Guinea pigs, fish etc and up until a few years ago when I moved out of home and no longer had the space I always had at least 1 dog.

I love to have pets, Dogs and Cats especially due to how much Character they have
For me its not a matter of prefferring one or the other it just depends on wether you have the space and the lifestyle for a dog. I think anyone who has spent time with an animal as a companion or family member will tell you animals have a form of emotional intelligence, comparable to ours but on a more basic level.

To say a dog speculated on peotry though Its not that I think down the line we couldnt breed a litter of philosopher super pups its just I think dogs we see it as pointless drivel far beneath them

On dogs being able to communicate human concepts in the abstract, Im doubtful but not closed to the possibility.
I know some animals can, have you all seen or heard of Koko the talking Gorilla?




And thought Id add this, maybe its not such a good idea we teach animals to be self aware after all

Oh... you shouldn't really post Onion videos here. Too many people can't detect that it is satire.