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Photograph by Karine Aigner
Willow the English terrier, from New York, doesn't just hear commands from her owner—she can also read them.
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Photograph by Karine Aigner
The pooch raises her paw when she sees the word "wave," lies down when she reads "bang," and gets on her hind legs at the sight of "sit up."
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Photograph by Karine Aigner
Lyssa Howells first used voice commands to teach Willow the tricks. Then she wrote each command on a flash card to hold up while she said the word at the same time.
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Photograph by Karine Aigner
Soon, the dog connected each written command with the right trick, without any vocal cues. "Willow is really intelligent," Howells says, "But I believe there's no such thing as an untrainable dog."
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Photograph by Karine Aigner
Animal behaviorist Bonnie Beaver thinks Willow doesn’t read like you do. Instead, the dog probably recognizes the different shapes of each word. "Still, this is one special dog," she says. "Most people are lucky to have dogs that listen to you at all!"
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Photograph by Karine Aigner
Willow also can "count." Owner Lyssa Howells holds different numbers of rocks, pennies, or treats in each hand, then asks the dog which is more or less. She always paws the correct answer.
Text by Allie Benjamin
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