Noam Chompsky's Early Language Acquisition

Yoga with friends!

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:32:16 -0400

Yoga with friends!

Offering wheat for trees

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:55:33 -0400

Offering wheat for trees

Gah. At the dog park today there were lots of dogs, but one that would NOT leave Chompsky alone....

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:13:20 -0400

Gah. At the dog park today there were lots of dogs, but one that would NOT leave Chompsky alone. He kept trying to mount him, Chompsky kept letting the dog know that wasn’t cool, and the dog would keep trying, over and over. Chompsky was getting frustrated: his warnings were becoming louder and longer.

Usually in these situations I call him over and make him sit for a treat, which both calms him down and makes the other dog wander away. But this dog wouldn’t stop! He would sit there and scratch Chompsky as he sat looking at me, over and over. Chompsky would try to play with other dogs, and this dog would immediately be jumping on him. We’d go to another area of the park, and he’d follow one step behind Chompsky.

The worst part was there was no owner taking care of this dog! There were a lot of dog walkers there, but nobody would claim this dog. Eventually Chompsky and I cut out park visit short and left early, because we were both getting frustrated at how this one dog was picking on him.

I found Chompsky sleeping on David’s old sheets after Dave...

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:05:53 -0400

I found Chompsky sleeping on David’s old sheets after Dave returned home
from a weekend visiting us. Somebody misses him!

Garbage times

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:15:06 -0400

So we left Chompsky alone on Saturday evening and accidentally left a garbage bag out (I was emptying the garbage and go distracted). Chompsky got into the bag, which was fine and totally my fault, but in that bag was a container.

A container of congealed bacon grease.

Chompsky ate as much as he could reach, and then vomited. Twice. And the vomit was pretty much just bacon grease. So we cleaned it up, but these two stains on the carpets will be with us I’m pretty sure forever? Nothing we’ve tried can break up actual bacon grease that was left to sit for several hours.

AH WELL, AT LEAST THE CARPETS SMELL DELICIOUS NOW

Chompsky made a new friend on the roof

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:11:11 -0400

Chompsky made a new friend on the roof

Feeling tuckered after the dog park.

Sat, 04 May 2013 11:34:37 -0400

Feeling tuckered after the dog park.

Stripping the bed and Chompsky is in his fort

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:03:31 -0400

Stripping the bed and Chompsky is in his fort

Poochface

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:12:46 -0400

Poochface

New trick!

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 10:47:22 -0400

I was giving Chompsky a treat this morning and it occurred to me to hide it in one hand and present both hands to him. The first time I did this he sniffed both hands and then kept sniffing the correct one, so I opened it and gave him the treat. The next time he sniffed and then gently tapped the correct hand with his paw and it was SO ADORABLE. So I repeated it a bunch of times and every time he got it right (I mean, it’s not hard, he has a good nose) but it is super cute how he taps the correct hand.

All legs

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:51:49 -0400

All legs

Trying to avoid getting his nails done

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:50:19 -0400

Trying to avoid getting his nails done

poo update

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:29:45 -0400

POO UPDATE: We’ve been feeding him this food for the past few weeks and he’s been fine. So whatever the source of his too much poo problems a while back, it wasn’t his food!

NOW YOU KNOW

chompsky:

So I was trying to think of what had changed in Chompsky’s diet: there were the pork treats, but after we put him back on food again the diarrhea continued. Then I thought - we did buy a new bag of food! Maybe it’s bad?

So we bought a fresh bag and slowly put him back on it, this time starting…

So for the past several weeks we’d been running Chompsky...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:42:00 -0400

So for the past several weeks we’d been running Chompsky through trials which are designed BY ACTUAL SCIENTISTS to determine what sort of dog you’ve got, personality-wise, and how they interact with the world. They do stuff with the aggregate data, but you get a neat report about your own dog!

Above you can see Chompsky’s summary chart. They classified him as an “ACE” which is nice, but they have nice-sounding classifications for every type of dog. This was the best part, which ALSO applies equally well to the linguist:

This was when you put the treat under one cup, but point to the other cup. Noam Chompsky prefers to rely on what he can see and remember rather than what you tell him. Even though you gave Noam Chompsky misleading information, he remembered where the treat was and chose to ignore you. This shows an independent thinker, and you should be aware that in other situations Noam Chompsky might not listen to you if he thinks you are wrong.

Hahaha OH CHOMPSKY WHY WON’T YOU SEE US AS GODS

The other neat part was a test where we hid a treat beneath one cup so he could see, left another cup empty, and then made him wait to get the treat for progressively longer times. Chompsky was great at it, and here’s what the report said.

In these kinds of memory games, cats quickly start to forget where an object is after only 10 seconds, while dogs still show some success for up to 4 minutes.

I think it helped that he was staring at the cup and drooling onto the floor for most of that time, but I was surprised to hear that cats are so bad at this!

Anyway basically Chompsky is a genius; you can read the full report here.

Of course he finds the only giant puddle in the park!

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:06:09 -0400

Of course he finds the only giant puddle in the park!

Photo

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:54:03 -0400

Chompsky vs MegaChompsky

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:53:41 -0400

Chompsky vs MegaChompsky

Dog of destiny

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:04:16 -0400

Dog of destiny

Ontario scrublands dog

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:12:00 -0400

Ontario scrublands dog

Hey ladies

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 11:47:25 -0400

Hey ladies