Grey linguistics

[shannon]

My grey, Omar, always amazes me with his thought patterns and self-training. Several months ago, we lost our beloved Basset Hound, Flash. We all loved Flash, including Omar and Ozzie (our two greys). Omar and Ozzie, particularly Omar, called Flash often and loved to see Flash come when he called. A few months after Flash passed away, we adopted a Basset Hound, Fred. Omar was so excited to see him, and immediately started barking upon seeing him (a Basset bark, by the way, which Fred didn't quite know how to do yet since he was just a puppy- it is sad to say that I think Fred learned to bark from Omar)

 

Well Omar was determined to call Fred- at first he'd say Flash, but quickly corrected himself, just sticking with "Here, girl" and then whistling (even though Flash was a girl and Fred a boy, but who's keeping track, huh? Poor Omar was trying). So, Omar trucks along calling "Here, girl" and carefully listening, apparently, as we called Fred. One day we caught him practicing-- "Flaa..ed" "Flaaash- Fleeeed" "Flash-ed" "Flash-Fed" "Fed" "FlaFled" "Fled"

 

It was "Fled" Omar ultimately stuck with, calling Fred "Fled" for a few weeks, and that was okay with us and okay with Fred and we thought okay with Omar too.

 

But Omar never fails to amaze us.

 

One day a strange thing happened. We also have a cat named Rita who Omar loves as well. He loves to call Rita (by name, a clean, crisp "Rita"), and say "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," and meow like a kitty as well sometimes.

 

It was just a few days ago, we overheard Omar practicing the name "Rita." Over and over again. "Rita" "Rita" "Rrrrita" "Riiiita" "Rrrrrrrrrita" Again and again. I thought it strange because Omar already clearly knew Rita's name and had for a good three years (we got Rita in 2005).

 

But then, everything made sense to me finally when Omar started rehearsing something else- "Frrriiiita" "Freeeeta" "Frrrr" "Fr" "Frr" "Frrrriiiiiiita" "Friiita" "Frita" "Freeta" "Friiita" and so forth. I was absolutely amazed as I realized his technique!

 

At some point, and some may think me crazy for thinking this but you can't convince me otherwise, but at some point Omar became frustrated that he couldn't get the "r" in "Fred" and at some point Omar reasoned that he was able to get the "R" in "Rita" without any problem, and at some point, Omar concluded that he could achieve success in saying "Fred" by working on combining what he is having trouble with (Fred) and what he can say easily (Rita) into the word "Frita" After a few days of practicing, Omar can now say "Fred," though it is still a little laborious and he gets it mixed up some still, but still practices when he thinks we aren't listening.

 

Pretty impressive! I wonder if some speech therapists would have put all that together and solved a problem that way?<br><br>Post edited by: shannon, at: 2009/03/07 18:36

[she]

Greys never fail to amaze with theit inteligence and logic.

[Tycos_mom]

What a cute story My Tyco also calls my shith zu Gloria all the time. She used to come when Tyco called but oneday Tyco bit her eye and now she is blind in one eye. So she has learned to stay well away from Tycos cage. I think Tyco feels bad about it because she hasn't even tried to bite any of the other dogs since this happened just after I got Tyco. Gloria isn't taking any chances she steers clear of Tycos cage. Its funny you would think that something like that would make her fearful of all the birds but it didn't she still protects all the other birds if they happen to end up on the floor she stays right beside them to make sure they don't get stepped on. if some one gets to close she will stand between the bird and who ever and bark to let the person know there is a bird on the floor.

[casper]

They are so clever!

 

My eldest grey will call one of the cats who is called Sukey. He makes me laugh when Sukey has a mad half an hour charging about, he will shout "Sukey stop it now"

 

They are so smart!

[Nychsa]

Hi Shannon,

 

I think the make variations on words and phrases just for kicks and giggles. Bella has this whole thing going on where she starts off with Peak-a-boo, and then she goes to Peak-a-boo-boo, Peaky-peaky-boo-boo, and then she added Peak-a-boo-a-whoop-dee-doo, whoop-dee-doooooo-dah! I was able to catch her doing a few here:

http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=46601&CID=239074

[danmcq]

They are ceratinly an amazingly intelligent species aren't they.

 

Thanks for sharing that wonderful and touching story. :-)

[danmcq]

Bella is hilarious!!!

 

Thanks for sharing that Terri. :-)

 

I love the peekapeekapeekaboooooooo..... hahahahahahaha

[Nychsa]

LOL Dan, my pleasure - she's a hoot with some of her "songs'.

[Luvparrots]

Shannon, Omar certainly is a very clever and smart grey. Thank you for sharing this great story with us!!

 

 

And Terri, I always enjoy watching and hearing Bella, she is such a joy and so hilarious!!!

[Char]

That is a wonderful story of Omar. His abilities certainly are impressive. You are very intuitive to pick up on what he was doing.

 

Whisper also plays around with her words. "Go poop" is sometimes " "Go,go,go poop!" For the past week she has been constantly saying "Are you Whisper?" I can't figure that one out since of course it is not something I would say to her.

 

Nychsa: I liked the whoopdee doo of Bella so much that I started using it on Whisper. It took 2 weeks but she is finally saying it.

 

Nychsa

[Nychsa]

Char wrote:

Nychsa: I liked the whoopdee doo of Bella so much that I started using it on Whisper. It took 2 weeks but she is finally saying it.

 

Nychsa

 

:laugh: Char! That one turns into all kinds of fun phrases! I have no idea where she picked it up - I've yet to hear ayone else around here say it. So, I'm thinking it was the TV.