How Nazi Scientists Tried to Create an Army of Talking Dogs

[CalMeacham]

I swear, sometimes I have to check to make sure it’s not The Daily Show or The Onion. Thgis is currently up on Yahoo news:

In his new book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities, Cardiff University historian Jan Bondeson mines obscure German periodicals to reveal the Nazis’ failed attempt to breed an army of educated dogs that could read, write and talk. “In the 1920s, Germany had numerous ‘new animal psychologists’ who believed dogs were nearly as intelligent as humans, and capable of abstract thinking and communication,” he writes. “When the Nazi party took over, one might have thought they would be building concentration camps to lock these fanatics up, but instead they were actually very interested in their ideas.”

You just know that they’d be breeding Alsatians for this. You couldn’t see SS troops with, say, talking dachshunds. (Although I could see a role for them as spies, infiltrating the houses and offices of the Allied Command and reporting back via radio. They’d have Peter Lorre’s voice.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110526/wl_time/httpnewsfeedtimecom20110525hownaziscientststriedtocreateanarmyoftalkingdogsxidrssfullworldyahoo

An Airedale terrier named Rolf became a mythic figure of the project after teachers said he could spell by tapping his paw on a board (the number of taps represented the various letters of the alphabet)

And he could even say his name!

[robardin]

@CalMeacham

And [Rolf] could even say his name!

It runs in the family. His littermate Ulf could do it too.

[blindboyard]

Don’t forget the Hitler Salute dog.

[cochrane]

@CalMeacham

An Airedale terrier named Rolf became a mythic figure of the project after teachers said he could spell by tapping his paw on a board (the number of taps represented the various letters of the alphabet)

And he could even say his name!

He later enjoyed more fame as the piano player for Jim Henson’s Muppets.

[Malthus]

They could have called their dog-army the Woofen-SS.

[Hypno-Toad]

Or the Woofwaffe.

[lisiate]

Yet another weird science story from World War II, along with the bat bombs, Soviet tank busting dogs and the flying tank. Still doesn’t dethrone my personal favourite, Project Habbakuk though…

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@Malthus

They could have called their dog-army the Woofen-SS.

<SLAPS Malthus With A Wet Trout>

[Autolycus]

Talking schmalking. Let me know when they shoot bees out of their mouth.

[Der_Trihs]

@lisiate

Yet another weird science story from World War II, along with the bat bombs, Soviet tank busting dogs and the flying tank. Still doesn’t dethrone my personal favourite, Project Habbakuk though…

I like the Polish artillery bear myself.