Your Trainer...(Assistant)

September 21,1969 is his birthday. He has been working as an training assistant at our Long Beach facility now for a few years.

He was born at ST. Joseph hospital in Orange, Ca and has lived in Orange County for his (now) 56 years.

Last year I had been lucky to have him due to bout with Sciatica which had severely limited the amount of runs that I could assist with. I am doing much better now but his help has been greatly appreciated.

Now he has broken the third toe on his right foot and has been assisting as much as he is able to.

He has never done that before. This is how they can do it.

Rico was using a process called “fast-mapping,” or inference, which is the same way children learn language skills. Growing up, children learn words very quickly because if they hear a new word, they can infer its meaning by putting it together with a new object. Rico did the same thing:

When scientists asked him to fetch a toy he didn’t know the name of, he looked at all the toys in the room, and all of them — except one — were familiar to him. Therefore, the new word must correspond to the new toy, so that is the one he picked. "There is no other species on the planet that has come close to doing that," said Hare.

Other dogs, including another border collie named Chaser who learned 1,000 words, have also been able to use this same fast-mapping method.

From Your Trainer...for your support !

September, 2025