Mystery Girl and What a Dog Knows

Who's the charming blonde who keeps appearing in my blog photographs? She'll get a more complete introduction later. But she and her adult companions are going to training classes, just as an article appears in The New York Times on dogs' ability to understand human words: "Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl."
It seems I have a tendency to "poison" words or to speak to a dog with sounds already "poisoned." This doesn't mean I'm constantly saying "democrat," "republican," or "lobbyist" or putting Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno in the same sentence. Rather, I repeat words carelessly in trying to give the dog a command. Saying "sit sit sit sit sit" while a dog looks on and then yawns doesn't create interspecies communication. The dog should see a consistent gesture and hear a consistent word, while being lured into place by a treat. So, a hand cupped upward and raised toward and over the dog's head, with one "sit" should suffice. There's still room for nonsense communication--like that-a-girl, that-a-girl--that-a-girl--but all involved parties should understand that as an attention-getter and little else.
The New York Times article centers on Chaser, a border collie who recognizes over 1000 objects by name, and her trainer psychologist John Pilley. Studying how a dog can gain a "human" vocabulary might shed light on canine ability as well as on human language acquisition. Humans move ahead with complex grammar, but sometimes the dog seems the better student in practice. “She still demands four to five hours a day,” Dr. Pilley said. “I’m 82, and I have to go to bed to get away from her.”