Can the GSD outwit a human?

Arsenio Hall once used to call a segment of his show, "Things that make you go hmmm." I found one folks - read on.

The language barrier is also affecting another aspect of English police work. Our officers reckon the German Shepherd is the most effective animal for crowd control, drug searches and armed response operations. A well trained German Shepherd can handle the most difficult assignment. Trouble is there aren't enough home-bred German Shepherds. And - you guessed it - imported dogs don't speak English.

In South Yorkshire the local police have eight Slovak dogs. Now if you tell a Slovak German Shepherd to STAY, it will gaze at you in total puzzlement, scratch itself for a while and then wander off to water the nearest tree. Slovak dogs, like Slovak vegetable-pickers, prefer you to say it in Slovak. But the police couldn't justify any more expense on interpreters so now they're busy learning the languages of their four-legged friends.

Incidentally the Slovak for STAY is "Zustan". Which is fine if all the dogs are Slovak. But they're not. Holland also produces very good German Shepherds. So sitting next to Sven the Slovak may well be Nils the Dutch dog. And if you tell a Dutch dog to "Zustan" you will get an equally quizzical look. The proper word is "Biljf". And, even worse, the police are also importing a breed of Belgian beast called the Malinois. So if you've got Slovak, Dutch and Belgian hounds under your command you will have to shout: "Zustan, Biljf and Reste" just to make them stay precisely where they are.

These days this country can't even say it's going to the dogs with ease. by Ed Boyle ©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved