The interesting part to me, is that they all seem to understand gravity, based on their reactions.

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/watching-these......cialflow

My partner Tom did some coin Magic for a Baby and a Dog and they both did a take.

The baby did a jaw dropping take and looked at Mom for an explanation of how to take that.

The dog looked back and forth from the empty hand (where he had expected the coin to be) to the other hand. When Tom opened the other hand and showed it empty as well, the Dog did a take and looked to (the same) Mom with raised eyebrows.

We were all laughing because we were all surprised that a Dog and a Baby would get Magic at all. Maybe they were just a very aware family.

-Mary Mowder

Love doing this to dogs. They go nuts, however, their nose is very powerful and finds it.

Any data on cats yet?

Have you seen the videos of the cats playing the shell game?

Uhhh...no. Will I regret it for the rest of my life?

Not really... that's why I posted the video of the dogs instead.

I taught my dog to play the shell game with 3 Styrofoam cups and a dog treat.

I taught my wife's former Service Dog you perform a number of magic effects -- actual ones rather than the "dog tricks" published in several books.

She realized that she was doing something unique that got a different reaction from observers. She never "tipped the trick" by doing anything at the wrong time, but would match the spectator's pensive look with one of her own and take a bow only after the the impact of the magic had set in. She was a big ham when not in harness and loved to perform magic over doing "dog tricks" beyond those most dogs are ever trained to do. For example, if I dropped bunch of change on the floor and had a spectator name a specific coin such as "nickel" she would pick up all of the nickels and bring them to me, ignoring the others. No "trick" -- just practiced skill. She would not dance or take a bow when doing this kind of thing.

But, when doing a magic effect such as picking up lettered blocks and dropping them into a bag to later spell out a spectator selected word, she would show no reaction until "her" blocks had been arranged to spell out the word -- then she would prance, bark and bow with no cues from me.

The point is that dogs are capable of many extraordinary actions. What if they lived to be 40-50? The only reason why here new Service Dog cant do as many tricks as we don't have the time to train her. Most people don't spend enough time training/teaching their kids either -- and it shows.

............................

as a side note, I wonder how many dogs on the video are NOT shown? There is no reason to presume that every dog responded in a cute way to the test -- or that they are not cued from the side-lines. Most significant (for me) is the fatc that each dog was given a treat before hand and thereby had a trained expectation of a treat being in the hand. In like manner, any magician can condition audience expectations for an effect and increase the change that astonishment will occur.

Every dog has experience of how objects behave, and understand the persistence of objects and the behavior of gravity, etc. When things go contrary to a lifetime of expectations of how things work, they are surprised.

It is the same with people. Magicians don't have to train their audiences for astonishment. They only have to plan a way to counter their learned expectations.

Great Whit -- and with today's audience mostly experiencing life vicariously via TV, YouTube, etc. -- just what are these "learned experiences?"

any read from a neurobiolgist will explain the difference between "conditioned responses" and "learned expectations"

either can be the basis of entertainment. Surprise and confusion are not astonishment for me.

Yes it is quite true. Why only the other day I met one those trainees, who thought he was the cause of the climate.