This hunting dog became famous in the early 1900s as Don the Talking Dog.
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| Don the Talking Dog |
Don was owned by Martin Ebers in Theerhutte, Germany. Unlike Alexander Graham Bell who taught his dog Trouve to talk (to help benefit the deaf), Don reportedly began to talk on his own accord when he was six months old. It was in 1905, at the supper table when Ebers asked him "You want something don't you?" and Don responded "Haben" (have in English). Ebers wasn't sure if he heard his dog correctly, so he asked again. Don replied "Haben".
His vocabulary eventually reached eight words, including his name Don, kuchen (cake), hunger (same word in English and German), ja (yes), nein (no), ruhe (quiet) and Haberland (I believe this is the name of Eber's fiance). Although he spoke mostly one word at a time, he was able to form simple sentences like "Don hunger, have cake".
After Don became a well-known performer in Germany, he and his owner traveled to the US in 1912. Don quickly became popular, and ended up making a lot of money from shows and as a celebrity endorser for Milk-Bone dog biscuits. While in the US, not only did he entertain, he was credited for saving a man from drowning at Brighton Beach. After a couple of years of touring the country, Don and Ebers returned to Germany where the famous dog retired. Don passed away in 1915.
According to news articles, "Don, the talking dog, has entered upon a stage career after a number of the most eminent zoologists in Germany have subjected him to thorough examination and pronounced him a genuine prodigy."
However, according to a University of Berlin professor who had also examined Don, "the speech of Don is... to be regarded properly as the production of sounds which produce illusions in the hearer."