Silas the dog welcomes Alan into his virtual world.

Meet Duncan, a virtual sheep dog who looks after a virtual flock. Created by a team at MIT's Media Lab, Duncan has a mind of his own and can learn to respond to verbal commands. Like a real dog, however, Duncan's performance often depends on the skill of his human master. In "Virtual Dog," we visit computer scientist Bruce Blumberg's lab, where Alan tries his hand at commanding Duncan to round up the flock. Alan can't quite get Duncan to do as he's told, but, according to Blumberg, herding the sheep isn't really the point.

Blumberg wants to gain a better understanding of the nature of intelligence, and dogs - virtual or otherwise - are the perfect models. In order to make his creation as realistic as possible, Blumberg modeled Duncan's learning environment on the advice of real-life dog trainer Gary Wilkes.

Bruce Blumberg finds Alan a quick study in virtual dog training.

By using a clicking sound and then an immediate reward to let dogs know they've behaved correctly, Wilkes can get a dog to exhibit most any behavior. Alan finds instant success uses the "Click and Treat" method to train Wilkes' own dog, Tug. Then back in Blumberg's lab, Alan tries out the clicker method on Duncan. First, he clicks when Duncan is doing what he wants him to do, assigning a command to the behavior. Then Alan gives the command when Duncan is doing something else. Has Duncan made the connection? He has, making Alan the first person outside the lab to train the virtual dog.

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Pet Pointers