3 Dogs with College Degrees
By WebVet.com
'Tis the season for diplomas and degrees! So get your flowers, congratulatory cards -- and doggie treats ready for the graduates. Doggie treats? Yes! Humans aren't the only ones marching to Pomp and Circumstance this month. Check out these smarty pups who've conquered higher education:
Ellis
It's hard enough for an intelligent, well-educated human to graduate law school -- let alone a dog. Yet Ellis, an 80-pound black lab, walked along with the New York Law School graduates in May of 2012 to receive his honorary degree from the school.
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A fellow graduate, 24-year-old Amanda Davis, sought the help of a seeing eye dog when she choose to attend law school in Manhattan -- hundreds of miles from her hometown in Florida. The school accommodated Ellis in all of Amanda's classes and helped her arrange a schedule that took his canine needs into consideration. The New York Daily News noted that while Davis hopes for a career in financial arbitration, it's unclear what Ellis plans to do with his degree.
Source: NY Daily News
Samson
Sometimes it takes more than book smarts to earn your diploma. In 2011, Samson the service dog had to prove he was worthy of his degree on stage -- by shaking hands before he accepted the all-important document he'd worked so hard to earn at Oklahoma University.
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Samson had been enrolled at the university, training as a therapy dog with an OU Rehabilitation Science professor for two years before he was eligible for the honorary degree. And just like the other students, Samson was outfitted in cap and gown when he walked across the stage -- and into his new life as a certified service dog.
Source: Newson6.com
Elvis
A six-year-old Welsh-Corgie mix was given an honorary degree from Hope College in Michigan for...what else? His ability to do calculus. Dr. Timothy Pennings , a math professor, swears that Elvis the dog can solve calculus problems. It makes sense when you give it some thought -- considering that a standard calculus problem is to find the quickest path from one point to another -- as Elvis does when he plays fetch. "When I did all the math calculations to figure out exactly where should he jump into the water in order to get there in the shortest time, it turns out he jumps into the water within about a foot of the optimal point each time," Pennings explained. Pennings' findings show that when he mathematically calculated the optimal path of Elvis' route, he arrived at an estimation that was very close to Elvis' own burification point. This indicates that Elvis may in fact have the ability to problem solve.
Check out a video of Elvis here
Think you're smarter than a Corgi mix? Think again.
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