Upper West Side Genius Dog Featured in The New York Times

By Tracy Zwick

The Upper West Side has long been home to formidable female intellects: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagen, Susan Sontag, and Hannah Arendt, to name a few. So, it shouldn’t surprise locals to learn of the latest powerful prodigy in their midst, this one a language savant featured in Thursday’s New York Times.

Basket the border collie.

“It’s so very stereotypical,” said Elle Baumgartel-Austin, Basket’s owner and primary trainer, when asked about raising a linguistic scholar in the neighborhood. Where else would you expect to find a four-legged word nerd?

As reported by the Times, Basket knows the name of at least 150 of her toys, and can retrieve them on command. Recently, a new study found that Basket, and other dogs like her, have a word-learning ability that puts them on a level with a year-and-a-half-year-old human.

Reached by phone yesterday evening at home, an apartment a block or so from Central Park West, Baumgartel-Austin offered details of a day in the life of an UWS working genius. Basket’s days can be long, sometimes including hours of mental exercise, mainly retrieving toys she recognizes by name, which are meticulously logged in the name of science.

But her days always include frisbee too, and they often end with a visit to Beer Run, a bar on 86th Street and Columbus, where Basket has some dog friends. “Basket loves Beer Run!” Baumgartel-Austin enthused. “And they love dogs there.”

Baumgartel-Austin, a work-from-home software developer, and her wife, Claire Austin, moved to the UWS from Texas about a year and a half ago. “We wanted to live close to Central Park, and now that we’re on the UWS, we can’t imagine living anywhere else.” She explained that border collies like Basket need a ton of exercise. “Basket’s true to her breed: she needs a job!”

Baumgartel-Austin brought Basket home as a puppy, nearly eight years ago. She quickly saw what a fast learner she was, and how much she benefitted from mental and physical stimulation. In fact, Basket is so “hyper focused” on doing her job, whether it’s practicing scripted dances with a handler, fetching, or learning and responding to verbal cues, she rarely interacts with other dogs when she’s dialed-in to those activities.

Baumgartel-Austin, who studied linguistics in college, said: “I’ve always been really interested in language acquisition, both in early childhood development and in dogs.” She credited a documentary called “Chaser” that she’d seen on “Nova,” the long-running PBS show, in part for her fascination. “Chaser” was a Border collie prodigy, like Basket, who could identify thousands of toys by name.

While Baumgartel-Austin said Basket’s intellect doesn’t seem to intimidate other UWS dogs, she pointed out a few challenges that do come with having a gifted and extremely active canine companion. “It’s a time commitment,” she explained. Basket participates in research that can require hours to  record and meets with scientists. She also has to be taught and instructed to relax. “She’s a junkie when it comes to frisbee,” Baumgartel-Austin admitted; “some of these dogs can work themselves to death.”

Basket’s language-recognition work also requires a lot of toys, which can get expensive.

Baumgartel-Austin shops for toys at nearby Little Creatures, on Amsterdam between 87th and 88th streets, and at T.J. Maxx, which has a location on Columbus between 97th and 100th streets. “They have reject toys there,” she explained. “So we get these funny weird creatures, you can’t really tell what they are.”

In addition to buying new ones, Baumgartel-Austin spends a lot of time repairing Basket’s toys, because once she learns the name of one, it becomes valuable both for work and play. “Some have undergone several operations,” she reported somberly.

Basket adds to other domestic tasks too: keeping the toys orderly in baskets, and, of course, washing them. “My wife took a cart full of dirty toys to the building’s laundry room awhile ago, and a neighbor got on the elevator and said ‘lucky kid’ when she saw the pile.” Austin clarified that the toys were for their Border collie. “It’s a lifestyle,” she explained. Perhaps Basket can be taught to add detergent and put quarters in the machine.

Until she does, she certainly won’t be the only UWS genius who doesn’t do her own laundry.

“She’s a special dog,” Baumgartel-Austin underscored at the call’s end, making clear how deep their love and bond is. “She’s more like a co-worker than a pet – she really is my best friend.”

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