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Many owners struggle to teach their dogs to sit, fetch or even bark on command, but John W. Pilley, a retired psychiatrist, taught his Border collie to understand more than 1,000 nouns, a feat that earned them both worldwide recognition.

In 2004, Pilley started an experiment after reading about a dog named Rico who was taught to recognize over 200 items.

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Pilley bought a black-and-white Border collie from a breeder near Spartanburg, South Carolina. He named the puppy Chaser.

For three years, Pilley trained her four to five hours a day: He showed her an object, said its name up to 40 times, then hid it and asked her to find it. He used 800 cloth animal toys, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and an assortment of plastic items to ultimately teach Chaser 1,022 nouns.

Chaser died Tuesday at 15. She had been living with Pilley’s wife, Sally, and their daughter Robin in Spartanburg. Pilley died last year at 89.

Another daughter, Pilley Bianchi, said Saturday that Chaser had been in declining health in recent weeks. “The vet really determined that she died of natural causes,” Bianchi said. “She went down very quickly.”