History Main / AmplifiedAnimalAptitude

* In ''Literature/{{Dogsbody}}'', the dogs are depicted as thinking creatures that can hold intelligent conversations between themselves. Most of the dog characters are partly descended from the hounds of TheWildHunt, which may have something to do with it. The protagonist is the smartest of them, and the best at understanding human speech, but then he's a supernatural creature reincarnated in the form of a dog.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': Creator/MercedesLackey usually uses magic as an excuse for her intelligent animals. Companions are [[OurAngelsAreDifferent actually angels in horse form]], for example. Tayledras bondbirds and Shin'a'in warhorses are a borderline. The product of very long breeding programs with magic used to nudge them along the way, they are not ''people'' and have a limited understanding of language, but they're quite unlike normal animals. Bondbirds are larger than normal corvids and birds of prey, smarter and quite social, forming tight emotional bonds with their human partners, to whom they can speak telepathically. The smartest ones speak in full sentences, understand deception and can make real plans. The [[CoolHorse warhorses]] meanwhile are big, ugly brutes with incredible stamina and intelligence that's changed their behavior so they're less like horses and more like smart dogs, which are exhaustively trained on a wide array of commands and can [[ActionPet use their own judgement]]. Meanwhile, regular Shin'a'in horses are also special but in ways more feasible for smart horses, and seem to be purely the product of long breeding projects.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/TheOneAndOnlyIvan''. Ivan is a gorilla who grew up in a human house before being put in a small cage in a [[CrappyCarnival circus-themed mall]] for over a quarter century. His best friend is an old elephant who was with a circus for much of her life before ending up in the same mall. Long-lived and intelligent animals, they can more or less understand English even if they don't quite understand ''[[{{Xenofiction}} humans]]''. When a new baby elephant, Ruby, is brought to join them she doesn't seem to understand most of what humans say, though she picks up on her name easily enough. There's also a year-old dog who also understands English and has less justification for it. Ivan's big moment of un-gorilla-like aptitude is his attempt to [[SavingTheWorldWithArt save Ruby with his art]] - having heard about zoos and seen them in commercials, he tries to paint a collage of a zoo with Ruby in it and laboriously figures out and copies the letters H O M E. It's still very hard for humans to figure out that this was done with intention, since to most of them his art is fully abstract.

** The next two books ramp it up. Hypsilophodons help a human-in-a-Hypsilophodon-body collect material to build a raft ''and'' row ''and'' hit a predator with clubs, all from watching him, wanting to help, and copying him. A family of Acrocanthosaurs rescues one member mired in mud by forming a dinosaur chain and pulling her out together. There is also the case of Hook/Junior, a Deinonychus who over the course of less than a week of watching, learns to ''make fire'', splint injured limbs, and is even able to, if not read, than at least has some understanding of the markings scratched into rock walls. He also fakes a limp on his own initiative. Hook/Junior, unlike all the others in the series, is noted to be unusually smart by the human characters. It's even implied that saving him and letting him rejoin Deinonychus society leads to dinosaurs surviving to modern times as an entire civilization, in an alternate universe.

* The dinosaurs in ''{{Literature/Dinoverse}}'' all tend to display a lot of intelligence. It would be expected with the main characters, who after all are humans cast back in time and put into dinosaur bodies, but just about everything they encounter that doesn't just try to kill them is ridiculously bright. In the first two books they mostly just have keen senses of emotional intelligence and group dynamics, with understanding of things like jealousy, reconciliation, gratitude, and amicably ending a relationship. Leptoceratopsians are able to use mimicry. The next two books ramp it up. Hypsilophodons help a character collect material to build a raft ''and'' row ''and'' hit a predator with clubs, all just because they watched a human-in-a-Hypsilophodon-body do it. There is also the case of Hook/Junior, a Deinonychus who over the course of less than a week of watching, learns to ''make fire'', splint injured limbs, and is able to, if not read, than at least has some understanding of the markings scratched into rock walls. He also fakes a limp on his own initiative. Hook/Junior, unlike all the others in the series, is noted to be unusually smart by the human characters. It's even implied that saving him and letting him rejoin Deinonychus society leads to dinosaurs surviving to modern times as an entire civilization, in an alternate universe.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': Creator/MercedesLackey usually uses magic as an excuse for her intelligent animals. Companions are [[OurAngelsAreDifferent actually angels in horse form]], for example. Tayledras bondbirds and Shin'a'in warhorses are a borderline. The product of very long breeding programs with magic used to nudge them along the way, they are not ''people'' and have a limited understanding of language, but they're quite unlike normal animals. Bondbirds are larger than normal corvids and birds of prey, smarter and quite social, forming tight emotional bonds with their human partners, to whom they can speak telepathically. The smartest ones speak in full sentences and understand deception and can make real plans. The warhorses meanwhile are big, ugly brutes with incredible stamina and intelligence that's changed their behavior so they're less like horses and more like smart dogs, which are exhaustively trained on a wide array of commands and can use their own judgement. Meanwhile, regular Shin'a'in horses are also special but in ways more feasible for smart horses, and seem to be purely the product of long breeding projects.

** Daine, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheImmortals'' has wild magic with ''all'' animals. Through her, we learn that Tortallan animals can understand humans to an extent but can't communicate with them, and in some cases ''could'' communicate with each other--but (since it's not played totally straight) they never get that kind of idea until they meet Daine. Prolonged exposure to Daine increases their intelligence to sentience, but it's often a stressful and unhappy experience for them. Her pony Cloud is completely sentient, as is the leader of a wolf pack that took Daine in after her mother's death.

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'': One could think Bebop's crew's dog Ein is an example, but he really is an UpliftedAnimal. However, this trope is played straight in the episode ''Mushroom Samba'' ({{Trope Namer|s}} of MushroomSamba) with a cow whom Ein thanks (getting a "you're welcome" in return).

* ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'': Even if one assumes their RobotBuddy B-12 is translating everything into some sort of cat speech, the Cat is incredibly intelligent, able to understand complex plans and tasks and having at least a rudimentary understanding of technology.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

--> '''Francis''': I never thought I would ever see one of us, sitting in front of a computer... and actually knowing how to use it!

* [[Characters/SupermanSupportingCast Krypto the Superdog]] and other super-pets showed up in, of course, the Franchise/{{Superman}}-related comics.
** Ace the Bat Hound, Streaky the Super Cat, and the animal pets of Characters/{{Catwoman|SelinaKyle}} and [[Characters/BatmanThePenguin The Penguin]] all understand humans and despite [[AnimalTalk being different species, all understand each other]].

* The original ''LightNovel/DirtyPair'' series had "[[ShoutOut Algernon]]", a mouse with enhanced intelligence and the ability to command other mice (a la Krosp from ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''), developed as a security system. Algernon went rogue and [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs took over the heroines' headquarters building]] before he was stopped by the Pair.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': Creator/MercedesLackey usually uses magic as an excuse for her intelligent animals. However, in the case of Shin'a'in warhorses, this is natural breeding, making them strong, smart, and mean.

* Blanca from ''[[VideoGame/ShadowHearts Shadow Hearts: Covenant]]'', who is not only a domesticated wolf raised from a puppy, but is also a full party member enough to make combos with other allies.

** Jack. The monkey Jack.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Sometimes, the animals on ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'' understand perfectly what is going on in the human world. This usually happens on the radio (i.e. "The Frog" (where a tomcat calls for Mrs. Davis' pet cat Minerva via telephone), "Selling the House Next Door" (Miss Brooks babysits a dog, a cat, a frog and an actual baby), and "Minerva's Kittens" ("Minerva's husband" faints when he's told he's a father). It occasionally happens on television too, such as in "Blue Goldfish" where Mr. Boynton greets his pet frog Macdougall and the amphibian gives his typical "glug" in return. Or in "The Magic Christmas Tree" and "Citizen's League" where Minerva reacts to talk of fish or mice.

* ''Literature/TheMessengerSeries'': Favour is all-but-stated to have human-level intellect and reasoning ability, which is required for [[BigGood his role]] as an [[CoolHorse immortal being]] who [[ChooserOfTheOne chooses the heroes]] who will help him eradicate evil and misery. He appears to be able to manipulate a person's spatial awareness, senses, dreams, even the technology they're using to communicate, and sometimes [[TheHeroine Rose]] wonders if the thoughts in her head are her own or Favour communicating with her. In his original life, he was still portrayed as an unnaturally intelligent horse who was able to figure out what danger was coming to the villages and save them with some help from a thirteen year old boy. He, rather than the boy, was the one celebrated by the villages as the hero.

* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': Judy, Doctor [=McNinja=]'s gorilla receptionist, can read and write, drive cars, and is in general treated like a human character. [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Yoshi]] the raptor mount is somewhat more animalistic, but is able to communicate with Judy and understand concepts like writing, even if he can't read. Later, when fully sapient dinosaurs take over the world in a BadFuture alternate timeline, they [[spoiler:try to make him intelligent, but even then he has rather limited linguistic abilities and is only capable of YouNoTakeCandle-style speech]].

* Almost every animal in ''Series/{{Thunderstone}}'' is far smarter than it has any right to be. Arushka’s horse Moshi “knows what you’re gonna do, even before you do it” and understands any verbal command. Dolly the sheepdog can track her puppies across a vast desert without help. Prince the hawk brings Arushka a rock of thunderstone to show her that a huge deposit is nearby, and leads Chip, Kwan and Geneva to Arushka and Sundance when they’re trapped in a cave.
%%* Series/{{Wishbone}}.%%

* [[PokemonSpeak Despite the difficulty they have learning to say more than their own species name]], most Pokemon in [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} the anime]] appear to understand human speech. Even a Pokemon that hasn't even been caught yet can recognize when one of their attacks are called. Team Rocket's Meowth gained the ability to talk but lost the ability to learn the signature move Pay Day. This may not sound bad, but Pay Day literally ''makes money''. It's mentioned that he actually lost the ability to learn ''any'' new move ("I used up all my smarts learning to talk."), and doing so before he learned Pay Day was just an unfortunate lack of good timing.

* ComicBook/KryptoTheSuperdog and other super-pets showed up in, of course, the Franchise/{{Superman}}-related comics.
** Ace the Bat Hound, Streaky the Super Cat, and the animal pets of ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} and ComicBook/ThePenguin all understand humans and despite [[AnimalTalk being different species, all understand each other]].

* ''Series/{{Flipper}}'' understood the people he dealt with.

* ''Series/{{Lassie}}'', naturally, can not only understand human speech, but can also bark in some sort of code that humans understand to mean TimmyInAWell.

* ''WesternAnimation/HongKongPhooey'''s cat [[HypercompetentSidekick Spot]] was actually ''smarter'' than the title "hero".

** Penny's dog Brain is smarter than her uncle and saves his life several times per episode. This is not as true in [[Film/InspectorGadget the movie]], though.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' as well as Butch the dog and any other animals appearing in their cartoons have easily human intelligence.

* Almost every animal in ''Series/{{Thunderstone}}'' is far smarter than it has any right to be. Arushka’s horse Moshi “knows what you’re gonna do, even before you do it” and understands any verbal command. Dolly the sheepdog can track her puppies across a vast desert without help. Prince the hawk brings Arushka a rock of thunderstone to show her that a huge deposit is nearby, and leads Chip, Kwan and Geneva to Arushka and Sundance when they’re trapped in a cave.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}''

** And Gleek understands [[ComicBook/WonderTwins Zan and Jayna]].

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]

Ordinary animals in fiction have a [[ArtisticLicenseBiology significantly increased intelligence]]. Not necessarily the {{Talking Animal}}s. Not the {{Civilized Animal}}s and {{Funny Animal}}s. Just the wild and domestic animals encountered in stories where humans are the main characters. Such animals can frequently clearly understand everything humans say, understand human emotions, read, figure out how to solve problems on their own, and so forth. This is also true for cases in which the animals can [[AnimalTalk talk to each other]] (so the audience can hear them) but are common animals in the eyes of any humans in the film.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}}'''s golden eagle Avenger understood Birdman well enough to follow commands.

* The {{Novelization}} of ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'' makes this explicit of the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragonmount]] that Obi-Wan rides on Utapau. He can sense her intelligence through TheForce, and throughout the battle he banters with her and gives her orders that she follows without any problems.