Top Law Schools

Really not that big of a deal, but it's driving me nuts that I wasn't sure when I took the exam and can't figure out what the answer is.

Is a barking watch-dog a Declarant?

I said it can because it's an animal trained to elicit some reaction to a particular event/situation. So in a sense, that dog barking is an assertive statement that someone is at or near the house.

Does that sound right or am I just a moron?

A barking watch dog is not a declarant.

Animals don’t make true or false statements. Dog makes non-expressive nonassertive conduct

Can’t impute statement that’s true or false to animal.

One can only observe what they saw the dog doing, "the watch-dog was barking"

Grapes wrote:A barking watch dog is not a declarant.

Animals don’t make true or false statements. Dog makes non-expressive nonassertive conduct

Can’t impute statement that’s true or false to animal.

One can only observe what they saw the dog doing, "the watch-dog was barking"

See that's what I initially thought. However, I remembered going over an example in which a trained Parrot could be a declarant. My thought process was that a trained Parrot isn't making assertive content, but it is trained to elicit a response to an event (it mimics something that is said) I thought that a dog that was trained to alert someone to the presence of another individual is the same thing as a Parrot that is trained to mimic/repeat words or phrases. Essentially, I guess they've both been trained by a human to respond to something in a certain way, so as to send a message to the person (i.e. Dog barks, and the owner knows that someone is outside the house)

I don't know though. I think you're right. I'm ticked I put the wrong answer now.

blong4133 wrote:

Grapes wrote:A barking watch dog is not a declarant.

Animals don’t make true or false statements. Dog makes non-expressive nonassertive conduct

Can’t impute statement that’s true or false to animal.

One can only observe what they saw the dog doing, "the watch-dog was barking"

See that's what I initially thought. However, I remembered going over an example in which a trained Parrot could be a declarant. My thought process was that a trained Parrot isn't making assertive content, but it is trained to elicit a response to an event (it mimics something that is said) I thought that a dog that was trained to alert someone to the presence of another individual is the same thing as a Parrot that is trained to mimic/repeat words or phrases. Essentially, I guess they've both been trained by a human to respond to something in a certain way, so as to send a message to the person (i.e. Dog barks, and the owner knows that someone is outside the house)

I don't know though. I think you're right. I'm ticked I put the wrong answer now.

yes but the barking isn't a statement. what if he was barking because he was having a bad dream? animals can't make statements.

but dont worry about it the exam is over! on to the next one...