Scientists have long known that some dogs can learn the names of lots of toys. Now, a recent study shows that these dogs can even learn the names of new toys just by listening in while people talk about the toys. This is a skill that young children have, but dogs usually don’t.
Most dogs can be trained to follow simple commands like “come” or “sit”. But learning the names of things, called “label learning”, is harder. Most dogs struggle with it.
(Source: Shany Dror ELTE.)
But over the last 20 years, scientists have found a few dogs that can do it. These dogs can remember the names of many toys, sometimes even hundreds of them. They call these dogs “gifted word learners”.
The dogs usually learn the names of toys while playing, or during training sessions with their owners. But some owners have noticed that their dogs respond when they overhear the names of toys in conversations. For example, the New York Times reports that a dog named Basket fetches her toy avocado when she hears her owners talking about shopping for avocados.
(Source: Elle Baumgartel ELTE.)
Shany Dror, one of the scientists behind the new study, wondered if these dogs might also be able to learn new words from conversations they overhear.
To test this, Dr. Dror and her team worked with 10 dogs known for being good at label learning. Seven of the dogs were Border Collies.
First the scientists had owners teach the dogs the name of two new toys in the usual way – by talking directly to the dogs about the toy. Usually, it took the dogs about eight minutes spread over a few days to learn the names of the toys. When asked, the dogs could then fetch the correct new toy from a pile of 11 toys in a separate room 80% of the time.
(Source: Elle Baumgartel ELTE.)
Then came the second test. The scientists asked the dogs’ owners to talk about a new toy with someone else in the family, repeating the name of a new toy several times. They would say things like, “This is your armadillo,” and “It has armadillo feet.” The dog was allowed to hear the conversation, but the people didn’t look at or talk to the dog.
The dogs heard this kind of conversation about two different new toys. A few days later, the owners used the toy names to ask the dogs to fetch the new toys. The dogs were successful 100% of the time.
Learning words by overhearing is an impressive skill. It’s something that children can do when they’re about a year and a half old. The scientists also tried the same thing with 10 Border Collies that weren’t gifted word learners. Those dogs weren’t able to learn the names of new toys from conversations.
(Source: Shany Dror ELTE.)
The researchers say it’s not clear why some dogs can learn names so easily and others can’t. They want to find out more about what makes these special dogs so good at learning. But there’s a problem: the scientists say gifted word learners are very rare. Dr. Dror says, “We’re always searching for more dogs.”
Did You Know…?
The study also showed that the gifted dogs could learn the names of toys even when they couldn’t see them. The owners would show the dogs a new toy, and then put it in a container where the dog couldn’t see it. Only then would the owner name the object, looking at the container and repeating the name several times. Even so, days later, the dogs were able to fetch the new toy when it was requested by name.