Researchers have discovered that some dogs have a rare gift, often acquired spontaneously, of being able to learn and remember the names of many toys. The study, which involved a global search, reveals that this ability is not unique to dog breeds and helps us understand canine intelligence.

All dog owners think their puppies are special. Now, science has proven that some rare dogs are...even more special. They have a gift for learning the names of hundreds of dog toys. Because this phenomenon is so rare, until recently little was known about these dogs, as most studies documenting this ability included only small samples of one or two dogs.

In a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the Domestic Dog Project (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) shed new light on the characteristics of these special dogs.

In a previous study, scientists found that only a handful of dogs could remember the names of objects, most of which were dog toys. Researchers want to better understand this phenomenon, so they need to find more dogs with this ability. But finding a dog with this rare talent can be a challenge!

For five years, researchers have searched tirelessly around the world for these unique "gifted vocabulary learners" (GWL) dogs. As part of the search, they launched a social media campaign in 2020 and broadcast their experiments with GWL dogs in the hope of finding more GWL dogs.

Sheila, 6 years old, female, Border Collie mix, rescued as a puppy. It lives in New Jersey and knows the names of 125 toys. Photo credit: Trace Hanley-Millman

"This is a citizen science project," explains team leader Dr. Claudia Fugazza. "When dog owners tell us they think their dog knows the name of the toy, we tell them how to self-test their dog and ask them to send us a video of the test."

The researchers then held an online meeting with the dog owners to test the dogs' vocabulary under controlled conditions, asking the owners to fill out a questionnaire if the dogs showed they knew the names of their toys. "In the questionnaire, we asked dog owners about their dogs' life experiences, their own experiences raising and training dogs, and the process by which dogs learn the names of toys," explains co-author Dr. Andrea Sommese.

Some dogs have a gift for learning the names of many, many dog ​​toys. However, these "gifted word-learning dogs" are very rare; until now, little was known about them, and researchers documented the abilities of 41 "gifted word-learning dogs" and discovered what they had in common.

The researchers found 41 dogs from nine different countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Hungary. Previous studies on this topic have mostly included border collies. So while object label learning is very rare even among border collies, it's not surprising that many of the dogs (56%) who participated in this study were of this breed. However, this study also documented the ability of non-working breeds such as two Pomeranians, a Pekinese, a Shih Tzu, a Corgi, a Poodle and some mixed breeds to learn the names of toys.

Basket is a 5-year-old female border collie from Texas, USA. It knows the names of more than 50 toys. Image source: ElleBaumgartel

Lead researcher Shany Dror said: "Surprisingly, most owners said they did not deliberately teach their dogs the names of the toys, but rather that the dogs seemed to spontaneously remember the names of the toys during unstructured play. In addition, the vast majority of owners who participated in the study did not have a professional background in dog training, and the researchers found no correlation between the owner's level of experience in handling and training dogs and the dog's ability to choose the correct toy when hearing its name.

Dror explains: "In our previous research, we have shown that GWL dogs learn the names of new objects very quickly. So it was not surprising that when we tested the dogs, the average number of toys the dogs knew was 29, but when we published the results, more than 50% of dog owners said their dogs had mastered a vocabulary of more than 100 toy names."

Ganeshani, a 5-year-old female border collie from Colorado, USA, knows the names of more than 100 toys. Photo credit: CathyProenza

"Since GWL dogs are so rare, until now there were only anecdotes about their background," explains Professor Adam Miklósi, Head of the Department of Zoology at Eötvös Eötvös Eötvös and co-author of the study. "This rare ability to learn the names of objects is the first documented gift in a non-human species. The relatively large sample of dogs recorded in this study helps us identify common characteristics of these dogs, bringing us one step closer to exploring and understanding their unique abilities."

The study is part of the Genius Dog Challenge research project, which aims to understand the unique talents of "word-learning genius" dogs. Researchers encourage dog owners who think their dogs know the names of more than one toy to contact them through the Genius Dog Challenge website.

Compiled source: ScitechDaily