Most dogs do not learn words unless they have been extensively trained – but a team of researchers has found that some outstanding pets have ‘extraordinary abilities’.
Researchers from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, observed two ‘gifted’ dogs: a Border Collie named Whiskey, and a Yorkshire Terrier named Vicky Nina, and tested their ability to learn a new word after heard it only four times.
“We wanted to know under what circumstances the gifted dogs may learn new words. To test this, we exposed Whiskey and Vicky Nina to the new words in two different conditions,” said Claudia Fugazza, first author of the study and a researcher to the department. of ethology, said.
One scenario was an exclusionary task, and another was within a social, playful context with their owners.
“It is important that the dogs in both conditions only heard the name of the new toy four times,” Fugazza said.
The dogs, presented with seven familiar toys and one new toy, could choose the new toy if they were given a new name. According to researchers, this proves that dogs can choose by exclusion – when confronted with a new word, they select and locate the only toy that did not have a familiar name.
However, when researchers offered two newly named toys and asked them to pick one up, they failed.
The research team also noted that both dogs were able to identify and retrieve newly named toys after hearing the name only four times during play.
“Such rapid learning seems to be similar to the way human children grow their vocabulary about 2-3 years old,” said Adam Miklósi, head of the Ethology Department and co-author of the study.
But not all dogs learn words this way.
In a test of 20 other dogs, researchers found that none of them learned the new toy names. It has been concluded that, without formal training, the ability to learn words quickly is very rare and occurs only in a few gifted dogs.
Researchers also found that both Whiskey and Vicky Nina quickly forgot the new toy names, and in some tests, within a little over an hour of learning them.
The research was published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports.
Dogs are known for their hearing ability and their ability to hear words and sounds well, and they are able to distinguish speech sounds. But experts said they do not seem to pay attention to all the speech sounds.