Study: some gifted dogs learn new toy names by eavesdropping on owners

Researchers report that a small group of gifted dogs can learn the names of new toys by overhearing their owners, a skill the study’s authors compare to 18-month-old children. The experiment was conducted by Shany Dror at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and the results were published in the journal Science.

The team tested 10 dogs already identified as “gifted word learners” — including seven Border collies, a Labrador retriever, a mini Australian shepherd and an Australian shepherd/blue heeler cross. Owners had another family member present a novel toy and name it in short conversational sentences while deliberately not addressing or looking at the dog.

After exposure to two new toys across several short sessions, the dogs were later asked to retrieve those toys from a room containing the two new items plus nine familiar ones. On average the dogs retrieved the new toys about 80 percent of the time; seven of the 10 performed significantly above chance.

A control group of 10 Border collies without unusual word-learning ability did not learn labels from overheard speech. The researchers note that label learning remains rare among dogs and that the specific cues the gifted learners use are unclear. An additional experiment in the study, involving a toy hidden in a bucket before its name was introduced, produced similar retrieval success.

Key Topics

Science, Gifted Word Learners, Shany Dror, Eötvös Loránd University, Border Collie, Label Learning