Studies have shown that dogs can learn names of toys – with some recognising over a 100! Teach your dog to become a genius while keeping them physically and mentally fit with our Canine Challenge Facebook group or join our Nose Nerds
Reading about the Family Dog Project
“Hey Gus,” I enquired, “Are you a genius dog?” Gus opened one eye, looked at me, sighed, then went back to sleep. I could see him thinking of course he was a genius, why did I even have to ask?
I was reading some recently published research from the Family Dog Project at Eotvos Lorand University (Budapest).
The Family Dog Project was founded in 1994 to study the behavioural and cognitive aspects of the dog-human relationship. It is currently the largest dog research group in the world and has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Previous studies had looked at how many words dogs knew and involved 34 pet dogs and 6 Border Collies. The latter group outshone the other pet dogs significantly at their ability to learn words.
Teaching dogs new words
This new study took those six Border Collies and asked their owners teach them the names of even more new toys. The dogs are Max (Hungary), Gaia (Brazil), Nalani (Nederland), Squall (Florida), Whisky (Norway), and Rico (Spain). They qualified to participate in the challenge by proving they know the names of more than 28 toys, with some knowing more than 100.
The dogs’ owners were given a week to teach their dog the names of six brand new toys, supplied by the scientists. They did this in play sessions of around half an hour on average (though some spent longer) in which they played with the toy and kept saying its name. Progress was monitored via live video online. Then, on the 7th day, the dog was tested to see if they knew the names of the new toys.
If you want to know how to teach your dog the names of toys, you can see how the experiment was organised at the Genius Dog Challenge.
What happened in the Genius Dog Challenge?
Four dogs fetched all six toys correctly, while the two other dogs successfully fetched 5 of them, far better than you would expect by chance. A similar experiment was done with 12 new toys. When tested, four dogs fetched 11 toys correctly, and two dogs fetched them all.
Further experiments tested the dogs’ memory for the names one month and two months after. Five dogs fetched all the right toys one month after the training, with one dog doing no better than chance. By two months after, three of the dogs got all of them right, and two dogs did no better than chance.
The scientists point out that most studies of language learning have looked at apes, but it’s good to test dogs because they are used to spending time around us and (at least sometimes) paying attention to what we say.
Are Border Collies the brainiest?
If you know Border Collies, you probably think it’s no accident that all the dogs in this study are BCs. They were recruited because they already knew lots of names of toys.
One of the authors said, “Although the ability to learn names of toys appears to be more common among Border Collies, in a recently published study we found that even among this breed it is very rare. Moreover, this talent is not unique to this breed. We are constantly searching for more gifted dogs. Thanks to the Genius Dog Challenge we have managed to find dogs from other breeds including a German Shepherd, a Pekingese, a Mini Australian Shepherd and a few dogs of mixed breeds.”
And the scientists are on the lookout for other dogs with the same abilities. So if you think your dog is a genius dog, get in touch with them at the Genius Dog Challenge.
Sadly, Gus doesn’t qualify as a genius dog. He only knows around 15 names. But don’t worry, I broke the news to him gently.
We’re going to keep practising, even though he’s nine now. Just as in humans, it’s important to keep your dog’s brain active as they age and the best way to do that is through finding new fun games to play, especially scent games.
Learn new scent games with your dog to keep them mentally & physically fit
There are plenty of fun training ideas in our Canine Challenge Facebook Group, or you can join our Nose Nerds group – scent games have been shown to be the best way to keep older dogs fit and healthy, mentally and physically. Our next in-person Nose Nerds session is tomorrow and boy, we’ve got a fabulous session planned!
Why not join us?
Keep training and stay safe,
Carol
PS Want to try this yourself? Go to our Canine Challenge Facebook page where I showed you how to teach your dog toy names, amongst many other games (all organised into units by clever Catherine). We put loads up there during lockdown last year and you can still browse through them all whenever you want.
