Shira, 6 -year-old, female, Border Collie mix, that was saved at a young age. She resides in New Jersey, and understands the names of 125 toys. Credit: Tres Hanley-Millman
” This was a person science project” explains Dr. Claudia Fugazza, team leader. “When a canine owner informed us they thought their pet knew toy names, we gave them instructions on how to self-test their pet and asked them to send us the video of the test.”
The scientists then held an online conference with the owners to evaluate the pets vocabulary under regulated conditions and, if the pet revealed he knew the names of his toys, the scientists asked the owners to submit a survey. “In the questionnaire, we asked the owners about their dogs life experience, their own experience in raising and training pet dogs, and about the process by which the pet dog came to learn the names of his/her toys” describes Dr. Andrea Sommese, co-author.
Some canines have the remarkable talent of finding out lots of, numerous names of canine toys. These Gifted Word Learner pet dogs are rare; till now, really little was known about them. In this research study, we documented the capability of 41 Gifted Word Learner canines and discovered what they have in common.
The researchers found 41 dogs from 9 various countries: the United States, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Hungary. Many of the previous studies on this subject included Border collies. So, while item label learning is really uncommon even in Border collies, it was not unexpected that much of the pet dogs taking part in the current study (56%) belonged to this breed. However, the study recorded the ability to discover toy names in a couple of canines from non-working breeds, such as 2 Pomeranians, one Pekingese, one Shih Tzu, a Corgi, a Poodle, and a couple of combined types.
Basket, 5 -year-old, female, Border Collie from Texas, USA. She knows the names of over 50 toys. Credit: Elle Baumgartel
” Surprisingly, the majority of owners reported that they did not purposefully teach their dogs toy names, however rather that the pets just seemed to spontaneously get the toy names during unstructured play sessions,” states Shany Dror, lead scientist. In addition, the vast majority of owners taking part in the research study had no professional background in dog training and the researchers discovered no correlations in between the owners level of experience in handling and training pets, and the dogs ability to select the correct toys when hearing its names.
” In our previous research studies we have revealed that GWL pets find out brand-new object names very fast” describes Dror. “So, it is not unexpected that when we conducted the test with the canines, the average variety of toys understood by the canines was 29, however when we released the results, more than 50% of the owners reported that their pet dogs had already gotten a vocabulary of over 100 toy names.”
Gani (Ganeshani), a 5-year-old, female, Border Collie from Colorado, USA, understands the names of over 100 toys. Credit: Cathy Proenza
” Because GWL canines are so unusual, previously there were only anecdotes about their background” describes Prof. Adam Miklósi, Head of the Ethology Department at ELTE and co-author. “The uncommon capability to discover item names is the first recorded case of skill in a non-human types. The fairly large sample of pets recorded in this research study, assists us to recognize the common qualities that are shared among these canines, and brings us one step better in the mission of comprehending their special capability.”
This research belongs to the Genius Dog Challenge research study task which intends to understand the special skill that Gifted Word Learner pets have. The researchers encourage canine owners who think their canines understand numerous toy names, to call them by means of the Genius Dog Challenge website.
Referral: “A citizen science design turns anecdotes into evidence by exposing comparable characteristics among Gifted Word Learner pet dogs” 14 December 2023, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/ s41598-023-47864-5.
Due to the extreme rarity of this phenomenon, until recently, really little was known about these dogs, as many of the studies that recorded this capability included just a little sample of one or two pet dogs. In a brand-new research study published in the Journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the Family Dog Project (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) shed new light on the attributes of these remarkable dogs.
In a previous research study, the researchers found that just extremely couple of dogs could discover the names of item, mainly dog toys. Some dogs have the extraordinary skill of discovering numerous, numerous names of pet toys. The fairly big sample of pet dogs recorded in this research study, assists us to recognize the typical qualities that are shared among these pets, and brings us one step more detailed in the mission of comprehending their unique capability.”
Researchers have found a rare skill in some pet dogs to discover and keep in mind names of numerous toys, typically acquired spontaneously. The study, involving a global search, reveals that this capability is not breed-specific and adds to our understanding of canine intelligence.
All pet owners think that their pup is special. Science now has actually recorded that some uncommon dogs are … even more special! They have a talent for finding out numerous names of dog toys. Due to the severe rarity of this phenomenon, up until recently, really little was learnt about these canines, as most of the research studies that recorded this capability included only a small sample of a couple of dogs. In a brand-new research study published in the Journal Scientific Reports, scientists from the Family Dog Project (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) shed brand-new light on the characteristics of these exceptional pet dogs.
In a previous research study, the scientists discovered that only extremely few pet dogs might discover the names of things, primarily dog toys. The scientists wanted to understand this phenomenon much better and, so they needed to discover more canines with this ability. Discovering pets with this unusual skill was a difficulty!
For five years, the researchers relentlessly searched across the world for these unique Gifted Word Learner (GWL) pets. As part of this search, in 2020, they launched a social networks project and broadcasted their explores GWL dogs, in the hope of finding more GWL pets.
