Dogs are known for their intelligence and ability to learn new things, but a recent study has shown that some dogs can learn categories like human toddlers do. Arya, a six-year-old border collie in Italy, is one such dog with exceptional abilities. She can learn a new toy’s name from just one or two mentions and even knows the names of her favorite foods.
Researchers conducted a study involving 10 talented dogs, mostly border collies, to test their ability to learn words for different categories of toys. The dogs were taught words for two categories: tug toys, called “pulls,” and fetch toys, called “throws.” All the toys were different in size, shape, and color, ruling out appearance as a guide for learning.
After four weeks of training, new toys that looked nothing like typical pulls or throws were introduced to the dogs. The dogs only experienced each toy’s function (either tugging or fetching) during play, without being taught words for them. Surprisingly, the dogs were able to choose the right toy two-thirds of the time when asked to fetch a pull or a throw, well above the expected chance rate.
Study lead author Claudia Fugazza, an ethologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, emphasized that these dogs are exceptional and not all family dogs can build such vocabularies. She found it surprising that the dogs were able to extend a familiar word to new objects that share the same function, even if they look different.
Elika Bergelson, a Harvard University language scientist, noted that human infants also extend words based on function as they grow older. The study’s findings suggest that dogs, like human children, can learn to categorize objects based on their function rather than just their appearance.
These findings offer unique insights into how language-related abilities might have evolved in nonlinguistic species like dogs. The study also highlights the importance of understanding how animals learn and communicate, shedding light on the remarkable abilities of our canine companions.
