Careful, the Dogs Are Listening

A new study suggests that some highly intelligent dogs are able to learn by listening in on human conversations. Research published in the journal Science found that so-called “Gifted Word Learner” (GWL) dogs can learn the names of new toys simply by overhearing their owners talk to other people.

“Our findings show that the socio-cognitive processes that allow word learning from overheard speech are not unique to humans,” said study co-author Dr. Shany Dror of Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, according to Popular Science. “Under the right conditions, some dogs show behaviors that are remarkably similar to those of young children.”

These dogs, previously identified for their unusual ability to learn object names, come from a variety of breeds, although border collies and border collie mixes are especially common among top performers.

For the study, researchers involved in Hungary’s Genius Dog Challenge tested 10 GWL dogs in two different learning situations, the Associated Press reports. In the first, owners directly played with their dogs while introducing two new toys and repeatedly saying each toy’s name. In the second, the dogs were present but ignored while their owners talked about the toys with another person.

Over multiple short sessions, each dog heard the name of each toy for a total of eight minutes. The toys were then moved to a different room, and the owners asked their dogs to retrieve specific items by name. Seven of the 10 dogs succeeded in both situations—correctly choosing the right toy 80% of the time when taught directly and 100% of the time when they had only overheard the words.

A follow-up experiment tested whether dogs could still learn words when there was a delay between seeing an object and hearing its name. Owners showed the dogs the toys, placed them in a bucket, and only used the toy names after the objects were out of sight. Most of the dogs still learned the correct names, suggesting they can associate words with objects even without an immediate visual reference.

Researchers emphasize that GWL dogs are uncommon and likely represent a combination of genetic factors and frequent, high-quality interaction with humans. “We do not suggest that all dogs learn in this way—far from it,” Dror said.