Are Dogs as Smart as Human Toddlers?

"A recent review in Scientific American summarized recent research on very smart dogs (mostly border collies). One relatively clear finding was that dogs do indeed develop a "vocabulary" of words. Most dogs can learn simple commands, recognize their names, and the names of items in their daily lives (e.g., "food," "toy") or actions ("walk," "dinner"). In this study, researchers wanted to explore if dogs could go beyond simply learning names for things and actually understand functions."

"After 4 weeks of training to associate the different toys with the words "pulls" and "throws," they introduced completely different-looking toys that shared the same function. The dogs were then asked to fetch either a pull or a throw toy from the new toys. They were correct in two-thirds of the trials. In short, the dogs were generally able to categorize these unfamiliar toys based on their function."

Dog owners often anthropomorphize pets by attributing complex human emotions and intentions, complicating objective assessment of animal cognition. Most dogs learn simple commands, recognize their names, and identify words for common items or actions. Ten highly trained dogs were taught words for two toy categories—tug toys labeled "pulls" and fetch toys labeled "throws"—over four weeks. When presented with novel-looking toys that shared the same function, the dogs selected the correct functional category in about two-thirds of trials. These results indicate that dogs can form function-based categories for objects, a cognitive operation seen in human toddlers around 14 months.

Read at Psychology Today