Gifted learner dogs' can learn words by eavesdropping, study says

"Scientists have discovered canines with the unusual ability to learn the names of myriad objects can pick up such labels by eavesdropping on conversations. The team say such abilities are thought to rely on a host of social cognitive skills, from identifying the relevant word within a conversation to using cues from people's gaze, gestures, and voices to understand what the word refers to."

"In the first experiment, 10 such dogs among them border collies, a border collie-mix rescue and a labrador were each introduced to two new toys. Each toy was presented to a dog over a one-minute period, with the name of the toy repeated, before the dog was allowed to play with it. This process was carried out many times over a series of days."

Some dogs with exceptional word-learning abilities can acquire object labels simply by overhearing human conversations. These abilities involve identifying relevant words and using cues such as people's gaze, gestures, and voices to map words to objects. Gifted word-learning dogs, including border collies and a labrador, were exposed to two new toys each; each toy was presented repeatedly during one-minute sessions with its name repeated before play across multiple days. In a variation, family members passed toys between each other while using the toy names without interacting with the dog. Dogs were tested by retrieving named toys placed among nine familiar objects; when told names directly, dogs selected the correct new toy about 90% of the time.

Read at www.theguardian.com