Many dog owners speak of their own as a “gifted pet”, who can easily understand their directions. To find out if these were legends misled by the affection of the masters, some researchers set up the Genius Dog Challenge in such a way as to scientifically measure canine intelligence.
Initially the same researchers, led by the doctor Claudia Fugazza ofEötvös Loránd University, in Hungary, had dedicated themselves to a similar study that had shown how some dogs with exceptional intelligence managed to learn the name of a toy only after four times it had been repeated to him.
Subsequently, the results showed that similar experiments lacked “short-term memory”, that is, puppies they quickly forgot. For this the researchers decided to use a different strategy.
The new challenge was: how quickly can dogs learn names that they then keep for the long term?
The team revealed that the most gifted dogs, also known as “gifted word learnes“or” gifted with word learning “, they can learn the names of 12 different toys in just one week. We can see a similar learning in one-year-olds.
The dogs also remembered for the next two months most of these names, without any further intervention. “We know that dogs can easily learn action-related words, such as’ sit ‘or’ stay down‘” has explained Shany Dror, co-author of the study. “But only a very few dogs can learn the names of objects. For over two years we have been looking for dogs that can learn the names of their toys and in all we have managed to find six of them.“
In fact, to enter the contest the owners had to prove that their puppies were able to recognize at least 26 objects. Due to COVID, or fortunately since it would have been very difficult to find suitable participants nearby, the studies were conducted remotely.
The six participants, all of them border collier, they only had a week to learn the names of six toys. They could spend by half an hour to two and a half hours a day to teach their pets but it was a free choice.
On the last day of the challenge, cameras were installed in two rooms of the owners’ house at the same time. The owners had to stay in one of the two while the dog in the other, so that the former they could not mislead the animal’s choices.
The first trial, with six toys, almost all showed perfect scores, then the researchers increased the difficulty and toys doubled. In this case, no dog achieved 100% but the results were still pretty good, more for some than for others.
A month later almost all the dogs, apart from the baby Nalani, they got perfect scores. A month later, four dogs out of the remaining five however, he included half of the objects.
“With these talented dogs we have a unique opportunity to study how another species understands human language and how word learning affects the way we think about the world.concluded Professor Adam Miklosi, co-author of the study.
It is not the first time that these playful and adorable animals have shown themselves to be creatures with exceptional intelligence, in fact in a recent intelligence test the dogs have beaten primates and children. Perhaps it is precisely because they are the oldest companions of humans that dogs are born with an innate ability that not even wolves possess.
Many dog owners speak of their own as a “gifted pet”, who can easily understand their directions. To find out if these were legends misled by the affection of the masters, some researchers set up the Genius Dog Challenge in such a way as to scientifically measure canine intelligence.
Initially the same researchers, led by the doctor Claudia Fugazza ofEötvös Loránd University, in Hungary, had dedicated themselves to a similar study that had shown how some dogs with exceptional intelligence managed to learn the name of a toy only after four times it had been repeated to him.
Subsequently, the results showed that similar experiments lacked “short-term memory”, that is, puppies they quickly forgot. For this the researchers decided to use a different strategy.
The new challenge was: how quickly can dogs learn names that they then keep for the long term?
The team revealed that the most gifted dogs, also known as “gifted word learnes“or” gifted with word learning “, they can learn the names of 12 different toys in just one week. We can see a similar learning in one-year-olds.
The dogs also remembered for the next two months most of these names, without any further intervention. “We know that dogs can easily learn action-related words, such as’ sit ‘or’ stay down‘” has explained Shany Dror, co-author of the study. “But only a very few dogs can learn the names of objects. For over two years we have been looking for dogs that can learn the names of their toys and in all we have managed to find six of them.“
In fact, to enter the contest the owners had to prove that their puppies were able to recognize at least 26 objects. Due to COVID, or fortunately since it would have been very difficult to find suitable participants nearby, the studies were conducted remotely.
The six participants, all of them border collier, they only had a week to learn the names of six toys. They could spend by half an hour to two and a half hours a day to teach their pets but it was a free choice.
On the last day of the challenge, cameras were installed in two rooms of the owners’ house at the same time. The owners had to stay in one of the two while the dog in the other, so that the former they could not mislead the animal’s choices.
The first trial, with six toys, almost all showed perfect scores, then the researchers increased the difficulty and toys doubled. In this case, no dog achieved 100% but the results were still pretty good, more for some than for others.
A month later almost all the dogs, apart from the baby Nalani, they got perfect scores. A month later, four dogs out of the remaining five however, he included half of the objects.
“With these talented dogs we have a unique opportunity to study how another species understands human language and how word learning affects the way we think about the world.concluded Professor Adam Miklosi, co-author of the study.
It is not the first time that these playful and adorable animals have shown themselves to be creatures with exceptional intelligence, in fact in a recent intelligence test the dogs have beaten primates and children. Perhaps it is precisely because they are the oldest companions of humans that dogs are born with an innate ability that not even wolves possess.
Many dog owners speak of their own as a “gifted pet”, who can easily understand their directions. To find out if these were legends misled by the affection of the masters, some researchers set up the Genius Dog Challenge in such a way as to scientifically measure canine intelligence.
Initially the same researchers, led by the doctor Claudia Fugazza ofEötvös Loránd University, in Hungary, had dedicated themselves to a similar study that had shown how some dogs with exceptional intelligence managed to learn the name of a toy only after four times it had been repeated to him.
Subsequently, the results showed that similar experiments lacked “short-term memory”, that is, puppies they quickly forgot. For this the researchers decided to use a different strategy.
The new challenge was: how quickly can dogs learn names that they then keep for the long term?
The team revealed that the most gifted dogs, also known as “gifted word learnes“or” gifted with word learning “, they can learn the names of 12 different toys in just one week. We can see a similar learning in one-year-olds.
The dogs also remembered for the next two months most of these names, without any further intervention. “We know that dogs can easily learn action-related words, such as’ sit ‘or’ stay down‘” has explained Shany Dror, co-author of the study. “But only a very few dogs can learn the names of objects. For over two years we have been looking for dogs that can learn the names of their toys and in all we have managed to find six of them.“
In fact, to enter the contest the owners had to prove that their puppies were able to recognize at least 26 objects. Due to COVID, or fortunately since it would have been very difficult to find suitable participants nearby, the studies were conducted remotely.
The six participants, all of them border collier, they only had a week to learn the names of six toys. They could spend by half an hour to two and a half hours a day to teach their pets but it was a free choice.
On the last day of the challenge, cameras were installed in two rooms of the owners’ house at the same time. The owners had to stay in one of the two while the dog in the other, so that the former they could not mislead the animal’s choices.
The first trial, with six toys, almost all showed perfect scores, then the researchers increased the difficulty and toys doubled. In this case, no dog achieved 100% but the results were still pretty good, more for some than for others.
A month later almost all the dogs, apart from the baby Nalani, they got perfect scores. A month later, four dogs out of the remaining five however, he included half of the objects.
“With these talented dogs we have a unique opportunity to study how another species understands human language and how word learning affects the way we think about the world.concluded Professor Adam Miklosi, co-author of the study.
It is not the first time that these playful and adorable animals have shown themselves to be creatures with exceptional intelligence, in fact in a recent intelligence test the dogs have beaten primates and children. Perhaps it is precisely because they are the oldest companions of humans that dogs are born with an innate ability that not even wolves possess.
Many dog owners speak of their own as a “gifted pet”, who can easily understand their directions. To find out if these were legends misled by the affection of the masters, some researchers set up the Genius Dog Challenge in such a way as to scientifically measure canine intelligence.
Initially the same researchers, led by the doctor Claudia Fugazza ofEötvös Loránd University, in Hungary, had dedicated themselves to a similar study that had shown how some dogs with exceptional intelligence managed to learn the name of a toy only after four times it had been repeated to him.
Subsequently, the results showed that similar experiments lacked “short-term memory”, that is, puppies they quickly forgot. For this the researchers decided to use a different strategy.
The new challenge was: how quickly can dogs learn names that they then keep for the long term?
The team revealed that the most gifted dogs, also known as “gifted word learnes“or” gifted with word learning “, they can learn the names of 12 different toys in just one week. We can see a similar learning in one-year-olds.
The dogs also remembered for the next two months most of these names, without any further intervention. “We know that dogs can easily learn action-related words, such as’ sit ‘or’ stay down‘” has explained Shany Dror, co-author of the study. “But only a very few dogs can learn the names of objects. For over two years we have been looking for dogs that can learn the names of their toys and in all we have managed to find six of them.“
In fact, to enter the contest the owners had to prove that their puppies were able to recognize at least 26 objects. Due to COVID, or fortunately since it would have been very difficult to find suitable participants nearby, the studies were conducted remotely.
The six participants, all of them border collier, they only had a week to learn the names of six toys. They could spend by half an hour to two and a half hours a day to teach their pets but it was a free choice.
On the last day of the challenge, cameras were installed in two rooms of the owners’ house at the same time. The owners had to stay in one of the two while the dog in the other, so that the former they could not mislead the animal’s choices.
The first trial, with six toys, almost all showed perfect scores, then the researchers increased the difficulty and toys doubled. In this case, no dog achieved 100% but the results were still pretty good, more for some than for others.
A month later almost all the dogs, apart from the baby Nalani, they got perfect scores. A month later, four dogs out of the remaining five however, he included half of the objects.
“With these talented dogs we have a unique opportunity to study how another species understands human language and how word learning affects the way we think about the world.concluded Professor Adam Miklosi, co-author of the study.
It is not the first time that these playful and adorable animals have shown themselves to be creatures with exceptional intelligence, in fact in a recent intelligence test the dogs have beaten primates and children. Perhaps it is precisely because they are the oldest companions of humans that dogs are born with an innate ability that not even wolves possess.