Gifted dogs remember the names of their toys for years. So you can not only understand words, but also remember them. Five smart border collies proved this.
Gifted dogs remember the names of their toys for years, reports Viennese behavioral biologist Shany Dror: “Although humans are probably the only species that can speak language, we are not the only ones who remember words.”
In 2020, Dror and colleagues from around the world challenged six owners of talented border collies to teach them the names of a dozen different dog toys in a short period of time.
Video: The “Genius Dog Challenge”
“The dogs from Norway, Spain, Brazil, the USA, the Netherlands and Hungary were amazed when they showed that they could learn eleven to twelve such ‘foreign words’ within a week.”
Toys were stored for two years
The researchers then asked the owners to put the toys away out of reach of their four-legged friends and only came up with a new task two years later: they wanted to test whether the smart dogs had remembered the names of the toys.
Some owners had forgotten where they had put the dog toys, but not the dogs’ names. The remaining items were placed in an adjacent room and the Border Collies were asked to retrieve the “Thumper” stuffed rabbit, the “Yummypack” snack bag or the “Chicken Wings” rubber paws.
“Nalani” from the Netherlands had unfortunately passed away at that time, but the other five dog geniuses “Max”, “Whisky”, “Gaia”, “Rico” and “Squall” showed an excellent memory. They remembered up to three quarters of the toy names.
Source: Krone
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