Can dogs learn a new name without being formally trained?

With training from owners, dogs are capable of understanding basic commands such as sit, lie down and roll over

A new study has conducted two different types of experiments to find out if dogs who are extra talented are capable of learning a new word after hearing it only four times.

The research team, which is based in the Department of Ethology (the study of animal behaviour) at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, are investigating dogs who learn words without any formal training. The experiments are friendly - the dog's behaviour is studied by playing with toys as they would with their owners in a human family.

Co-author of the study, Adam Miklósi said: "Such rapid learning seems to be similar to the way human children acquire their vocabulary around 2-3 years of age."

Two dogs took part in the initial study, a Border Collie named Whisky from Norway and a Yorkshire Terrier named Vicky Nina from Brazil. The study concluded that both dogs were able to identify a specific new toy by a name they hadn't heard before.

Check out these cool dog tricks and let us know if your dog has learnt anything new recently in the comments section!

Meet Whisky, the Border Collie who took part in the study

The experiment

The dogs were given a task to identify a toy by its name. Out of eight toys, seven were familiar to the dog, one was not. That toy was the one the dog had to learn the name of.

Both dogs were tested in two different tasks, one called an exclusion-based task and the other a social-playful task, both with their owners. Both dogs only heard the name of the new toy a total of four times.

In the exclusion-based task, the dogs were shown the eight toys. The dogs were expected to pick out the new toy because it is the only toy they did not already know.

The social-playful task played out slightly differently, with the owners naming the new toy while playing with it and the dog, but only naming it four times.

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The results

During the exclusion-based task, both dogs showed that they were able to select the new toy when their owner spoke a new name - confirming that they learnt the new name because they already knew the names of the others.

The researchers noted that this method was quite ineffective, as when they tested the dog with additional named toys, they failed to learn the new names.

The social-playful task proved more effective. Both dogs had successfully learnt the name of the new toy after hearing it only four times.

Does this mean all dogs can learn new words after hearing them four times?

Unfortunately, the study has concluded that only a few, extra talented dogs are capable of achieving this.

A further 20 dogs were tested using the same methods as with Vicky Nina and Whisky, but none of these dogs showed any evidence of learning the toy's name. This confirmed to the researchers that the ability to learn new words so rapidly, without formal training, is quite rare.