Some Dogs Learn New Words Just Like Toddlers Do

Some dogs are secretly listening to your conversations and learning new words without any formal training, according to new research from Hungary. Scientists discovered that particularly gifted canines can pick up the names of toys simply by eavesdropping on household conversations, displaying language skills comparable to an 18-month-old child. Researchers had dog owners casually mention two new toys while talking to family members, without directly addressing their pets. Later, when asked to retrieve one of those toys from a room full of objects, the dogs performed just as well as if they'd been formally taught the words. "With some of the dogs, it's like they had no doubt about what they were supposed to be doing," says study co-author Shany Dror. "They would just go into the room, straight to the toy that they knew was the new toy and brought it immediately." The findings suggest these clever canines are actively parsing human conversations and attaching meaning to words, a sophisticated cognitive ability previously observed mainly in apes and parrots.