The Good Learners

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Scientists know that some dogs are just more skilled than others when it comes to learning and remembering the names of various objects.

Known as Gifted Word Learners (GWL), these special pooches can grasp the names of new objects a little faster and a little easier than their counterparts, according to Psychology Today.

Now, a new study found that these animals can remember these names after a two-year hiatus.

“We know that dogs can remember events for at least 24 hours and odors for up to one year, but this is the first study showing that some talented dogs can remember words for at least two years,” head of the research group and co-author, Claudia Fugazza, said in a statement.

Their study began in 2020 when Fugazza and her team asked owners to teach their dogs the names of 12 new toys within a week. The six GWL dogs that participated were from different countries, including Brazil, Hungary and the United States.

Two years later, the researchers followed up with the canines and found that four out of five of them – one passed away in the interim period – still remembered the names of 60 to 75 percent of the toys.

The average success rate was 44 percent, which is significant given the “chance level” was only 20 percent, according to researchers.

These findings are important because they help scientists understand how animals, like dogs, remember things and how this might connect to the way humans learn and remember words. It could lead to new insights into how animals think, especially when it comes to memory and learning through association.

Still, finding GWL canines is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

In more than five years of research, around 40 special dogs have been identified and they are not easy to spot, explained co-author and cognitive researcher Shany Dror.

“That’s the interesting thing,” she told Newsweek. “Most owners, when we found them, didn’t intentionally train their dogs (to remember) the names of their toys – they just kind of picked up on the names.”

In the meantime, scientists are continuing to search for these special dogs, asking owners with remarkable canines to reach out to the Genius Dog Challenge team via email, Facebook or Instagram.