{"id":37217,"date":"2023-12-14T13:13:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T12:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fb0e476d-7207-4418-9510-1fc1f76e6fec"},"modified":"2023-12-14T13:46:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T12:46:13","slug":"how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tell if your dog is a genius, according to new study"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may think your pup is pretty smart, but is it a genius? <\/p>

By Noa Leach\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 14 December 2023 at 12:13 PM<\/p>

\n\n

If your dog can sort its toys rather than ripping them to shreds, you may have a genius on your hands. That\u2019s because scientists have now pinned down the characteristics of a unique type of genius dog<\/a> \u2013 and it all comes down to how well they know their toys.<\/p>

So what makes a genius? As smart as you think your pooch is, we\u2019re not talking \u2018paw\u2019 or teaching them to use the toilet. The dogs the researchers behind the study were interested in are known as Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs.<\/p>

These pups know the names of their toys and can retrieve them on command. So, if you say \u2018Bring me Snail\u2019, your dog runs off and returns (likely with its tail wagging) with its cuddly snail toy in tow.<\/p>

Published in Nature Scientific Reports<\/em>, the study confirmed that these canine geniuses are incredibly rare. In fact, it\u2019s one of the first to investigate the characteristics of these dogs in depth, with a sample size of 41 rather than just one or two dogs.<\/p>

They found that, on average, the genius dogs knew 29 toy names. However, GWL dogs learn words so quickly that, by the time the study had finished, 50 per cent of the pups in the study knew the names of over 100 toys.<\/p>

Max, one of the genius dogs in the study, knows the names of over 200 toys. A five-year-old male border collie, Max hails from Hungary. – Photo credit: Ildiko Gyenes<\/figcaption><\/figure>
To make sure these dogs were the real deal, the researchers asked the owners to first send in videos of their dogs retrieving their toys by name. After this stage, the researchers met the owners in their \u2018virtual lab\u2019 to test this toy retrieval in more controlled conditions.<\/p>
The team then gave each of the owners a survey to fill out \u2013 asking them about their dog\u2019s life experience, the owners\u2019 experience of training them, and how the dog learned the toy names.<\/p>
The study, conducted by scientists from E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University (ELTE), in Hungary, reveals that owners of GWL dogs report that their gifted pups are able to learn a new toy name in under 30 minutes.<\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><p>If you\u2019re thinking of acquiring one of these fluffy prodigies, certain breeds are more likely to be GWLs than others, the study suggests. For anyone who\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Np1bzo2c7Vs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">watched dog championships<\/a>, it may not be surprising that 56 per cent of the GWL dogs in the study were border collies. However, there were several non-worker breeds too, including a corgi and a Shih Tzu.<\/p><p>What\u2019s more, you don\u2019t need any special training to have a GWL dog. The majority of owners surveyed did not have a professional background in dog training. In fact, most of the owners didn\u2019t even intend to teach the dogs this trick: just by talking to them about their toys (\u2018Do you want to play with your Snail?\u2019), the dogs picked up their names and stored them in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/the-human-body\/memory\/\">memory<\/a>.<\/p><p>These dogs are so rare that the researchers actually struggled to find enough dogs for the study. They spent 5 years looking for dogs around the world with these talents and eventually found 41 across 9 countries by using social media and by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KP6rWIfU1ww\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broadcasting their (adorable) experiments<\/a>.<\/p><p>\u201cBecause GWL dogs are so rare, until now there were only anecdotes about their background\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com\/expert\/adam-miklosi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Prof Adam\u00a0Mikl\u00f3si<\/a>, head of the Ethology Department at ELTE and co-author of the paper.<\/p><p>\u201cThe relatively large sample of dogs documented in this study helps us to identify the common characteristics that are shared among these dogs, and brings us one step closer in the quest of understanding their unique ability\u201d.<\/p><p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/nature\/dogs-secret-superpower-not-intelligence-but-love\">Dogs’ secret superpower: not intelligence, but love<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/nature\/which-animals-are-more-intelligent-dogs-or-cats\">Which animals are more intelligent \u2013 dogs or cats?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/news\/dogs-go-through-a-stroppy-teenage-phase-too\">Dogs go through a stroppy teenage phase too<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may think your pup is pretty smart, but is it a genius? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":37218,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study.jpg",1200,802,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study.jpg",1200,802,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/12\/how-to-tell-if-your-dog-is-a-genius-according-to-new-study.jpg",1200,802,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"You may think your pup is pretty smart, but is it a genius?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/37217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}