Many of us talk to our pets, but how much do we actually recognize what our pets say? The videos related to the story prove that some dogs are really very good at recognizing the word W, but is there any limit to their vocabulary skills? A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports attempted to test the name of the toy by leaving a group of dogs for the test. They wanted to see if extensive training at a young age affects a dog’s ability to learn, or whether dogs can be taught to associate words with specific objects regardless of age.
To do this, they took a puppy and a group of middle-aged dogs and enrolled them in the same enthusiastic training program they saw to introduce them to the toy when the owner repeated his name. After learning the dog’s name, a second toy was introduced, and it continued until three months of training.
The Family Dog Project enrolled a total of 40 dogs in the Department of Ethology, at the Atvis Lorend University in Budapest, as well as for testing in pets. Dr. Claudia Fugazza, the leading researcher of this project, said in a statement, “Initially, we hypothesized that developmental factors such as neuroplasticity during puppies played a role in puppies learning object names at a faster rate than adult puppies. So, we recruited this study for puppies and adults.”
“We were surprised to learn that, despite intensive training, most dogs, regardless of their age, showed no evidence of learning. More surprisingly, 7 adult dogs showed an exceptional learning ability: they not only learned two toy names but, during the study, they learned the names of other fancy toys between 11 and 37.” Of the 40 dogs, only seven showed the ability to understand and learn words. One of these dogs, named Alvia, had never learned the name of an object before, and the rest had a vocabulary of an established object before the study began. Despite being compared to her People Peers on the backfoot, Olivia stuck out 21 words in just two months which meant she was caught at ease.
