Rare gifted word-learner dogs like to share their toys

This time around, the group recruited 10 GWL dogs and 21 non-GWL dogs, all border collies, as this is the most common breed in the GWL category. They made a list of eight toys: two labeled, two unlabeled, and four new for each dog.

What is their motivation?

There was a two-week period in which the owners familiarized the dogs with the toys once a day for at least 10 minutes. Each toy was presented separately. For labeled toys, owners moved the toy while crouching on the floor, naming the toy repeatedly (“Look at it [toy name]! Here is the [toy name]”. They did not name unlabeled toys. Owners spent equal time on all toys. New toys were excluded from the familiarization phase.

After this period, each dog participated in two 90-second trials. Dogs had free access to toys (washed with soap to control odors). In the first trial, the owners entered first and placed the labeled and unlabeled toys, as well as two new toys, on the floor and stood at a distance, passive and ignoring the dogs while the latter explored the toys. After a five-minute break, the test was repeated with the other two new toys. All tests were recorded remotely and the images were then analyzed.

Human babies are known to pay more attention to named objects, and the authors thought GWL dogs would show a similar response, but that’s not what happened. All dogs, whether or not they were GWL dogs, strongly preferred the novel toys, and there were no significant differences between the two groups of dogs in terms of time spent playing with labeled or unlabeled toys. So, just hearing toy names does not automatically increase a dog’s attention span.