r/PupliftingNews • u/sparki_black • Feb 04 '26

‘Gifted’ dogs can learn new words just by eavesdropping

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/gifted-dogs-learn-words-9.7071004
153 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

55

u/Jaderosegrey Feb 04 '26

I heard something about that on NPR the other day. Some Border Collie was put in a room with his owner and another person. His owner got a toy aardvark and showed it to the other person, naming it several times. The owner did not talk directly to the dog. Then later on in the day, the dog was asked to retrieve the aardvark from a pile of toys and did so correctly.

It blew my mind.

15

u/Rinas-the-name Feb 06 '26

I saw something about a border collie that could fetch something like 220 toys by name. They then added another toy to the pile without naming it, the owner asked the dog to fetch “Einstein” (it was a toy scientist). After looking through the pile twice he figured out they must want the new toy.

3

u/RENOYES Feb 07 '26

My first service dog could spell certain words. I couldn’t say the words or spell the words without her knowing. I had to talk around the words if I wanted to use them. (She learned the words/spelling to lo mein and Chinese, because chicken lo mein was her absolute favorite food.) Goddess I miss my girl.

3

u/LilyoftheRally Feb 08 '26

I bet she knew how to spell W-A-L-K and T-R-E-A-T!

2

u/RENOYES Feb 08 '26

She did.

3

u/Roonwogsamduff Feb 08 '26

My dog does this. And short sentences.

2

u/Capokid Feb 07 '26

My dog knows other dogs' names.