Air Bud, Lassie, and Brian Griffin are all famous dogs for what? Well, for starters, they’re fictional, but they’re memorable because they are talented.
This doesn’t mean that there are extraordinarily gifted dogs in real life. The latest research in this area proves that the canine species might have its own set of gifted beings, comparable to Steven Hawking or even Mozart.
The study was published in the Scientific Reports and included a group of 40 dogs of different ages and breeds. The dogs were part of an intensive three-month program whose aim was to establish that dogs were able to tell objects apart, particularly two dog toys.
The program included learning activities which included repeating the names of toys to the dogs. By the end, some dogs were able to differentiate between 13 to 39 toys. The rest did not. This proved that dogs were able to associate words with objects, and others displayed an advanced level of intellect.
The dogs that displayed superior intellect were fully grown and did not have prior experience with vocabulary training. One could conclude they were born this way. What does this mean for your dog? Well, the seven gifts dogs were Border Collies. If your dog belongs to the family of collies, your dog might very well be a genius!
Note that this is just the beginning, and there’s more to learn about the cognitive abilities of dogs and other species. So, don’t count your dog out just yet!