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Come for the science. Stay for the adorable pics of happy pupsters with their favorite toys.
Very good doggo Gaia poses with a pile of toys Credit: Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Certain dogs can not only memorize the names of objects like their favorite toys, but they can also extend those labels to entirely new objects with a similar function, regardless of whether or not they are similar in appearance, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. It's a cognitively advanced ability known as "label extension," and for animals to acquire it usually involves years of intensive training in captivity. But the dogs in this new study developed the ability to classify their toys by function with no formal training, merely by playing naturally with their owners.
Co-author Claudia Fugazza of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, likens this ability to a person calling a hammer and a rock by the same name, or a child understanding that "cup" can describe a mug, a glass, or a tumbler, because they serve the same function. “The rock and the hammer look physically different, but they can be used for the same function," she said. "So now it turns out that these dogs can do the same.”
Fugazza and her Hungarian colleagues have been studying canine behavior and cognition for several years. For instance, in 2023, we reported on the group's experiments on how dogs interpret gestures, such as pointing at a specific object. A dog will interpret the gesture as a directional cue, unlike a human toddler, who will more likely focus on the object itself. It's called spatial bias, and the team concluded that the phenomenon arises from a combination of how dogs see (visual acuity) and how they think, with "smarter" dog breeds prioritizing an object's appearance as much as its location. This suggests the smarter dogs' information processing is more similar to that of humans.
Another aspect of the study involved measuring the length of a dog's head, which prior research has shown is correlated with visual acuity. The shorter a dog's head, the more similar their visual acuity is to human vision. That's because there is a higher concentration of retinal ganglion cells in the center of their field of vision, making vision sharper and giving such dogs binocular depth vision. The testing showed that dogs with better visual acuity, and who also scored higher on the series of cognitive tests, also exhibited less spatial bias. This suggests that canine spatial bias is not simply a sensory matter but is also influenced by how they think. "Smarter" dogs have less spatial bias.
Arya with a much-loved toy. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Gaia's toy makes a fetching hat. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Harvey would like to play. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Gaia's toy makes a fetching hat. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Harvey would like to play. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Most relevant to the current paper is the group's 2022 study that discovered that dogs store key sensory features about their toys—notably what they look like and how they smell—and recall those features when searching for the named toy. Prior studies had suggested that dogs typically rely on vision, or a combination of sight and smell, to locate target objects. A few dogs can also identify objects based on verbal labels, which the authors call "gifted word learner" (GWL) dogs.
All the dogs—regardless of whether they were GWL dogs or typical dogs—successfully picked out the target toys in both light and dark conditions, although it took them longer to locate the toys in the dark. Most relied on visual cues, even though dogs possess an excellent sense of smell. However, the dogs sniffed more frequently and longer when searching for the toy in the dark.
The GWL dogs were also able to select the named toys when commanded by their owners, with similar reliance on visual cues—what the toy looks like—augmented by their sense of smell (what the toy smells like), particularly in dark conditions. This confirmed that when dogs play with a toy, they record its features using multiple senses, creating a "multistory mental image." They prefer to rely primarily on visual cues, but dogs can incorporate other sensory cues, most notably smell, when the conditions call for it.
Form and function
Having shown that the dogs could learn the names of their favorite toys, Fugazzi et al. turned their attention to studying whether the dogs could extend that ability to recognizing the functionality of their toys. In humans, babies rely on words for early perceptual categorization, but preferentially using an object's function over perceptual similarity to classify things doesn't emerge until the toddler or preschool stage. The team tested seven of the GWL dogs (six border collies and one Blue heeler) who had already demonstrated in the prior experiment their ability to learn the names of dozens of toys through everyday play.
Whisky and a pizza toy. Helge O. Svela
Bindi with a pull toy. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Whisky and a pizza toy. Helge O. Svela
Bindi with a pull toy. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Gadget cuddles with favorite toy. Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann
Basket with a pull toy. Elle Baumgartel Austin
Gadget cuddles with favorite toy. Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann
Basket with a pull toy. Elle Baumgartel Austin
First, the dogs were taught to associate the terms "pull" and "fetch" not with a single toy, but a group of toys that looked different but were used either to pull or to fetch during play sessions. Owners would call out the correct label each time. Once the dogs had demonstrated that they could correctly choose a pull or a fetch toy on command, the dogs moved to a new generalization phase. They were introduced to new toys—also differing in appearance—and owners played with them via pulling or fetching without saying the labels out loud.
“For these new toys, they’ve never heard the name, but they have played either pull or fetch, and so the dog has to choose which toy was used to play which game,” Fugazza said. “This was done in a natural setup, with no extensive training. It's just owners playing for a week with the toys. So, it’s a natural type of interaction.” Finally, the dogs were asked to select a pull or fetch toy from among the unlabeled items.
The results: statistically, the dogs were able to correctly select unlabeled toys more often than they would by pure chance, with no formal training. “We have shown that dogs learn object labels really fast, and they remember them for a long period, even without rehearsing,” Fugazza said. “And I think the way they extend labels also beyond perceptual similarities gives an idea of the breadth of what these labels could be for dogs.” The precise mechanism by which this learning takes place is still unknown, but the results pave the way for further studies into how language-related skills may function in dogs and other animals.
Current Biology, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.013 (About DOIs).
Very good doggo Gaia poses with a pile of toys Credit: Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Certain dogs can not only memorize the names of objects like their favorite toys, but they can also extend those labels to entirely new objects with a similar function, regardless of whether or not they are similar in appearance, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. It's a cognitively advanced ability known as "label extension," and for animals to acquire it usually involves years of intensive training in captivity. But the dogs in this new study developed the ability to classify their toys by function with no formal training, merely by playing naturally with their owners.
Co-author Claudia Fugazza of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, likens this ability to a person calling a hammer and a rock by the same name, or a child understanding that "cup" can describe a mug, a glass, or a tumbler, because they serve the same function. “The rock and the hammer look physically different, but they can be used for the same function," she said. "So now it turns out that these dogs can do the same.”
Fugazza and her Hungarian colleagues have been studying canine behavior and cognition for several years. For instance, in 2023, we reported on the group's experiments on how dogs interpret gestures, such as pointing at a specific object. A dog will interpret the gesture as a directional cue, unlike a human toddler, who will more likely focus on the object itself. It's called spatial bias, and the team concluded that the phenomenon arises from a combination of how dogs see (visual acuity) and how they think, with "smarter" dog breeds prioritizing an object's appearance as much as its location. This suggests the smarter dogs' information processing is more similar to that of humans.
Another aspect of the study involved measuring the length of a dog's head, which prior research has shown is correlated with visual acuity. The shorter a dog's head, the more similar their visual acuity is to human vision. That's because there is a higher concentration of retinal ganglion cells in the center of their field of vision, making vision sharper and giving such dogs binocular depth vision. The testing showed that dogs with better visual acuity, and who also scored higher on the series of cognitive tests, also exhibited less spatial bias. This suggests that canine spatial bias is not simply a sensory matter but is also influenced by how they think. "Smarter" dogs have less spatial bias.
Arya with a much-loved toy. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Gaia's toy makes a fetching hat. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Harvey would like to play. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Gaia's toy makes a fetching hat. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Harvey would like to play. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Most relevant to the current paper is the group's 2022 study that discovered that dogs store key sensory features about their toys—notably what they look like and how they smell—and recall those features when searching for the named toy. Prior studies had suggested that dogs typically rely on vision, or a combination of sight and smell, to locate target objects. A few dogs can also identify objects based on verbal labels, which the authors call "gifted word learner" (GWL) dogs.
All the dogs—regardless of whether they were GWL dogs or typical dogs—successfully picked out the target toys in both light and dark conditions, although it took them longer to locate the toys in the dark. Most relied on visual cues, even though dogs possess an excellent sense of smell. However, the dogs sniffed more frequently and longer when searching for the toy in the dark.
The GWL dogs were also able to select the named toys when commanded by their owners, with similar reliance on visual cues—what the toy looks like—augmented by their sense of smell (what the toy smells like), particularly in dark conditions. This confirmed that when dogs play with a toy, they record its features using multiple senses, creating a "multistory mental image." They prefer to rely primarily on visual cues, but dogs can incorporate other sensory cues, most notably smell, when the conditions call for it.
Form and function
Having shown that the dogs could learn the names of their favorite toys, Fugazzi et al. turned their attention to studying whether the dogs could extend that ability to recognizing the functionality of their toys. In humans, babies rely on words for early perceptual categorization, but preferentially using an object's function over perceptual similarity to classify things doesn't emerge until the toddler or preschool stage. The team tested seven of the GWL dogs (six border collies and one Blue heeler) who had already demonstrated in the prior experiment their ability to learn the names of dozens of toys through everyday play.
Whisky and a pizza toy. Helge O. Svela
Bindi with a pull toy. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Whisky and a pizza toy. Helge O. Svela
Bindi with a pull toy. Claudia Fugazza/CC BY-SA
Gadget cuddles with favorite toy. Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann
Basket with a pull toy. Elle Baumgartel Austin
Gadget cuddles with favorite toy. Gillian Beltz-Mohrmann
Basket with a pull toy. Elle Baumgartel Austin
First, the dogs were taught to associate the terms "pull" and "fetch" not with a single toy, but a group of toys that looked different but were used either to pull or to fetch during play sessions. Owners would call out the correct label each time. Once the dogs had demonstrated that they could correctly choose a pull or a fetch toy on command, the dogs moved to a new generalization phase. They were introduced to new toys—also differing in appearance—and owners played with them via pulling or fetching without saying the labels out loud.
“For these new toys, they’ve never heard the name, but they have played either pull or fetch, and so the dog has to choose which toy was used to play which game,” Fugazza said. “This was done in a natural setup, with no extensive training. It's just owners playing for a week with the toys. So, it’s a natural type of interaction.” Finally, the dogs were asked to select a pull or fetch toy from among the unlabeled items.
The results: statistically, the dogs were able to correctly select unlabeled toys more often than they would by pure chance, with no formal training. “We have shown that dogs learn object labels really fast, and they remember them for a long period, even without rehearsing,” Fugazza said. “And I think the way they extend labels also beyond perceptual similarities gives an idea of the breadth of what these labels could be for dogs.” The precise mechanism by which this learning takes place is still unknown, but the results pave the way for further studies into how language-related skills may function in dogs and other animals.
Current Biology, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.013 (About DOIs).
