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January 8, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Your Dog Might Be Eavesdropping on You<\/p>\n A new study reveals that some smart dogs can learn words just by overhearing humans\u2019 conversations<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n Miso, a 6-year-old male border collie from Canada, that knows the names of about 200 toys.<\/p>\n Most dog owners are aware that their pooch is smart enough to know a few choice phrases\u2014\u201cwalkies,\u201d for instance, or, perhaps more likely, \u201ctime for dinner.\u201d Some particularly intelligent canines can even identify more than 100 words. And incredibly, a few \u201cgenius\u201d doggies may be able to learn words not by being taught but purely by eavesdropping on human conversations.<\/p>\n In a new study published in Science on Thursday, researchers at E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University in Hungary found that a small group of \u201cgifted\u201d dogs can learn the names of new toys just by overhearing their owners talk about the items. For comparison, that is about the same language learning skills as an 18-month-old child.<\/p>\n The researchers asked dog owners to have a conversation with another person in their household and name-drop two new toys in front of their pets but without directly addressing the animals. Afterward the owners placed the pair of toys in a separate room alongside a handful of others and asked their dogs to retrieve one of the novel playthings. The dogs were able to pick out the new toys after overhearing their owners just as well as if they were shown these toys and then told to find the objects.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n \u201cWith some of the dogs, it\u2019s like they had no doubt about what they were supposed to be doing,\u201d says Shany Dror, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Clever Dog Lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, and a co-author on the study. \u201cThey would just go into the room, straight to the toy that they knew [was] the new toy and [then brought] it immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that they can hear and overhear people passing an item back and forth and labeling it\u2014and then pick up on that word\u2014means that they are attending to that conversation. They\u2019re able to parse out the name of the label and attach it correctly to that item,\u201d says Heidi Lyn, a comparative psychologist and an associate professor at the University of South Alabama, who was not involved with the study. \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty sophisticated attentional and cognitive leap that they\u2019re making.\u201d<\/p>\n Similar skills have been seen in other animals, such as apes and parrots. The new research offers proof that some dogs can learn some words even when they are not addressed directly by their owners, says Nameera Akhtar, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was also not involved in the study. Still, she caveats, the dogs involved in the study were particularly smart, so perhaps not all pooches will be so astute.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how exactly such \u201cgifted\u201d dogs learn or why some dogs seem so much more able to pick up new words and phrases than others.<\/p>\n Dror, who recently lost her dog of 15 years, a schipperke named Mitos, says she hopes the new study will help dog owners better appreciate their canine companions\u2019 ability to heed social cues.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we should all try to pay more attention to the way we interact around our dogs and with our dogs,\u201d she says, \u201cthe way we stand, the way we look at them, the way we say our words.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 8, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Your Dog Might Be Eavesdropping on You A new study reveals that some smart dogs can learn words just by overhearing humans\u2019 conversations By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron Miso, a 6-year-old male border collie from Canada, that knows the names of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[8977,1896,18594,3787],"class_list":{"0":"post-40889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-dogs","9":"tag-learn","10":"tag-toddlers","11":"tag-words"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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