Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93581-2

ABSTRACT: Exceptional performance is present in various human activities but its origins are debated and challenging to study. We report evidence of exceptional performance and qualitative variation in learning object-names in dogs.

34 naïve family dogs and 6 knowledgeable individuals that knew multiple toy names, found in 2 years of search around the Globe, were exposed to 3 months of training to learn two novel toy-names and were tested in two-way choice tests. Only 1 naïve and all 6 knowledgeable dogs passed the tests.

Additionally, only these dogs learned at least 10 new toy names over the 3 months, showing qualitative variation in this capacity. Although previous object-name knowledge could provide an explanation for the superior performance of the knowledgeable dogs, their rarity and the absence of previous training of this skill point to exceptional giftedness in these individuals, providing the basis to establish dogs as a model-species for studying talent. (MORE)

Watching endless dog and cat videos on youtube, nothing a dog can do surprises me anymore. I would even venture to say that our pets can read our minds, though it's probably all gesture and tone of voice. But even that is pretty ingenious.

I can tell my dog to go lay down with my eyes and/or a nod.

I often thought we'd get to the point of Hackers augmenting pets with AI so as to create a method for further communication and intelligence enhancement. I'm sure though that it would end in sentiments being known like "I'm not fetching that ****ing ball again!" and "They taste like chicken, thats why I lick them".

Seriously though, bridging the limitations on language (from not having vocal cords) could lead to to a pooch being able to have at least a childs level of communication skills. But do with want dogs with a robotic bark and then robotically chuckling to themselves?