If you have ever joked that your dog understands everything you say, a new study suggests that for a tiny, rare group of dogs, that might not be far off. Researchers in Hungary and Austria found that certain exceptionally word-savvy dogs can learn the names of new objects simply by overhearing people talk, without anyone directly teaching them.

The research, led by Shany Dror (University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and Eötvös Loránd University), was published in Science on January 8, 2026. The paper is titled “Dogs with a large vocabulary of object labels learn new labels by overhearing like 1.5-year-old infants” (DOI: 10.1126/science.adq5474).

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The Big Idea: Learning By “Eavesdropping”

Most dog training is active: you say a word, show an object, reward the right response, repeat. In this study, the researchers wanted to know whether dogs could learn in a more passive, human-like way. Specifically, could dogs learn new toy names by listening to conversations between people, the same way toddlers often pick up words just by observing adults?

The answer was yes, but with a major caveat. It only worked for a very small group of dogs already known for having unusually large vocabularies of object names.

Who Were These Dogs?

The team tested 10 dogs identified as “Gifted Word Learners,” meaning they had a proven history of recognizing lots of toy names and spontaneously picking up object labels in everyday life. One example mentioned in the study’s reporting is Bryn, an 11-year-old male Border Collie from the UK who reportedly knows the names of around 100 toys.

Importantly, these were not typical dogs. They were the canine equivalent of the kid in class who reads three grade levels ahead.

How The Experiment Worked

Instead of training sessions, owners introduced new toy names during casual, natural-sounding conversations with other household members. The dog was present, watching and listening, but no one addressed the dog, looked at it, or tried to teach it directly.

Across four days, the owners used each new toy name for about eight minutes total. The routine looked like this:

• About one minute of the humans repeating the toy name while interacting with it (for example, “This is Fluffy”) while passing it between
  themselves.
• About three minutes of playing with the dog, without saying the toy’s name.
• Up to 20 minutes where the dog could interact with the toy on their own.

On test day, researchers mixed two new toys in with nine toys the dog already knew. Then the dog was asked to fetch the new toy by name, with the owner out of sight in another room to prevent subtle cues such as pointing, eye contact, or body language.

The Results Were Wild

When the dogs learned by overhearing, their median accuracy was 83%. When owners spoke to them directly (a more traditional approach), the median accuracy was 92%. In other words, passive learning came surprisingly close to direct instruction.

Seven out of the 10 dogs succeeded overall. The researchers also checked the first time each dog was asked to name a new toy to ensure the dogs were not figuring it out on the spot. The dogs performed well above chance, suggesting they had already connected the word to the object before the test began.

A Harder Test: Hearing The Word Before Seeing The Toy

The researchers pushed the idea further with eight of the dogs. In this version, the humans hid the toy in a bucket first, then said the name while looking at the bucket. The dog could hear “This is Zoomie,” but could not see the toy at that moment.

Even with that time gap between hearing the label and seeing the object, the dogs still achieved a median accuracy of 79%. Two weeks later, they still remembered the new words.

Before You Test Your Own Dog: Most Dogs Cannot Do This

Here is the twist that keeps this from becoming a viral “teach your dog 50 words tonight” trend: most dogs did not learn this way. Researchers used the same overhearing method on 10 typical Border Collies (a famously smart breed), and none of them learned the new toy names. When those dogs chose new toys, they appeared to select whatever was novel or interesting rather than responding to the specific word.

So yes, it is real, but it is rare.

Why This Feels Like Toddler Language Learning

Human toddlers can pick up words just by watching adults talk, sometimes as early as around 18 months. They do it by tracking what people are paying attention to, following gaze, and linking a sound to an object in the world.

The study suggests some dogs may use similar social and attention-based skills. Dogs have lived alongside humans for thousands of years and are famously tuned into human cues. Even puppies can follow pointing gestures and respond to emotional tone. This research hints that, in rare cases, those social skills may be strong enough to support a form of word learning that looks surprisingly human.

What Scientists Still Do Not Know

The most interesting question is also the biggest mystery: why can only a handful of dogs do this?

The researchers note that the phenomenon is rare and the causes are unknown. Possibilities include genetics, early life experiences, motivation, or an unusually strong tendency to focus on humans. Future work will need to tease apart whether these dogs truly learn words like toddlers do, or whether they use a different mental shortcut that produces similar results.

Limitations To Keep In Mind

• The study focused on dogs already identified as Gifted Word Learners, so the findings do not represent typical dogs.
• Only Border Collies were used as the comparison group among “typical” family dogs, so results may not generalize across breeds.
• The exposure time was short (about eight minutes per label), and dogs can sometimes mix up labels when multiple new names are introduced quickly.

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The Takeaway

A small subset of exceptionally talented dogs can learn object names just by overhearing conversations, and they remember what they learned. Most dogs cannot do this, even within famously smart breeds. Still, the findings are a fascinating reminder that the building blocks of language learning may not be uniquely human, and that some dogs are paying closer attention than we ever realized.

If you happen to live with one of these gifted listeners, you might want to choose your words carefully. They are not just hearing you. They may be learning.

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