Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/dogs-think/

“If we can understand which senses dogs use while searching for a toy, this may reveal how they think about it. When dogs use olfaction or sight while searching for a toy, this indicates that they know how that toy smells or looks like,” said Shany Dror, one of the leading researchers from the Family Dog Project who conducted a study on dog cognition abilities.

Published in the journal of Animal Cognition, the study shows that dogs associate an object with its different sensory features when they think of it, such as a toy. Dogs imagine what the object looks like or how it smells, for instance.

The researchers also found that there are only a few specially gifted dogs who can remember the names of things.

“Revealing the senses used by the dogs to search for the named toys gave us the possibility to infer what these dogs imagine when they hear, for example, Teddy Bear,” added Dr. Claudia Fugazza, co-author of the study.

The team conducted two experiments, the first one involving both gifted learner dogs and typical family dogs. All these dogs were able to recover the targeted toys from a pile, whether it’s light or dark but it took them longer when the light was out.

The second experiment involved only the gifted learner dogs who can recall toy names. They were able to locate the targeted toys in both instances when the light is on and off, which led to more discoveries as to how dogs think and imagine.

“Dogs have a good sense of smell, but we found that dogs preferred to rely on vision and used their noses only a few times, and almost only when the lights were off,” explained Prof. Adam Miklósi, head of the Department of Ethology at ELTE University and co-author of the study. “Dogs sniffed more often and for longer in the dark. They spent 90% more time sniffing when the lights were off, but this was still only 20% of the searching time”.

In conclusion, when playing, dogs are attentive to a toy’s various features and use multiple senses to remember it.

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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog