Gifted' dogs may share this one personality trait. Does your dog have it?
Inverse by Tara Yarlagadda 8/14/2022
Playfulness has a strange association with exceptional cognitive skills, though researchers aren't sure why.
There are a small handful of known gifted “genius” dogs in the world — and researchers want to figure out what makes their brains tick.
Gifted word learner dogs are incredibly rare in the canine world. These skilled pups are able to learn the names of objects — like toys — fairly quickly and remember those names over a two-month period.
Canine researchers at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest turned to the possible link between animal personality and cognitive abilities. Their research suggests one specific personality trait may be common to these pups, yielding valuable insight into the unique nature of these dogs’ minds.
How they made the discovery — Border collies, for reasons still unknown, are the most common dogs to be identified as gifted word learners.
“We restricted our investigation to Border collies because most of the Gifted Word Learners belong to this breed,” Claudia Fugazza, lead researcher on the study from the Eötvös Loránd University’s Department of Ethology, tells Inverse.
The researchers sent owners of gifted Border Collies the Dog Personality Questionnaire, which asks canine owners to answer questions about their pet’s personality. Afterward, the scientists compared the answers regarding gifted Border Collies to the results of typical — non-gifted — Hungarian and Australian border collies. This analysis allowed the researchers to compare the personalities of gifted and non-gifted dogs.
The answer they found, however, may have yielded more questions than answers.
More:
https://www.inverse.com/science/gifted-dogs-may-share-this-one-personality-traithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfgF01EyPhs
