Can Dogs Remember Toy Names? New Study Proves Some Retain Names for at Least 2 Years

As if we needed another reason to be amazed by our canine companions, a new ability has been revealed. Researchers have discovered that some dogs can remember the name of a toy even when they have not seen it for two years. That’s right — if you show your pup one of their favorite plushies or squeaky toys, they’ll likely become excited, but as it turns out, for some dogs, there may be more to that reaction than eagerness to play.

A new study tested dogs’ ability to remember toy names

Published in the journal Biology Letters , new research studied five dogs referred to as uniquely gifted word learner (GWL) border collies. In earlier research, these pups had learned the names of 12 new toys, and then the toys were put away for two years.

In the new study, the dogs’ owners brought the toys out once again. Three dogs had all 12, another had 11 toys and one dog had only five toys as the owners had misplaced some of the objects.

After allowing their dog to inspect the toys, each owner placed five or six of them in one room in their home in addition to eight of their dog’s other toys. The owners then moved into a second room and asked their dog to get each of the test toys one at a time. To reduce distractions, the owner replaced the chosen toys only when there were just three test toys left in the pile, all which researched watched the events unfold online.

The experiment was carried out twice for each dog and was also repeated for four of the dogs using their remaining test toys.

The results reveal that the dogs picked the correct toy 44 percent of the time on average, with some having a success rate of up to 60 percent.

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“Four out of the five GWL dogs recalled the labels of between three and nine toys,” note researchers. “The findings presented here reveal that, in addition to the rapid learning rates described in previous studies, GWL dogs also form a long-term memory of the object-label mappings after short exposures that enable them to accumulate large vocabularies.”

The story of Chaser, the ‘smartest dog in the world’

While incredibly impressive, the dogs in this study are not the first to display the utmost canine intelligence. Chaser, a female border collie who passed away in 2019 at 15 years old, had a proven ability to identify and retrieve 1,022 different toys based on name and category. She still has the largest tested vocabulary of any animal in the world.

John W. Pilley, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Wofford College, received a two-month-old border collie puppy as a gift from his wife and decided to use his research skills to explore the canine brain and communication abilities.

Pilley’s studies with Chaser proved her ability to remember the names of her toys and to differentiate between names of objects and orders to fetch them.

In order to put this to the test, Pilley and his research partner randomly combined nouns with commands to see if Chaser would perform the correct behavior toward the correct object in each trial. Without special training, Chaser responded to each combination correctly, including on the first try, demonstrating that she understood that the commands and names had separate meanings.

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In a third experiment, Chaser demonstrated that she also understood names for categories of objects (or common nouns), and not just individual names. For instance, she learned that the world “toy” referred to the 1,022 objects she was allowed to play with, in addition to each having their own name. She also understood and identified common nouns "ball" and "frisbee."

According to the Pilley family, the only reason they stopped at 1,022 toys was because of time constraints, Pilley’s advanced age and the fact that his wife, Sally, was opposed to bringing more toys into their home in addition to the existing 1,000.

A veterinarian weighs in on canine memories

"Dogs do have some ability to store names in their memory," concurs Nita Vasudevan Patel, DVM , Veterinarian at Embrace Pet Insurance. "Research and anecdotal evidence suggest that many dogs can remember the names of people, objects, and even other pets."

Certain breeds, including Border Collies, Poodles and German Shepherds, are known for high cognitive abilities and may more easily remember names and commands due to their working and herding backgrounds, she adds. However, consistent and positive reinforcement during training plays a big role in a dog’s ability to remember names.

Repetition also helps strengthen neural connections, making it easier for dogs to associate names with specific people, items or tasks, says Dr Patel. Additionally, dogs are socially attuned to humans, and this bond helps dogs pay attention to human cues, including names.

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