Your dog might secretly understand more words than your toddler
By Emily Anthes
Basket the border collie seems to have a way with words. The 7-year-old dog, who resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, knows the names of at least 150 toys "froggy," "crayon box" and "Pop-Tart," among them and can retrieve them on command.
Basket built her vocabulary thanks to the dedicated efforts of one of her owners, Elle Baumgartel-Austin. She began the language lessons when Basket was a puppy. "I would play with her, say the name of the toy -- say the name of the toy a lot of times," Baumgartel-Austin said. She started with 10 toys, adding more as Basket mastered them...
Now, in a new study, scientists have found that Basket, and other dogs that share her advanced word-learning ability, have a skill that puts them functionally on par with 18-month-old children: They can learn the names of new toys not only through direct instruction but also by eavesdropping on the conversations of their owners.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/meet-the-border-collie-who-eavesdrops-and-learns-words-like-a-suspiciously-gifted-toddler/article_53b76d96-474e-50ba-adbd-33902532cbc1.html