Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

Dogs Are Much Smarter Than We Thought

Groundbreaking research from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest has revealed that some dogs can categorize toys by function just like human infants, even when the objects look completely different from each other. The study, published in Current Biology, focused on Gifted Word Learner dogs who learned to associate toys with specific actions like “pull” or “fetch” during natural play sessions with their owners over just one week. Remarkably, when these dogs were later introduced to entirely new toys without hearing any labels, they could still correctly group them based on how they were meant to be used rather than how they looked.

Study author Claudia Fugazza explained that this ability mirrors human thinking, comparing it to how we understand that a rock and a hammer serve the same function despite looking nothing alike. The research suggests that dogs can form mental representations of objects based on their purpose, revealing sophisticated cognitive abilities related to language, memory, and categorization that scientists are only beginning to understand. This natural learning happened without extensive training, simply through owners playing games with their pets in familiar home environments. The discovery opens exciting new questions about canine intelligence and whether dogs without special word-learning abilities might also possess this remarkable capacity to think about objects in terms of their function rather than just their appearance.

PrevPreviousWhat Watching Geese Revealed About Great Leaders
NextBlue the Leopard Tortoise’s Recovery MiracleNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

Four Rowers BREAK Barriers At Prestigious Race

October 13, 2025

Four rowers are making history as the first full South African crew of color to compete internationally at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston on October 19. The team, wearing the colors of Western Cape Rowing and joined by US coxswain Keria Gotrell under coach Mike Ortlepp’s

Read More
Happy News

What This Dog Does In Tiger Territory Is CRAZY

October 13, 2025

In the wilds of Malaysia where tigers roam and poachers hunt, conservation dog handler Rita Santos and her dog Hera walk through knee-high grass searching for something that might seem odd but is actually revolutionary: animal poop. Hera was born to a stray litter in Lisbon, adopted at six months,

Read More
Happy News

This Cat Is Running For President And Wants YOUR Pet As VP

October 13, 2025

Morris the Cat, the famous orange tabby spokescat for 9Lives who started life as a shelter resident in Illinois, has announced his candidacy for President of the United States and is now searching for the perfect running mate among America’s pets. This marks Morris’ fourth presidential run after campaigns in

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2025 HappyNews.