Border Collies Can Remember Concepts for Two Years

Researchers have found that some Border Collies have an impressive ability to remember the names of hundreds of toys for at least two years. In a study conducted by researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, four out of five dogs still remembered 60-75% of the previously learned object names after two years.

This research is part of the 'Genius Dog Challenge' project, which explores the talents of dogs with large vocabularies. Previous studies have shown that dogs can remember events for at least 24 hours and scents for up to a year.

This ability to retain names and concepts for an extended period is reminiscent of how children learn through the 'Fast Mapping' method. Understanding the memory capacities of animals for word associations is of great interest, as it plays a significant role in language development.