They also appear to categorize objects by function, understanding how similar types of toys work, even if they don’t look alike. In this new study, a group of Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs showed that they can tell the difference between the toys used for tugging versus fetching, even if the toys did not look similar. During the beginning of the experiment, the dogs spent time familiarizing themselves with the verbal labels of two functional groups of objects: toys for pulling and toys for fetching. Their owners used the words “pull” and “fetch” and played with them accordingly, even though the toys didn’t share any similar physical features. “We have shown that dogs learn object labels really fast, and they remember them for a long period, even without rehearsing,” Fugazza said.