Dogs Are Categorising the World
Here’s something that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has ever lived with a dog:
they’re categorising objects the same way toddlers do, and doing it without a single flashcard or phonics lesson.
A new study found that some dogs can sort toys by function, not appearance.
Not by colour.
Not by shape.
Not by “that one looks kind of like the other one.”
Function.
What the thing does.
Researchers tested seven “gifted learner dogs”, basically the overachievers of the canine world, and discovered they can extend labels to brand-new objects based purely on how those objects behave. Give them an unfamiliar toy and say “fetch” or “pull,” and they’ll pick out the one that acts like the toys they already know.
This is called label extension, and in humans it shows up in early language development. Until now, the only non-human animals who pulled it off needed intense, artificial training.
Dogs?
They just picked it up from… existing.
Playing.
Living in a home where someone occasionally says,
“Buddy, get your rope.”
That’s the part that should make people stop and think. Not because dogs suddenly need to be crowned “almost human,” but because they clearly don’t need to be human to do sophisticated things.
Researchers even found dogs will generalise labels without any visual similarity.
They’re not comparing shapes.
They’re not matching colours.
They’re going,
“Oh, this is a pull-thing. Got it.”
And meanwhile humans still argue about whether animals “really understand things.”
If anything, this study reminds us that dogs aren’t simple, humans just have a habit of oversimplifying them.
They don’t need grammar.
They don’t need dictionaries.
They don’t need our endless debate about “language.”
They’re already doing their own version of categorising the world, and doing it well.
Honestly, the only shocking part is that humans are shocked.