Clever dogs: Is your canine as smart as Rico? Portsmouth university dog scientist on the hunt for gifted pooches

Dr Juliane Kaminski, director of the Dog Cognition Centre at the department of psychology, University of Portsmouth, is on a quest to find the world’s most gifted dogs.

She is leading the citizen science project along with Dr Juliane Bräuer, head of the Dog Studies Lab at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.

The project, Finding Rico, is named after an exceptionally gifted border collie called Rico.

Rico’s owners had reported their dog’s exceptional abilities to animal psychologist Dr Kaminski and together with Julia Fischer and Josep Call, they were the first scientists to publish research on gifted dogs.

Dr Kaminski devised a test which asked Rico to fetch objects which showed he understood 200 words and could recall words for weeks after being taught them.

Rico also responded correctly to the word for a new object after hearing it just once. This suggested he had the canine equivalent of the ability to fast map, a mechanism widely used by babies and children to learn language.

Dr Kaminski said: ‘Rico was clearly one of the most exceptionally gifted dogs, but we know there are others out there who are as gifted.

‘We hope this citizen science project will inspire people to work with us to test their dogs’ intelligence and to establish how common such superb skill really is.’

SEE ALSO: Red Arrows to fly over Royal Navy's HMS Prince of Wales carrier in Portsmouth harbour

Dr Bräuer added: ‘Finding these dogs will help us understand what it is that makes these dogs so exceptionally skilled and whether they truly are the ‘Einsteins’ of the dog world.’

The two researchers, long-time collaborators in the field of dog cognition, have made a video in eight different languages in the hope of reaching dog owners far and wide.

Those who think their dog is or might be as clever as Rico and who can identify at least 20 objects, are urged to get in touch with the researchers via email at [email protected].

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to our online coverage, including Pompey, for 26p a day.