Many dogs can wag tails and win praise for understanding phrases like ‘sit’, ‘stay’ and ‘fetch’ – but Harvey the border collie is the leader of the pack by being able to recognise more than 200 words.
The six-year-old has been unleashed as Britain’s brightest dog and been accepted in an international group of ‘genius’ pooches.
Harvey has memorised the names of 203 dog toys and fetches the correct one every time he’s asked by owner Irene Hewlett.
The names he remembers include llama, asparagus, mermaid and a ‘tumble bumper’ throwing toy.
Irene, 51, said: ‘It takes almost two hours to read through the names of every toy and have him trot into whichever room each one is in and bring it back to me.
‘But he loves doing it because he is a border collie who likes to work and to be challenged.
‘We are on 203 toys now but every time he learns a new name I end up doing a happy dance and telling him he is the cleverest dog in the world. It’s quite the party trick from Harvey.’
He has been named one of the world’s brightest dogs by Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, whose researchers are studying gifted hounds which know the names of their toys.
Britain’s brightest pooch Harvey pictured at home next to his proud owner Irene Hewlett
Harvey has memorised the names of 203 dog toys and fetches the correct one every time he’s asked by owner Irene
Harvey has been named one of the world’s brightest dogs by Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, whose researchers are studying gifted hounds which know the names of their toys
The dog with the largest ever vocabulary is believed to have been a border collie called Chaser, who learned the names of 1,022 objects after two academics in South Carolina, US, spent three years training her intensively.
Mother-of-two Irene, of Reading, had read about Chaser and when she bought Harvey with her lawyer husband Neil she decided to train him to do the same thing.
She taught Harvey his first phrase ‘little lamb’ as a tiny puppy and within three months he had memorised the names of ten toys.
‘After the first three toys, something seemed to click with Harvey,’ said biochemist Irene.
‘He understood that when I said a name of a toy, he should remember it and be able to fetch it.
‘Whenever I say the name of a toy, Harvey’s ears prick up and he runs off to find it immediately.
‘I can’t remember the names of all the toys without referring to my spreadsheet – but Harvey remembers them.
‘He even tidies the toys away, having learned to put each one in a box or bag. He does this all very calmly, as if it’s not a big deal. He is an absolute genius dog.’
Harvey brings his owner Irene a biteable toy in the shape of a camera – one of more than 200 he is able to recognise
Harvey is one of 40 pooches from nine countries around the world identified by researchers during a six-year-long campaign to find dogs that are ‘gifted word learners’
She said she is always looking for new dog toys to add to the spreadsheet of Harvey’s favourites.
‘We probably have every vegetable toy, including a toy courgette, an asparagus and a cauliflower,’ she said.
‘But there are more drinks we need to test him on after he learned the names for his toy bottle of champagne and toy hot chocolate.’
Harvey is among the British dogs which have taken part in various research projects on canines with large vocabularies led by Eotvos Lorand University.
A six-year-long worldwide campaign by the researchers to find dogs which are ‘gifted word learners’ has identified more than 40 pooches from nine countries, including Britain.
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