What if your dog understands more of your conversations than you think? According to a new study, some "gifted" dogs can learn the names of objects simply by listening to people talk.

These special dogs seem to rely on a mix of social skills. They pay attention to where people are looking, how they gesture, the tone of their voices, and when a word seems important. From all of this, they work out what a word means — even when the conversation is not directed at them.

In the journal Science, the research team described experiments with so-called "gifted word learner" dogs, a rare group known for remembering the names of many toys.

In one experiment, 10 dogs — including border collies, a labrador, and a rescue mix — were introduced to two brand-new toys. Each toy was shown to the dog for about a minute while its name was repeated, after which the dog was allowed to play with it. In another experiment, the dogs simply overheard family members talking about a toy as they passed it between themselves, without interacting with the animal at all.

Later, the dogs were asked to fetch the new toys from a group that included nine familiar ones. In both cases, the dogs clearly knew exactly which toy to pick.

Together, these results suggest that it is not only humans who have the social abilities needed for this kind of learning. "The fact that this skill also exists in a species that does not have language suggests that the skill itself predates language," said Dr. Shany Dror of the University for Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, the study's lead author.

In other words, these dogs are eavesdropping like tiny four-legged language detectives — showing that the ability to learn from social cues may not be uniquely human. Long before humans shaped words into sentences, our canine companions may have already been quietly mastering the art of listening.