BOSTON -- Ask any dog owner, they'll tell you how smart their pet is, and now, a new study suggests that dogs may have a much larger ability to understand language than we ever imagined.

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Liz Brunner Reports On Study

HOW DOGS LEARN Study looked at the ability of Border Collie named Rico to learn words and relationship between words and objects. Article On 'Fast Mapping' Study (PDF) Animal Rescue League Of Boston How Smart Is Your Dog?

NewsCenter 5's Liz reported that there's new evidence that dogs may surpass even chimpanzees in their ability to recognize and learn words.

Deborah Grodetzka trained 9-month-old Sam to give her a "high five". With lots of treats and praise, the dog figured it out.

"He doesn't know what high five means, right now, but with enough repetition, he's going to get it," Grodetzka said.

A new study in the journal Science suggests that dogs learn the meaning of new words much the same as toddlers do -- they associate the new unfamiliar word with a new object.

In fact, researchers in Germany verified a border collie named Rico had a vocabulary of about 200 words -- mostly names of toys.

Dr. Nicholas Dodman, author of a book on dog behavior, isn't surprised by the study. He says dogs could probably learn hundreds of words if we had the patience to teach them.

"With a child, people sit there, and when they're very small and you pick up a cup and say, 'cup, cup,' and you keep repeating it over and over again. And they learn with their rapid mapping skills, 10 new words a day. With dogs, we take them (to a) training class and they learn sit, down and stay, and then we stop training them," Dodman said.

Grodetzka, of the Animal Rescue League, isn't surprised by the study, either.

"I think dogs are absolutely brilliant. I don't think we give them 1 percent of the credit for their brilliance," she said.

As for Ricco, researchers are trying to figure out whether he can understand entire phrases.