Scientists first discovered that dogs are excellent mimics of their owners in 2006. At least one dog had talent: Philippe, a 4-year-old Belgian Tervueren who worked with Jozsef Topal, a behavioral ethologist at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

Topal adapted a method (called “Do as I do”) that Keith and Katherine Hayes developed in the 1950s for teaching a baby chimpanzee to copy their actions. Filip was already a trained helper dog for his disabled owner and readily obeyed Topal’s commands. First, Topal told him to stay, and then ordered: “Do as I do.” The explorer would then perform a simple action, such as jumping in place, barking, putting the item in a box, or carrying it to Philip’s owner.

Then Topal ordered: “Do it!”, and Philip answered by matching the scholar.” actions. The experiment was designed to study the dog’s imitative abilities, not to measure how long Philip’s memory lasted; but his owner used Philippe’s skills to teach him useful new things, such as fetching items or putting things away.