An associate professor on Psychology and Neuroscience for Dalhousie University named Sophie Jacques worked with her colleague since 2015 on a study involving dogs. The study focused on a list of words that dogs can understand.
The list included a total of 172 words that were organized in different categories such as food, commands, toys, outdoor places, and the like. Jacques and her colleague then gave the list to 165 owners of family and professional dogs and select the words that their dogs respond to every time.
Key Takeaways:
- Dogs can understand more words than we think
- Some breeds understand more words and phrases than other dog breeds
- These findings can help train dogs better for service work
The results were amazing! It showed that service dogs responded to around 120 words of the 172 words, while family pets responded to more than half. The results also showed that herding dogs and toy dogs responded to more words and phrases than the other dog breeds.
Jacques said that these results would help training puppies for service work. If trainers would base the abilities of dogs from the listed words, there is a good chance that they can predict the behavioral and cognitive abilities of the doggies that they train.
“Jacques said that these results would help training puppies for service work.”
Read more: https://evolutionnews.org/2022/
Dogs Understand More Than You Think