'Good boy!' Dogs do understand us, says new study
Category: Lifestyle
by Agence France-Presse, Issam Ahmed
Whether dogs truly understand the words we say -- as opposed to things like tone and context clues -- is a question that has long perplexed owners, and so far science hasn't been able to deliver clear answers.
But a new brain wave study published Friday in Current Biology suggests that hearing the names of their favorite toys actually activates dogs' memories of the objects they are associated with.
"It is not so self-evident that dogs would know what a 'ball' is," co-author Lilla Magyari of the Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, told AFP, using an easy example to explain the motivation behind the research.
With a couple of famous exceptions, dogs have fared poorly on lab tests requiring them to fetch objects after hearing their names, and many experts have argued it isn't so much what we say but rather how and when we say things that pique our pooches' interest.
Yelling "Go get the stick!" and having a dog successfully bring the object back doesn't conclusively prove they know what the word "stick" means.
Even scientists who concede that dogs do pay attention to our speech have said that, rather than really understanding what words actually stand for -- a uniquely human trait -- they are reacting to particular sounds with a learned behavior.
Reference: https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/3/22/-good-boy-dogs-do-understand-us-says-new-study-2329