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Cognition-EmotionsAnimal husbandry and Human-animal relationships

Yes, your dog can understand what you’re saying – to a point

By January 18th 2022January 31st, 2022No Comments

Document type : Article published in The Conversation

Author: Sophie Jacques

  

Preview: In humans, our ability to develop executive functions has been linked to our language development. Language permits us to form and hold representations of our goals and plans in mind, allowing us to govern our behaviour over the long term.
What is not clear is whether language actually causes the emergence of executive functions, and whether the relation between language and executive functions exists only in humans.
For humans, studying dogs offers the perfect opportunity to consider these questions. [...]We developed a list of 172 words organized in different categories (for example, toys, food, commands, outdoor places) and gave it to an online sample of 165 owners of family and professional dogs. We asked them to select words that their dogs responded to consistently.
We found that, on average, service dogs respond to about 120 words, whereas family pets respond to about 80 words, ranging between 15 to 215 words across all dogs. We also found that certain breed groups, such as herding dogs like border collies and toy dogs like chihuahuas, respond to more words and phrases than other breed types like terriers, retrievers and mixed breeds.
What we don't yet know is whether dogs who respond to more words also have better executive functions. We recently assessed 100 dogs on a behavioural measure of executive functions and had their owners identify words on our vocabulary checklist. We are now analysing the results.
This research might provide important practical information about dogs. For example, it is very expensive to train puppies for service work and many do not make the final cut. However, if early word-based responding abilities predict later behavioural and cognitive abilities, our measure could become an early and simple tool to help predict which dogs are likely to become good service animals.

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From The Conversation website