Dogs are listening when people are talking.
But nothing suggests that they actually also listens very accurate according to what exactly is being said.
A new study shows in any case that dogs can tell the difference between words that almost sound the same, writes New Scientist according to the Science.dk.
Researchers from the University of Sussex in England has made a study of 70 dogs of different breeds.
Here played the six words, which were recorded by different persons, in the same tone of voice. The words differed only in vowels. For example, played the researchers the nearby English word ’hate’ and ’hither’, which in Danish means, respectively, ’had’ and ’saved’.
48 of the dogs moved either their ears or shifted eye contact, when they noted that the voice or the word changed.
But their attention disappeared when they heard the same word being repeated several times.
the Researchers assessed therefore on the dogs ‘ reaction, they noticed the changes.
Until now it was thought that it was only people who could hear the difference in vowels in words. But the dogs can also apparently, shows the study.
“I was surprised at how good some of the dogs responded to unfamiliar voices,” says the lead author on the study, Holly Root-Gutteridge to the New Scientist according to the Science.dk.
“It means maybe they understand more than we might think,” adds Holly Root-Gutteridge, who is a postdoc and adfærdsbiolog at the University of Sussex.
Britta Osthaus, senior lecturer in evolutionary psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University in England, says about the study, it demonstrates the strength of the social interactions between dog and man, but:
“It would be interesting to see if a dog will react differently on the commands ‘set’ and ‘sit’,” she says.
the Reason that the dogs can hear the difference in our words, is perhaps a result of that the dogs, which is better to toe the line, has been bred through time.
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