Dogs understand when you talk to them - study - video Dailymotion

According to researchers in Hungary, dogs understand when they are spoken to and, like humans, are capable of associating a word with an object.

Transcript

00:00 Dogs can understand more than we thought, according to a new study.

00:06 Researchers in Hungary have shown that they can recognize the names of their favorite

00:10 toys as well as the more obvious commands like sit and stay.

00:15 But scientists have trouble determining whether dogs genuinely activate a mental image in

00:20 their minds when they hear the name of an object.

00:25 We expected that if dogs really understand the meaning of the word, of the object word,

00:31 it will expect to see that object and if the owner shows a different one there will be

00:37 a so-called surprise reaction in the brain.

00:40 And this is exactly what we found.

00:43 The study suggests our furry friends have a deeper grasp of language, similar than previously

00:49 thought.

00:50 But it also has lessons about humanity.

00:54 When we are trying to pinpoint some capacities in dogs or understand how their brain is processing

01:01 certain types of stimuli, we also learn in the meantime about what is shared with humans

01:08 and what might be uniquely humans.

01:12 The experiments conducted on 18 dogs also served to find out what in dogs' minds is

01:18 similar to humans, which makes such understanding possible.

01:25 (whooshing)