Research carried out by Dalhousie University (Canada) revealed something that many dog owners already know: this special animal can answer an average of 89 words. In other words, if you tell your pet to “sit” or “stay,” chances are he actually understood the command.The research was completed after studying how 165 dogs interacted with their respective owners, with the Border Collie and German Shepherd breeds being the ones that performed best.
The Border Collie is one of the dogs that best understands commands (Image: Anna Averianova/Shutterstock) In research with dogs, study authors Sophie Jacques and Katherine Reeve found 172 words commonly spoken by owners. They made a list of words in English . your pets; Furthermore, teachers can add more words throughout the research; The study concluded that the dogs, at first, understood the commands “sit”, “stay”, “wait” and “no”; According to the research, “for each word or phrase, participants were asked to indicate whether they believed their dog responded with typical and consistent behavior”; In this way, the authors understood that a dog could respond from 15 to 215 words, this number varying depending on age, training level and breed; For example, older and untrained people respond less to commands. In the end, the average number of words understood by the dogs was 89. Of the 172 words on the list, about half were commands. Of these, ten had response performance consistent with 90% or more of dogs, regardless of breed, age and training level. According to the researchers, this is “incomparable” compared to other animals.
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The author of the research, in an article
The German shepherd also understands the words mentioned better (Image: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock) Below, see a ranking of the ten words most understood by dogs:
dog's name; sit down; come; good girl/good boy; Get down; to stay; Wait; No; OK. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Animal Behavior Science.