Dogs, in addition to being man's best friend, are among the most intelligent beings in the animal kingdom. When you look at your dog every day, you probably wonder to what extent he is able to understand what you are trying to tell him. Also, it's obvious that he communicates with you!
If you have ever wondered if your dog understands your conversations, the commands you give him or your words of affection, then you will love this article. Do you want to know how many words dogs understand? Keep reading!
Do dogs recognize words?
They say that each dog resembles its owner, either because of its habits, its appearance or other characteristics that resemble them. Sometimes you may look at your dog and feel like the only thing missing is to sit down and have a comfortable conversation with you. The truth is that dogs are capable of understanding many words, more than you imagine. Although they cannot respond to you in the same way, this does not mean that they do not understand what you say.
In this sense, dogs can understand basic commands with ease. "Sitting", "leg" or "quiet" are some of them. In addition, they are able to recognize their own name. But how do dogs understand words?
How do dogs understand words?
You're probably wondering: since dogs do understand some words, how do they do it?
Well, there are several studies that have been carried out on this subject. It has been shown that dogs process the words we say to them in a similar way to how humans do, gathering information about the word itself so that it goes through various brain processes, after which it can arrive at a correct understanding of it.
In this task, dogs use the left hemisphere of the brain to understand the words they hear, while the right hemisphere is used to understand intonation of words. Once this process is done, they are able to get an idea about the "intention" of the person speaking to them.[1]
Furthermore, dogs understand multiple cues easily and quickly if they are conditioned to do so, either through classical conditioning or operant conditioning. The way is to link these signals to the action you want them to perform, using positive reinforcement (through treats, caresses or kind words) as an incentive for learning.
How many words do dogs learn?
The most recognized study on this subject was conducted by psychologist Stanley Coren at the University of British Columbia. His analysis focused on studying the ability and intelligence of dogs to learn new words.
In his research, Coren showed that dogs are capable of understanding approximately 160 wordsif properly stimulated. In addition, they understand the human lexicon as a child between 2 and 3 years of age would. This, of course, provided constant practice is applied.
To top it off, the research also found that dogs find it much easier to understand words related to concrete objects, such as "bone" or "ball", while it is difficult for them to understand those that have to do with abstract entities, such as "honey".
Coren also found that dogs have an easier time learning words that begin with hard consonants, such as p, t, c, k, q, while soft ones, such as f, s, r, l, represent a greater challenge for them.
Similarly, they learn words individually faster than combined. What does this mean? Well, you can teach him more easily if you say "eat" instead of "let's eat." Why is this happening? Dogs retain words through a process called fast mapping; This occurs when we frequently repeat certain words to him and relate them to an action or object.
In this sense, during training it is extremely important that the words for each command sound different from each other. In this way, confusion is avoided. Commands, of course, are more affective if they are accompanied by correct body language, helping to make it easier to understand the message you want to convey.
Do all dogs understand the same words?
Now that you know how many words dogs are capable of understanding, you may be wondering if this is the case for all breeds.
The truth is that Coren's research also revealed that there are some dog breeds that are more likely to learn words. In this sense, the poodle, German shepherd, border collie, Labrador and Doberman breeds showed greater possibilities to develop a broad lexicon compared to other breeds. However, this will always depend on proper training, stimulating the dog from an early age is the best way to achieve satisfactory learning, regardless of its breed.
Chaser, the smartest dog in the world
To finish we could not fail to mention Chaser, the dog of Jon W. Piller, professor of psychology at Wofford College (Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA) who is able to recognize more than 1,000 words without making mistakes. It will surprise you, guaranteed!
