Dog communication

To really understand dogs’ influence on us and our minds, we have to understand them first. Communication is a very important part of interacting with someone, so a lot of scientists started studies and experiments to find out if dogs understand our language and if they have their own. Studies show that when dogs hear us speak, they are more focused on understanding the emotions behind our words rather than the words themselves. In the 1990s, the author of the article I read, who is also a scientist, decided to run some tests using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, which is used to determine language ability in young children, on dogs. The results showed that a dog can remember about 165 words and gestures. Only the smartest ones, meaning those that are in the top 20 percent of dog intelligence (also known as “super dogs”), can remember more than 250 words. If we were to compare the mind of a dog with the mind of a human, an average dog would have a mental ability identical to a child of 2 to 2-and-a-half years old. The result of this experiment means that if a two year old isn’t able to solve a problem, a dog won’t be able to do it either. Similarly, if a training procedure doesn’t work on a child of that age, it won’t work on a dog.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201709/in-the-minds-dogs