You may think your dog understands every word you say, but studies disagree.
Despite their hearing abilities to interpret speech sounds, similar to human ones, dogs do not hear the differences between words, just like humans.
Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest measured the brain activity of family dogs using a technique called electroencephalography, which involved attaching electrodes to the heads of animals.
The researchers gave the dogs words similar to the commands, for example instead of "sit" (Ulu), they placed an audio saying "Sut" and then other meaningless words ("bep").
The experts found that dogs could quickly and clearly distinguish between familiar instructional words and very different nonsense words, but, when the words were similar in sound, they did not pay much attention.
"Dogs are known for their ability to hear, but they do not seem to pay attention to all sounds. A normal dog is able to learn only a few instructions in his life ", said Lilla Magyari, researcher.
While dogs do not understand everything we tell them, all studies confirm that dogs can hear very well.
"Dogs can also distinguish meaningful words for them, such as commands, from meaningless ones. During the recordings, changes in the activity of the dogs' brains were also noticed, when the recording came from an unknown voice.
The findings were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday.
Source: CNN
