Dogs may be able to “listen in” on human speech, a new study has shown.
The research found dogs have the neurological capacity to pick out information relevant to them when hearing humans talking.
They can do this when keywords, such as their name, are contained within wider dialogue and when a human is not directly engaging with them, it added.
The study’s lead author David Reby, visiting professor at the University of Sussex, said while this could be as a result of human domestication, more research should be done on wolves and other wild species to see if they have similar abilities.
“Our research shows that dogs are able to pick out and recognise words relevant to them in a monotonous stream of otherwise irrelevant speech, even in the absence of the intonation cues we usually use to engage them,” he said.
Dr Holly Root-Gutteridge, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Lincoln who worked on the study, said: “The results show just how good dogs are at listening to us and how much they understand of what we say.”
Dogs understand humans say their names to get their attention, though this is almost always paired with “baby talk”, she added.
Researchers wanted to see if dogs were only responding to this happy voice or if they could recognise their name, even when it was buried in a sentence and delivered in a flat tone, Dr Root-Gutteridge said.
Around 50 dogs from a range of breeds – such as Dachshunds and St. Bernards – were used in the study.
Researchers say they plan to test the age that puppies become responsive to human speech.
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